Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Molly shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, she’s an angel, but there’s a lot of chaos in this house, and I’m not sure I’d be up for it full-time.”
The wistful gaze she wore as she looked at Ava Rose made me wonder if it was something else keeping her from taking the job.
“I agree. Lots of chaos here. How’s Maddie and the baby?”
Molly’s face lit up. “Jameson Bailey Ellison is the most adorable baby boy who ever lived. He has his mom’s blonde hair and his dad’s gray eyes. Definitely going to be a heartbreaker one day.”
“Just what the women of the world need, another heartbreaker.” I shook my head, and Molly laughed, a soft melodic sound.
“Hopefully, he’ll be like his father in that regard too.”
Ava was sound asleep, and Molly sat on the sofa, blinking against the sunlight that filtered inside the room. Despite the hell she’d been through, she looked at peace, and I wondered how she managed to keep her demons away.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m a hostage,” I answered in a flat, sincere tone. “Jasper says he’s keeping me here for my safety, but the truth is he just wants to keep an eye on me until he has confirmation the baby isn’t his.”
“Baby? You’re having a baby?” She sighed with a tinge of envy. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you, Molly. I don’t know anything about being a parent, but I’m kind of looking forward to it.”
“No one ever knows,” she offered with a shy smile. “Maddie was terrified, but she seems to be doing okay.”
“Yeah, well, Maddie is the motherly type. Me? Not so much.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s what all the best mothers think. You’ll be all right, Maureen.” Molly let out a sigh. “And I’m sure Jasper is trying to keep you safe.”
At my quizzical look, she pointed to my face.
“These bruises? Some jackoff attacked me outside my place, and Jasper used it as a pretext to get me here.”
I shrugged off the words like they were meaningless. If I did a good enough job convincing others, maybe I could convince myself too.
“It sounds like he cares about you. I mean if you’re having his baby and all.”
“That’s still to be decided,” I said. “Jasper doesn’t believe me. Even though I know it’s his.”
Molly smiled. “I bet he does believe you and that’s why you’re here.”
“I’d like to think that about him. But I overheard him talking with his brothers. They were all having a big laugh about Mo the ho being pregnant and trying to trap him with a baby. He didn’t disagree.”
That part hurt like hell, more than listening to the rest of them talk about me. I shouldn’t let it hurt me, though. I knew what I was, who I was, and they did too. I just foolishly thought they saw more to me than my job. I mean, Sadie did. Why didn’t they?
Molly said nothing, but the sympathy swimming in her big eyes was more than I could bear.
“Don’t feel sorry for me, Molly. It’s fine, and more importantly, I’m fine. Some people deserve a happy ending, and they get it. Others, like me, well I’m not the type of chick who gets a happy ending, and I’ve made my peace with it.”
I still dreamed about it, about how I would act if I stumbled upon my very own happy ending, with Jasper. I imagined what that would look like—a big, broad-shouldered man with serious green eyes and ruthlessness that radiated from him—and even what our life would look like, but it was just a fantasy. A dream.
I consoled myself with retail therapy—courtesy of Sadie Ashby—and knowing that the men who allowed me to have the finer things in life wanted me, at least for a little while.
The sympathy was still there in Molly’s eyes, and I tried not to let it piss me off. She’d been through what I’d been through, though at a much older age, and she would learn the truth sooner or later.
“Madison used to think the same thing. That a damaged girl from the trailer park who always wore dirty hand-me-down clothes would never get those dreams, and now she’s smack in the middle of her very own happily ever after. It’s great,” she said with a laugh, “and a little bit sickening to watch, but it gives me hope that I’m not so fucked up, that maybe one day I’ll find what she has. Someday.”
I smiled at the uncertainty in Molly’s voice. She was pretty and sweet and cute, the typical girl next door. I nodded and flashed a smile at Molly, who so obviously had wife and mother written all over her.
“Women like you always find nice guys who want nothing more than to love and protect you, Molly. I have no doubt you’ll find just that.”
She blushed and looked away. “Not after…everything.”