Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33020 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33020 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Nora smiled as she saw his frown. “Something tells me you hated him telling you no.”
“Hell, yeah, it pissed me off.” He chuckled. “But, he would also always make me earn everything.”
“Did you hate that?”
“At the time I did. Now I’m glad. He made me a stronger person for it. He always told me I made him proud, and that meant the world to me.”
She stared into his eyes, and she saw the tears forming.
Leaning over him, she kissed his lips, and then she felt that need to comfort him and climbed across his lap, straddling him. She cupped his face and tilted his head back so she could look at him.
“I think you’re an incredible man, Gabriel Williams,” she said, offering him a smile.
He chuckled. “You do?”
“Yeah, I do.” She kissed him.
“My grandfather would have loved you.”
This made her pull back. “You think so?”
“I know so. He was a sucker for a smile exactly like yours.” He pushed some of her hair back from her face. “And you’re beautiful. Stunning.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “You’re calling me beautiful and stunning even though you, Mr. Williams, have dated many, many models and actresses, all of whom are stunning.”
“That is true, but you see, none of them are as gorgeous as you.”
“And why is that?”
“You’re real to me.”
She didn’t quite know what he meant, but at the same time she knew exactly what he meant. Pulling him in close, she kissed him hard and didn’t want to let him go.
****
Several weeks later, Gabriel stood in Nora’s family home, and he saw the tears fill her eyes.
“They’ve changed so much.”
He went to her, gripping her shoulders. Her aunt and uncle hadn’t given any of this up without a fight. They had attempted to fight. Once they realized who was helping Nora, they had tried to manipulate and blackmail him.
Nora wasn’t aware but her aunt and uncle had paid a visit to his office, without their lawyer present. Trudy had been told to never tell Nora, but she had been present at the meeting. At first, her aunt and uncle attempted to use fake naked images and old sex videos of Nora, to try and get him to pay them money.
At first, Gabriel had been so shocked by what they were suggesting, he’d stayed quiet. They tried to make him believe, or so they thought, that Nora was a troubled young woman who used her body to get what she wanted. They went so far as to express that they were the victims. Claiming she was a drunk and heavily into drugs, that men were coming and going at all hours of the night, and they had to consider their safety. Once they had finished, clearly thinking they had won him over, Gabriel had burst out laughing.
Nora had been a virgin with him. He knew her body intimately, and had even spoken to Milly’s father, who she helped to return his daughter to. He knew Nora better than anyone. It had been difficult for him to contain himself.
Trudy had given him a stern look, and when he called them out of their bullshit lies and demanded to see the evidence, he saw them floundering. Then they started to claim all other kinds of lies, which disappeared when he handed them both the written confession he got from the nurse who originally helped them, who was serving time in prison.
With nothing left to lose and being completely sober and clean, the nurse wanted to right his wrongs, so confessing to what the aunt and uncle asked him to do, they backed down. Providing they gave over everything, including the house, all copyrighted works, and all possessions, he wouldn’t pursue criminal charges. The aunt and uncle were free to live in the gutter, which was where they were now. Gabriel would never allow them to hurt his woman again.
“What do you mean?”
Nora’s shoulders slumped. “Mom hated stark colors.”
The walls had been painted a deep red.
“She loved magnolia and pastel colors.” She glanced down. “Even the carpets are different. She wanted Dad to always be able to write, and he couldn’t do it in a dark environment, and she always kept everything clean.”
Gabriel let her go as she moved through the house, and he knew this was hurting her.
The aunt and uncle had sold many of her parents’ possessions. Jewelry, furniture, even DVD collections. He already had people hunting down everything they could find.
Each room Nora went in hurt her. Her aunt and uncle had changed so much, it no longer was the home she remembered.
“I hate them,” Nora said, walking upstairs and stepping into a room filled with all kinds of cosmetics. It was like a storage room. “This was my room.”
She spun around. “I spent so many hours reading right here.” She walked over to the far window and took a deep breath. “And my bed was there. My bedroom was pink, a light shade of pink, with a deeper-colored carpet.”