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)
“Well, as long as I’m not inconveniencing you.”
“Of course you’re not.”
“Well in that case, you don’t have to bring take out. I’d love to cook, just like I used to. I’ll make your favorite. Which reminds me, I need to take a trip to the grocery store. I’ll see you at seven sharp, sweetheart otherwise your dinner will be cold. Do think about wearing something besides one of your stuffy suits. It makes me feel like I’m one of your clients and not your mother.”
“Of course, Mom.” I’d gotten into the habit of simply agreeing with her rather than to start an argument because it usually ended with her in tears and my feeling like shit.
“Oh, I forgot to ask, did you handle that little matter we discussed?”
The headache I’d been trying to fight off all afternoon attacked me at full blast. “All the paperwork has been filed. Probate can take up to twelve weeks. I’m handling it, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“I don’t want her to see one red cent. She doesn’t deserve it after what she did to. She took my baby away from me. She destroyed this family.”
I didn’t say anything because even the mention of her made my chest tight. I understood all too well my mother’s anger because I too felt a rage in my blood every single day I thought about what she did, how she used and manipulated someone as vulnerable as my brother. The fact that she occupied my thoughts for more time than I care to admit was one of the very reasons I was battling this headache.
“Mom, let me worry about that stuff, and I’ll see you tonight. I really have to go now. I have some accounts to go over if I’m going to make I to the house in time for dinner.”
“Okay, you go ahead but maybe you should consider moving in with me. It will be like old times. Like I said before, I’m in this big house all alone….”
“Or you might want to consider downsizing as I suggested before.”
“And what would everyone say? They’d think I was having financial issues. I couldn’t possibly suffer that indignity.”
“If anyone judges you based your chosen living arrangements their opinion probably doesn’t amount to much.”
“My reputation is really all I have left…besides you, of course, dear.”
“Of course.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll handle that little matter for us like a good son should. Later, sweetheart.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond before she hung up. “Like a good son.” How many times had I heard those words and felt inadequate. Not just as a son but a man.
That little matter that she brought up was at the forefront of my mind. Besides work it was all I thought about. It consumed me, kept me up at night and drove me to measures that probably would have made someone from the outside looking call me insane.
She made me insane.
I wanted to make her pay for what she’d done, for manipulating my brother and using him for financial gain. For breaking his heart. For hurting my mother. For…for making me want her.
I considered myself a pretty good judge of character and shrewd in general. I didn’t become one of the youngest partners in a Fortune 100 investment firm at 28. At 30 wanting to branch out on my own, I started my own firm with my best friend. I’d dated a bevy of beautiful woman, and I was in no rush to settle down until I met her.
It was completely by accident and to this I wished I’d never laid eyes on her.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Evans,” Cheri sniffed on the other end of the line. “I wanted to come in today especially since you have all those meetings today.”
“It’s fine. I can get one of the office assistants to take notes for me and field my calls. I’m sure the rest I can handle myself for a couple days while you’re recouping. Don’t want you coming to the office and getting everyone sick.”
“But I usually bring you coffee every morning.”
“I’m capable of getting my own coffee. In fact, I’m at the café right now.”
“Nick!” the barista shouted above the crowd.
“There it is now. Go back to bed. I’ll see you when you feel better.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
I turned toward the counter to get my order and immediately collided with someone.
“Aww!”
I back out to see a woman frantically dabbing the front of her scrubs with a napkin.
“My apologies, I didn’t see you there. Are you all right?” I eyed her now half empty cup”
“It’s fine. It’s my fault for not putting to top back on tight enough.”
“But I can at least pay for your dry cleaning,” I offered as her eyes collided with me. The second that happened, it literally felt as if time stood still. I wasn’t on chick flicks where the two protagonists fell helplessly in love at first sight, but this woman…I couldn’t quite explain it. The blood raced through my veins, and my heart pounded; my balls tightened. It was by some miracle that I didn’t get a hard on right then and there.