Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
What had changed?
“I talked to my dad,” he said. “And he said that the department will pay for me to finish school when I’m ready. I set out for the police academy in Kilgore, Texas next month. It’s an eight-week course. When I’m done with it, I’ll be twenty-one, and I can join the force. From there, I’ll finish my degree, and the department will pay for it. After that, I’ll go into the Marines.”
I swallowed hard, my thoughts automatically taking a turn for the worse.
“But what changed?” I felt tears well in my eyes.
“Circumstances,” he said. “Mom and Dad hit a rough patch. They lost a lot of money in the stock market crash. There’s no more money to pay for my schooling, and I don’t want to start life in so much debt that I can’t see a way out.”
“I can help…”
He was already shaking his head furiously. “I will not take any money from you.”
What was left unsaid was my ‘dirty’ money.
Because that was what it was.
Dirty.
And every single cent that we had was dirty. There was no legitimacy to anything that we’d accomplished in our life after our parents had left.
Well, at least Costas’s contribution.
I, on the other hand, only used the money I made from working at the deli close to my house.
I had money, legitimate money, but not enough to pay for his college.
“What if—”
“No,” he said simply. “It won’t work. Not with your brother.”
Not with my brother being so controlling.
“My brother…”
My brother was Costas Rodriguez.
Costas Rodriguez was the leader of the Breakers Gang.
He would not condone my dating a cop.
That meant our time had run out.
He’d never allow this to happen.
Costas would lose his shit, and in turn, make my life miserable.
Quinn and I had been very open and honest in our relationship. We both knew that one of us would have to lose in order to make this thing work.
And since my brother was all I had left in this world, I’d been selfishly hoping that we could somehow figure out a way to make it work without that happening.
I was wrong.
“But…” I said again, unsure what to say.
“There’s nothing more that you can say or do to change my mind,” he said. “This is my dream. Something I’ve always wanted to do.”
And his dream superseded me.
Even though my heart was breaking, I understood.
This was his dream.
I couldn’t take anyone’s dream away from them. Even if, in the interim, my heart was breaking and my dream was dissolving right before my eyes.
Thoughts of being Quinn Carter’s beloved, bearing his children, and being a stay-at-home mom were just that. Thoughts.
They’d never be my dream again.
I was numb.
I didn’t know how to function without him by my side.
The last two months had dragged by, and I thought graduation would never arrive.
Yet, the last day before I could call myself ‘graduated,’ I decided I needed some ice cream.
I knew thanks to Ande, my best friend, that they were back from Quaid, Quinn, and Quincy’s police academy graduation.
They’d arrived back late last night.
And it was my hope to get a glimpse of him.
I’d missed him.
My heart physically ached each and every day that I didn’t get to see him.
Therefore, I was torturing myself by going to our favorite place, just in hopes that he’d be there for me to sneak a peek.
I thought for sure he’d be there with his family.
But he wasn’t.
He was there with someone, all right. But it was with a woman-someone.
It was that date that did it.
I thought maybe he would’ve waited longer than two months to move on, but apparently I was wrong. I was the only one stuck in this wallered out hole I’d created after our breakup.
He’d moved on, and it was time for me to move on, too.
I drove home with a knot in my throat that threatened to explode at any second.
My fingers were all but numb as I made the final turn into our driveway.
Luckily, my brother wasn’t there. He had his own place but spent a good deal of time at our grandmother’s house.
Unluckily, my Nonna was.
It was just me, Nonna, and Costas now.
Mom and Dad had moved back to Honduras to be with Dad’s grandmother as she navigated the last few years of her life, leaving us all alone here.
Used to being alone, I wasn’t too affected by this.
Quinn had always been there.
Until he wasn’t.
Until Costas.
God.
Did he know what his prejudices were doing to me?
Did he know that he’d ruined my life?
The house was dark when I arrived.
I sat there for a few very long seconds in my car, contemplating what I was going to do.
It wasn’t until I remembered a comment from my school guidance counselor that I finally figured it out.
You have enough credits to graduate right now if you want to.
At the time Mrs. Sims had said that, I hadn’t wanted to graduate in December. I had wanted to go to school with the rest of my friends… and Quinn.