Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 39740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 199(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 199(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
“Dad!” Why was my Dad being arrested?
EPILOGUE
LACEY
“How could this be? I didn’t know anything about the ring being stolen; how can I be sent to jail?” I looked around the courtroom for any kind of help, but there was no one there to come to my aid.
I was led away and out to the waiting bus that would take me not back to the local jail but to prison. I was going to prison for the next ten years. This was a dream; it had to be.
From the moment I was dragged away from my wedding in handcuffs, I’ve been in a perpetual state of shock. No one came to bail me out, and I didn’t hear anything from the outside world until I heard the guards talking about my Mom and Dad facing long sentences.
I cried myself to sleep every night for a month until I was out of tears. No one would listen to me and I think I was being judged because of my character more than anything. The hypocrites in charge looked down their noses at me and were punishing me for being a free spirit.
Now, the judge has sentenced me to ten years and a fifty-thousand-dollar fine. I didn’t even have the money for a lawyer and had to get representation from the state.
None of my friends answered their phone when I called, and no one was there to stand up for me. I tried to get Mom to tell the truth, but instead, she blamed me for her being in this predicament, like I told her to steal. I never did.
But the worst thing of all is when I lay down to sleep at night in the filthy cell that’s not even half the size of my closet at home, the last thing I see is Grayson sitting next to Lily with his arm around her, looking at her adoringly. I think that sight will haunt me for the rest of my days.
I have yet to get over what those two had done to me, and when I tried calling Gray, for old time’s sake, to ask for help, I found out that I was blocked. There was no way for me to reach him, and I was losing my mind.
I haven’t heard from anyone I knew since being thrown in jail; no one showed up for the trial, and the last time I saw my mother when I went to testify in her case, she screamed at me and called me names.
Some days, I wonder what would’ve happened had I just let Grayson go all those years ago. Maybe if I had just left well enough alone, none of this would’ve happened. But how was I to know that he could be this cruel? The boy I knew was kind and caring. Not the cold-blooded monster who had destroyed my life and the lives of so many others just because he didn’t want to marry me.
LILY
“Devon Sinclair Carter, come back here. This kid. Why are you your father’s son?”
“Whose did you want him to be?” I stopped running after my son to turn to my husband, who had just returned from inside with our daughter after changing her diaper.
“Give me the baby and go get that terror before he does something horrid again.” My back ached, so I sat down to catch my breath, and something moved under my ass. I jumped up from the outdoor chair and screamed, and Grayson came running with our three-year-old under his arm.
“What happened?”
A frog jumped from under the cushion, and I glared at my son, who was howling with laughter. The little shit. “Don’t you dare laugh, Grayson; this is not funny.”
“So why are your lips twitching?” This is our penance for being asshats. That’s the only reason I can come up with for having borne a son who is half imp, half whiz kid, and a daughter that, well, she’s a special kind of different.
I haven’t had a moment’s peace since my wedding day, why? Forget the havoc we unleashed in our enemies' lives, that’s small potatoes compared to what I have endured since then.
The morning after my wedding, when I should’ve been enjoying the first day of married life on my honeymoon, I was sick as a dog and was sick every morning for about two months because I was already three months pregnant.
How? I have no idea. By that, I mean how was I three months pregnant and didn’t know? I never missed a period and never had any other symptoms until the morning sickness started.
Grayson was equal parts excited and scared because he didn’t get the concept of morning sickness and threatened to beat the poor local doctor on our getaway island to death if he didn’t do something. He was always making threats in those days, but that was something that I could deal with.