Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 156392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 782(@200wpm)___ 626(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 782(@200wpm)___ 626(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
My daughter is much stronger than me and her mother combined. She might have fallen into black holes in the past, but right now, not only does she want to get better, but she’s also working hard for it.
“By the way, Cecy,” Ava says. “I started reading this book you brought me the other time, but it’s like I’ve read it before. But I don’t remember.”
There’s a pause and I curse. That bastard Eli must’ve read it for her.
“Oh, who knows?” Cecily laughs awkwardly. She’s as honest and as caring as her mother, Kim, and that makes her shit at lying.
“Am I losing time again?” Ava asks in a spooked voice. “Please tell me if I am.”
“No, no,” Silver says. “I might have read the book aloud while you were sleeping.”
“Ah, that makes sense.” She puffs out a small sigh. “Hey, Mum?”
“Yes?”
“Has…uh…Eli ever asked about me?”
I peek through the ajar door and the hopeful expression on Ava’s face nearly gives me a stroke.
Jesus Christ.
She really loves the twat, doesn’t she? I should’ve believed her tears when she signed those divorce papers—they were more honest than her words or the multiple injuries slashed along her body.
“Yes, he has.” Silver smiles. “Constantly.”
“Still bugging me and also Ari,” Cecily offers needlessly.
“But he hasn’t visited once.” Ava stabs the whisps of candy floss in the bucket, her lips pushing into a pout as if she were a child.
“I thought you didn’t want to see him?” Silver asks.
“I don’t. But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t visit at all.”
“You’re such a contradiction, Ava.” Cecily laughs. “Would you meet him if he comes by?”
“Nope.”
I open the door and she looks up with renewed hope. Her expression falls a little upon seeing me, but then she smiles. “Papa, where have you been?”
“Getting you girls coffee.” I pass her a cup. “Your favorite hot chocolate with marshmallows.”
“Thanks, Papa.” She grabs the cup between both hands. “For everything. Mama and Cecy, too. Ari as well. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without your support.”
“You’ll never get rid of me.” Cecily hugs her.
“Pretty sure Jer will get rid of me if you keep taking these constant trips to the UK.”
Cecily laughs. “He’ll survive. Besides, he’d do the same for his friends, so he gets it. Truly.”
As they keep talking back and forth, I sit down on the sofa beside my wife and she interlinks her arm with mine as she leans her head on my shoulder.
“Is everything okay, handsome?” she asks in a low voice.
I love how Silver can gauge my mood without my having to say anything. How she figured out my tells and uses them to soothe me and console me.
This woman has been my everything since I was eight years old. Over four decades later and she’s still my safe space just like I’m hers.
She still stirs the hot-blooded need to be with her at all times. People say marriage gets monotonous or dull with time, but that’s because they never experienced marriage or parenthood the way we did. If anything, it made us stronger and closer.
Ava was our miracle. The child we had after a false start and a long relationship, so the fact that she’s suffering has hurt us more than anything, and we might have argued about some things, but ultimately, it’s brought us together as a family.
Even Ari has matured exponentially in the past few months. Like her sister, though, she has horrible taste in men.
I stare down at Silver’s bright eyes, turned deeper and wiser with age. “I’m coming to frightening realizations about our girls.”
“Like?”
“Like I have to let them go.”
“Aww, bless you.” She strokes my arm. “I’m surprised you only just figured this out now.”
“This isn’t funny. I think I’m having a midlife crisis, butterfly.”
“Then we’ll get through it together, like we have with everything else.”
“That we will. Have I told you how much I love you today?”
“Doesn’t hurt to hear it again. Love you, too.” She kisses me softly.
“Get a room, guys,” Ava says, and then I hear her and Cecily giggling.
But I don’t stop kissing my wife.
We’ve been in the dark for so long, I refuse to ever shove us into the darkness again.
And she’s right. We’ll get through this.
I don’t doubt that I can go to hell and back as long as Silver is by my side.
Even if that means making hard decisions such as aborting my murder plans concerning Eli.
For my daughter’s happiness.
Me
I might not murder Eli after all.
Aiden
Finally came to your senses?
Don’t make me regret it.
Xander
Oh my. You’re finally accepting Eli as your son-in-law?
Aiden
As he should have a long time ago. They’ve been married for years.
I wouldn’t call him a son-in-law yet. This is merely a probation period. I might go back to my murder plans at a later date.
Levi
Unfortunately, you can do nothing if your daughter loves the bastard.