Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Let’s talk about this,” I said.
I expected and braced for backhand across my cheekbone. I’d known it was coming. I’d seen him with his wife and I’d been anticipating violence since the moment I opened the door and locked eyes with him—but it still broke my heart. Because as I staggered to the side, I could hear the girls beginning to sob in fear and there was nothing I could do.
Carl had at least a hundred pounds on me and with the girls just feet away and my belly making my center of gravity completely off, I couldn’t run.
“Okay,” I murmured, holding my hand to my cheek like I knew he expected. “Okay, our things are upstairs.”
“Go get them,” he barked.
I glanced at the kids. “Can I go to them first, please?” I asked softly. “They’re scared.”
Carl clenched his jaw and looked over at the girls. He still hadn’t even seemed to realize that I had an extra child with me. It was as if, because Flora looked so much like Ariel, he looked at them and assumed they were all mine.
“Fine,” he said, jerking his head. “Shut them up.”
He stood in the entryway as I hurried over to the girls and the moment I reached them, their little hands gripped and pulled at me, the three of them trying to get as close as possible. I held them tight, yanking them against me as if I could absorb them into my body, safe with the baby who was currently quiet inside my belly.
“He’s a bad man,” Flora whimpered into my ear.
“Mama,” Diana repeated over and over, snot running down her face.
Ariel was silent, her eyes dark with terror.
“It’s okay, girls,” I murmured. “It’s okay.”
“Hurry up,” Carl ordered, crossing his arms over his chest.
I only had moments. Just moments to make a decision that I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life.
“You’re okay,” I told Ariel, cupping her cheek with my hand. “Stay here. Stay quiet.”
Ariel silently shook her head, her fingers digging into my arm.
I looked at Flora. “Stay here,” I whispered slowly. “Stay quiet.”
Flora’s lip trembled but she nodded.
“So quiet,” I whispered.
She nodded again.
I looked back to Ariel. “Stay with Flora, Mermaid,” I breathed, looking into her eyes. “Understand?”
Fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she gave me a very small nod.
I pulled them to me and kissed the tops of their heads. Flora whispered something in my ear, her voice so quiet that I barely caught it. Then I rose to my feet with Diana in my arms.
“Can I take her up with me?” I asked Carl meekly, keeping my eyes lowered. “She doesn’t understand.”
Diana’s arms were wrapped so tightly around my throat, her little knees pressed into my sides, that I could’ve let her go completely and she would’ve stayed right where she was.
“Fine,” Carl said, waving me toward the stairs. “You’ve got five minutes.”
I nodded and carefully moved around him, my heart breaking as I walked away from Ariel and Flora.
I hurried up the stairs and into the girls’ room, grabbing Flora’s blankie and pacifier out of her crib where I’d left them that morning. She took them from me without loosening her grip and laid her head down on my shoulder.
My mind was racing in every direction as I turned toward my room, then back toward the girls’ closet, and then back toward my room. Then I remembered.
A few days before when Cian had gotten home early from work, the girls had followed him up to his room before I realized it. By the time I’d realized they weren’t downstairs, I found them bouncing on his bed. They liked it more than ours because his bed was high off the floor, not low platforms like ours. I hurried across the hallway and into the room.
Silently, I kneeled down on the floor and peeled Diana away from me.
“Shh,” I murmured as she started to cry. “You have to be very very quiet, okay?”
“No quiet,” she argued, hiccuping.
“Very quiet,” I said again, setting her on the floor. “We’re going to play a game.”
Every second that passed made my heart race faster.
“You crawl under Mr. Cian’s bed and hide,” I whispered. “And I’ll go tell Ariel and Flora to come find you.”
“No hide,” Diana whimpered, reaching for me. She was being too loud. It wasn’t going to work.
Oh god.
“Diana,” I snapped, something inside me breaking as she froze.
“You have to hide,” I said slowly, my heart in my throat as she stared at me. “You have to hide right now and be very quiet.”
She didn’t argue that time, instead she let me help her under the bed, her entire body shaking with silent sobs as I pushed her toward the middle.
“I love you,” I breathed, reaching out to run my fingers over her cheek.
I pulled the mess on Cian’s floor back around and under the bed, hiding even a hint of Diana before I got back to my feet.