Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
“I can’t promise that it will. I can promise that I will do my best. I think that was what settled in me this time. The other times I thought I would go through the motions and check off the boxes and that meant I was cured. This time around, I realized I have to deal with this for the rest of my life. There is no magic button to push that will make me normal. I have a disease, and I am the only one who can make the decision to control it. I have to make the choice every day. Sometimes it’s a minute-by-minute thing. But I want to live, Quaid. I want to make something of myself. I want to stand in front of our father one day and . . . I want him to be proud of me.”
So much of his resentment lifted in that moment when his brother said what every child wanted. He longed for love and respect, for family and affection. Withholding those things wouldn’t make Quaid feel safer, wouldn’t make a loss less tragic. In fact, for him, it might make it worse.
He put an arm around his brother’s shoulder. “I will help you in any way you want, brother.”
Paul leaned in, tears falling. “I want to stay home for a while. I want to be here with you and Mom and Jayna. Do you think I could do that? I can get a job and earn my keep, but I want to be home for now.”
He held his brother tight. “Of course.”
Jayna had been right. They’d needed this.
“Mr. Havery?”
Quaid looked up. “Yes?”
A nurse stood in the doorway. “Your mom is being moved to her room now. You can come and see her, but very briefly. She needs her rest.”
He stood, helping his brother up, and they went to see their mother.
Together.
chapter fourteen
Jayna set the phone down, perfectly satisfied with the way that call had gone.
If Quaid was all right with it, she had a lawyer lined up for Paul. He was a top-of-the-line entertainment lawyer who believed he could get the suit thrown out over breach of contract by the plaintiff. If there was no contract, there was no case, and the intellectual property reverted to Paul.
Her joy at solving the problem was tempered by the fact that she had a far more personal problem.
It had been a week since Mrs. Havery had been released from the hospital. Quaid had moved back to the house in order to help take care of his mother. Something had changed between him and Paul. Something good but perhaps a bit dangerous for her. They’d both tried to get her to move in. They wanted her at the big house, but she’d refused.
While they were in this building with its tiny apartment, everything seemed workable. She’d stood outside the big wrought iron gates of Havery House and felt like she was seven years old and didn’t belong again.
“I’m here,” Sienna called out from the outer office as the chime signaled her entrance. “Sorry I’m late. I had to talk to Ivy’s teacher. She got into a bit of trouble. She’s been reading when she should be working.”
Jayna stood and walked to the door. Luna had already bounded up from her big fluffy bed to greet Sienna. “Ivy didn’t do her work? That doesn’t sound like her.”
“Well, she’d done it, but it wasn’t time to turn it in yet,” Sienna explained. “The rest of the class wasn’t done.”
Jayna knew that problem well. She’d gotten in trouble for stupid stuff, too. “So she gets punished for being smarter?”
Sienna’s expression reminded her so much of their mom’s. “The teacher doesn’t want the other students thinking they can read whenever they like.”
She’d heard that excuse, too. Luckily Ivy had an advocate, something Jayna herself never had. “Ivy wasn’t reading whenever she liked. She was reading when she finished with an assignment, an assignment she likely didn’t plow her way through without thought. What was her grade?”
Sienna frowned. “Well, it was a math test. She made a hundred.”
She’d like to get that teacher in a courtroom to explain herself. “Uh-huh. So what is she supposed to do? Sit there and stare at everyone else? Put her head down and take a nap? I bet she’d get yelled at for doing that, too. She is being punished for being smart. She should be able to quietly read while she waits.”
“I didn’t think about it like that. She was reading a book on the reading list, too. So it was like she was still working on an assignment.” Sienna put her purse down. “I’m going to talk to that teacher.”
“Good.” At least Sienna was growing. She was watching her sister bloom. She was more confident, more animated than she’d been in years. She was listening to the people around her and thinking about what they said.