Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 50561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
They’d turned on each other, Jen and Jeremy. She, blaming him for the whole sordid mess, and he claiming that it was she who’d cooked the whole thing up after he’d drunkenly told her what had happened to his mother. The court seemed to be gridlocked on who to believe, but I tend to believe Jeremy’s version.
Sure he went along with it after the fact, but I believe that she was the one. He didn’t have the fucking brains to pull off a stunt like that. If he had, he wouldn’t have grabbed Ashley in the middle of the day in a parking lot full of holiday shoppers. Funny what you can piece together when given half a chance.
It didn’t much matter who said what anyway. With the pull Sorenson and Jonas had in the judicial system they were pretty much gone before the first gavel bang. The kidnapping alone carried a fifteen to life sentence, add the blackmail and extortion and they would never see the light of day. Works for me!
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from or about them in anyway, not since the trial was over. I know Jen had tried contacting her sister, but I’d forbidden them both from mentioning her to my wife. Her place in our lives is over. Better yet she has no place in our lives period.
If they get newspapers where they’re at, then they would know that the people they’d sought to harm are doing very well. The judge had found his someone and Jonas hadn’t been too far behind. Of course the gossip rags had covered every aspect of it as they’d done with our wedding and the birth of our first child.
“Dada weady.” I shook myself out of my reverie and begun to read my girl her favorite story. It wasn’t everyday that I let those thoughts intrude, I like to focus more on my happy little family these days. I guess what they say is true; the best revenge is to live well.
***
Ashley
***
I made my way down the hall to the room that was way too quiet for my little monster to be up, and pushed the door in slightly. The sight that greeted me was one that I had grown accustomed to in the last year and a half, father and child asleep in the old family rocker.
I can never quite retain the smile that blossoms in my heart whenever I come upon this scene. Simon, the big strong protector, provider who had become even more of a tyrant since my abduction, was his softest when he was with his little progeny.
I have no doubt that my husband loves me beyond reason, but I’m just as convinced of his love for his child. For someone who’d had a fit when we first found out the sex of our firstborn, he’d made a complete three-sixty since the second she was born. Though I’d never had any doubt that he would.
He’d hounded me for days after the initial discovery, until I’d wanted to bash him in the head. I didn’t know what he expected me to do after the fact. The baby was a girl and no amount of moaning and groaning on his part was going to change that.
Dad had finally pulled me aside when I was about at my wit’s end and explained to me that even he had-had a case of the sweats when he first learned he was having a little girl. According to him, it puts a fear in a man like no other. I had to take his word for it, because my husband had turned into a complete lunatic.
Then we brought her home, and even before that, while she was in the hospital, as soon as she was through feeding she’d search him out with her eyes. It was as if she knew that he needed working on. The little traitor was a daddy’s girl through and through. Oh she has her moments when she wants her momma, but if the two of us are in a room together I know I’ve lost that battle, and I love it.
I stood just inside the door not wanting to wake them. He because he was tired I know. He’s been working extra hours to prepare for the birth of our son. As with Ana, he wanted to be there for Jason’s first few months, so he was pushing himself at work to get things done so that he could be free without distractions.
Her, I wanted to sleep as long as possible, because once those eyes open she’d be off and running and there was no keeping up with her with a twenty pound belly in front of me.
When a lock of his hair fell across his forehead though, I couldn’t resist, and walked inside to fix it back in place with my fingers. As I reached out to do just that, his eyes flew open and on mine. Bright, beautiful, and alert! The smile that grew across his face was from the heart. It was the kind of smile that still made me weak in the knees.