Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
I shut the bedroom door and head toward my home office. Dad calls rather than text. I answer on the first ring.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Son.” Papers shuffle in the background. “How is Aubrey? The girls are asking after her.”
“Gets a little better each day,” I admit, “but she has nightmares every night. We have to get her some help.”
“I think I found the perfect person. He can’t keep a job at any of the centers. Keeps getting fired.”
I make a beeline for the coffee maker in the kitchen, needing to shake away the dregs of sleep because this isn’t making a lick of sense.
“Why do we want to hire someone who can’t stay employed?”
Dad chuckles. “Because, despite not being able to keep his job anywhere, Tate Prince is educated, lacks family, not a local, and is drowning in debt. He’ll accept considerable pay for his discretion.”
My stomach tightens, not liking how deep Dad has dived into this for Aubrey, whom I’m certain he doesn’t even like all that much. I know it’s not just to make me happy. Dad is a great father, but there’s always an ulterior motive to everything.
“Dad…”
“Hear me out,” he says, a grin in his voice. “Mr. Prince would be paid to be our primary mental health care provider. Live on the premises and be available to everyone.”
And here comes the ulterior motive.
“Aubrey’s the only one needing it at the moment,” I mumble. “This seems like a lot of effort and money for a guy to listen to her a few times a week and prescribe sleeping meds.”
“We all know Dempsey’s out of control and could use someone to talk to,” Dad grunts, humor evaporating from his voice. “Callum’s had his fair share of heartache and trauma.”
That you caused…
I don’t say that out loud, of course.
“And Jude,” I say with a sigh. “He won’t do therapy. You know that.”
“Perhaps not directly, but if we can ease Mr. Prince into our family dynamics, it’s possible for him to help Jude inadvertently.”
“Jude rarely leaves his cave.”
“Which is why Mr. Prince will be taking up residence in that cavernous house alongside my father and your brother.”
“This is going to go over like a lead balloon.”
“Jude is suffering,” Dad says with a sigh, “but he’s not heartless. He loves his family. He knows what Aubrey went through and isn’t going to disturb that. Like I said, we’ll ease him into it.”
I try to imagine a day when my brother pulls the mask off. The fire that killed Mom destroyed my brother both inside and out because he couldn’t save her. Taking off the mask means showing the rest of us the pain and scars that were left behind.
“Yeah, okay,” I say with a sigh. “Aubrey can’t wait any longer. How quickly can you make this happen?”
“I’m working on it as we speak. I may not be able to talk Mr. Prince into uprooting his entire life right away, but at the very least, I’ll make contact with him and get the ball rolling.”
We hang up and I stare at the coffee machine. I don’t need coffee. I need to run. It’s the only thing that clears my head and resets my focus.
I quickly change into my running clothes and then slip out the back door. The pool sparkles now, but that’s because of me. After the whole Drew debacle, I’m hesitant to let anyone who isn’t family onto my property. I jog through Callum’s backyard and then turn left, toward the street. The pavement echoes the rhythmic sounds back at me as I pick up my pace. When I reach the end of the road where Jude and Grandpa live, I try to see the monstrous home from an outsider’s point of view.
Old. Dilapidated. Haunted by the ghosts of those who are no longer with us.
Dad’s going to have a helluva time getting anyone who isn’t family to step foot into that place. I crack my neck and sprint past it toward my trail.
My mind drifts to the day of Aubrey’s kidnapping. The anger of what happened and fear of losing her is what fuels me to run at an incredibly taxing speed. Burning in my hamstrings and calves feels better than the agony I’d felt when I imagined her death at the hands of that psychopath.
It’s really fucked-up to know Neena was screwing the pool boy. Who else was she screwing while we were married? I know about the yoga instructor and some asshole she went to college with. I’m sure there are more. For some reason, I kept enduring and staying with her. Now, after all that’s happened, I won’t hesitate to slap the divorce papers in her face the next time I see her.
If I see her.
If Drew came after Aubrey because he hasn’t been able to locate his lover, then that means something really has happened to Neena. I’ve spent nearly a year being pissed at her for leaving me high and dry, but never really considered her death.