Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“Sorry, I’m going on a tangent. Anyway, when your mother was at one of her lunches, Kenny invited me over, and we went through the house searching for paperwork to see what kind of conservatorship she had over Kenny’s records. Basically, all we found were documents that Kenny signed giving the doctor permission to discuss his medical information with her. She always went to his appointments and always took over. Kenny let her because he thought at the time she was at least doing right by him, and it seemed to make her happy. At least that was the reasoning he gave me. Anyway, once we realized she didn’t actually have any say over his medical decision because Kenny was an adult of sound mind, I got an appointment for him with a neurologist at hospital where I worked.”
“When it came time for that appointment, Kenny convinced your mother to be out of the house around the time of his appointment, and I picked him up and took him to the doctor. Kenny called me as soon as he got the results. He was so upset, and he asked for my help. He wanted out of your mother’s house. At the time I had my own crisis with Adam. I think I told you that my brother had some issues which is why I didn’t see him often. The truth is, he was addict and had recently OD’d. I wanted to get him into a treatment facility, but the one I was considering was expensive. Kenny knew this and offered a proposal. We’d get married, and I would become his caretaker so that your mother wouldn’t be able to contest me being in charge of medical and financial decision. And in turn, I would get the money to get Adam into rehab.”
I knew there was still a lot missing from the story, but the fact that she had gotten money from my brother instead of coming to me with her problem hurt. I was really fucking hurt, and I wasn’t okay with this. I tried to bite my tongue so that she could finish, but I couldn’t help blurting out what was on my mind. “I fucking adored you! I would have given you anything you asked for. Why—”
“Why didn’t I come to you? Because every time I brought up Kenny, you shut me down, and the last time you told me to mind my business. You even implied that you mother was right about my meddling and trying to cause trouble. As far as the money, why would I ask you for help when you’d made your opinion about people with addictions abundantly clear?”
I furrowed my brows and scratched my head. “What are you talking about?”
“You probably don’t remember this, but I recall your telling me about the man you had fired at your company when you learned he was messing with the numbers and stole some money?”
I nodded slowly. “Yes, I remember. He was stealing money, and he came to work stoned out of his mind. Of course I fired him as he should have been.”
“And remember when you were telling me how you intended to press charges against him on behalf of your company. I’d suggested that maybe you should think about getting that man some help because there comes a point where addiction will make you do all types of crazy things. You said it was his choice to take drugs and that he needed to be in jail away from the rest of civilized society because those kinds of people will never change. At exactly what point do you think I should have told you about my brother when you said that? To be quite honest, I’d considered breaking up with you over it, but I figured it was something maybe I could eventually talk to you about when your anger wasn’t so fresh.”
I remembered that. One my most trusted accountants who’d actually left the last company I’d worked for to join me and Chris had completely destroyed my trust. It turned out that he’d found a way to siphon off money from our clients’ accounts. I was just thankful that it had been caught early on before we took a huge lose. His excuse had been that he took the money to fund his addiction, and he’d begged for help. I of course did not want to hear his excuses. Maybe I had let my anger get the best of me, but I’d felt betrayed because I’d had so much trust in him. I didn’t realize my reaction to that would cause Frankie to withdraw from me.
“I would have understood, I mean if you explained it to me….” Even as the words left my mouth her slightly narrowed gaze and pursed lips told me she didn’t believe me. I wasn’t sure if believed me either.