Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
I never saw him again, and I wondered if that was how this was always going to be.
Me seeing him at random times, and always wondering what if.
Hang in there. It gets worse.
—Haze’s secret thoughts
HAZE
“Love you, baby,” I said to my girl.
She wrapped me up in her arms, and I had a flashback of when she was a baby, barely old enough to walk.
She used to try to barely get her arms around my leg, and now she was big enough to wrap me up around the waist and squeeze so tight it was hard to breathe.
“Love you, too, Dad,” she said as she pulled away. “I have to go to school tomorrow, so I’ll see you tomorrow night. It’s still okay to come to your place tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I answered, even though the thought of her coming to my shitty apartment made me feel squigged out. “The lawyer was able to get the emergency order filed. You’re lawfully allowed to be at my place.”
The talk with the lawyer was where I lost Nastya on the way home.
I’d had to pull over because a construction cone had been launched into the street. A man had followed it, and I’d barely missed hitting him.
Around that time the lawyer had called back with an update, and by the time I started forward again, she was nowhere to be found.
I’d driven myself straight to my brother’s place, who had answered the door and invited me in for pizza.
He’d already shared two slices with Finn, who looked like he’d gone through hell with all the pizza sauce all over his face and paws.
We’d talked about the day, my brother, Ben, and me.
Then he’d offered to give me a ride home, which led to now.
“Lock up, sweetheart,” Ben ordered
After hearing the lock click into place, my brother led me to his Porsche.
I got into the passenger side and leaned my head back against the headrest for a few long seconds.
“Your ex-wife is a piece of work,” he said as he started the car.
“Tell me something that I don’t know,” I griped.
“Were you able to get any information on the kid?” he asked.
“John looked him up. Kid’s name is Eddison Cartwright. Daddy has bailed him out of every bad thing that he’s ever done—and there was a lot. Indecency with a minor only being one of those ‘bad things,’” I grumbled.
“Were you able to get ahold of Julia while you were outside?” he asked. “I assumed that was why you were out there so long.”
“No,” I muttered. “She’s yet to call me back.”
“Probably a good thing. At least this way it forces you to get your shit under control.”
He was right, but still.
Maybe this time, I didn’t want to have my shit under control.
Maybe this time, I wanted to treat her like the truly awful person that she was.
“I want to slit her throat and toss her into a cement slab in the middle of Dallas,” I objected.
“Harsh, but not altogether unwarranted,” he said. “That dog was scared of his own shadow. What has she done to him?”
“I wondered that myself,” thinking back to how Finn had cowered when I’d been on the phone yelling at Julia’s voicemail.
Poor guy.
He wouldn’t be going back, either.
My lawyer, who just so happened to be in cahoots with Nastya’s lawyer, was good at what she did.
I’d been putting off the inevitable for years now, and it was finally time to call it quits.
Desi was more than old enough to make her own decisions on where she wanted to live.
And I knew without a doubt it was with me.
But, like me, she hadn’t wanted to hurt her mom, despite her mother’s assholeish nature.
Now, it was time to play hardball and get custody of my girl and our dog.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said as he pulled into my complex twenty minutes later.
“You need to move out of this dump,” he pointed out.
He was right.
I did.
But my new neighbor was definitely something that helped me want to stay, despite knowing my daughter would do a hell of a lot better in a better place.
On the other hand, having a kid that was very susceptible to life, I didn’t want her living in this shitty apartment with me for long.
“Call me if you need any more help with anything,” he said. “What time are you coming to pick up Finn tomorrow?”
“Around noon or so. I’ll come by after I go to Desi’s place and grab some of her shit,” I explained.
“You should just buy her new shit and leave that for when you have a court order to keep your girl,” Ben pointed out.
I sighed. “Yeah, but do you see how appealing it would be to get all of her shit now so that I didn’t have to deal with seeing her later?”
Ben snorted. “You have always been able to deal with Julia. Just do it.”