Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
“Better than good. Great. You know how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me, Sig. I don’t say it nearly often enough.”
He was already shaking his head, wishing he hadn’t asked about the house. It almost sounded like he’d called for a pat on the back. “It’s no problem. But listen, I called for another reason.” He rubbed the back of his neck hard. “There’s something I was hoping to ask you about.”
The slightest hesitation ensued. “Oh?”
She already knew. He’d asked so many times before and been stonewalled.
“Yeah.” He took a centering breath, stood, and slowly walked a path in front of the bench. “I know you don’t like to talk much about Harvey. Or that whole mess back in the day. But, uh . . . I’m still curious about what went down. I always will be, you know? I can’t help it, and now . . .”
Rosie’s sigh emerged a little shaky. “Sig, I would really like to leave the past in the past.”
“I realize that. I do. Could you just answer a few questions?”
“I’ll try.”
Sig glanced at the ceiling in relief, quickly decided which questions to prioritize. Maybe it was best if he started easy. “How long were you and Harvey in a relationship before you got pregnant with me?”
“Oh . . . about a year, I would say. Off and on. It was rocky at the best of times. But so was every other relationship among my friends.” She laughed lightly, as if reminiscing, but her humor faded quickly. “Back when I still lived with my parents and life was simple—but only as long as I dated the men they approved of.”
“And they didn’t approve of Harvey.”
“No. They’d already picked someone else out for me. Bobby Prince. And I tried to make that work, but Harvey always wormed his way back in. That’s his way. He’s a love bomber. You’re so dazzled by his attention, you don’t realize he’s only seeing dollar signs.”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you about.” He paused, trying to organize his thoughts. “At that point, your money was coming from your parents. How did he get access to it?”
“Sig, I would really like to move on from this for good, you know?”
Why was this always the point where she balked? The details of how Harvey allegedly took Rosie’s money and hightailed it, leaving her alone and pregnant, seemed destined to remain muddy and indecipherable.
It was on the tip of Sig’s tongue to explain to Rosie why he needed this information so badly. To tell her about Chloe for the first time ever. But he didn’t. He wanted to know they could be permanent first. Talking about his girl out loud to his mother? He needed more freedom to do that. He needed forever to be in the bag, otherwise sharing her felt premature. Or like he was jinxing his chances of making them work.
Sig cleared his throat. “Did your parents offer to support you—us—after Harvey left?”
“With strings attached. There were always strings.” She made an impatient sound. “We did all right on our own, didn’t we, Sig? It wasn’t so bad.”
“No.” He sighed. “No, Rosie. It wasn’t bad at all. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Frustration was biting into his ribs. He’d reached another dead end. That much was obvious. He could push, but he was always hesitant to upset his mother. She was the only family he had and he wanted to remain on good terms. Still, he didn’t want to end this phone call with nothing. He just needed a crumb. Something he could use to look into Harvey’s background himself. Not only to prevent him from rendering Sofia, and thus, Chloe, penniless . . . but because if he didn’t do everything in his power to stop the wedding, he’d regret it his whole life. “Do you happen to know any of the women Harvey dated after he left Minnetonka?”
This wasn’t a question he’d asked before and it seemed to momentarily throw off his mother. When she recovered, her tone was almost bashful. “Well, I’ll admit to doing some light internet stalking in a moment of weakness. Harvey and I retained one mutual friend—for a while, anyway. I’ve lost touch now. But they did delight in telling me he’d moved on to some beautiful heiress down in South Carolina, just months after he took off.”
Had Harvey conned this heiress, too? “Do you remember her name?”
“I’m embarrassed to say that I do. But . . . well, he made an impression, I guess. The jealousy must have burned her name into my brain. It’s Ulla Franklin.”
Now it was burned into Sig’s memory, too. “Thanks, Rosie. I’ll let you go now.”
“All right. Thanks for calling.”
“Don’t forget to give me a date to visit.”
“I will, Sig. Bye now.”
“Bye.”
After hanging up, he remained eerily still for a moment, asking himself if he was really prepared to take the next step. One he’d been on the verge of pursuing for a while. It seemed extreme. No, it was. But he’d go to every extreme possible for Chloe. She was worth every effort available to him.