Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 70185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
I don’t know how he’d sold my family on him because they’re not known for being swayed by money and material wealth, so he must’ve said or done something that had them thanking him for taking care of me instead of my Daddy shooting him for following me here.
My mind was all over the place, but who can blame me? I hadn’t really had time to process any of this, starting with my husband’s affair. I’ve been on autopilot since the moment I confirmed the affair, but now, with everything else that had happened in the last day or so, my poor brain is trying to sift through everything at once.
“Wait, there’s one thing I don’t understand. I thought Marcus hadn’t been back here in fifteen years. How does he see his grandparents?”
“They come to him all over the world. He refuses to come back here because he doesn’t want to see his father. He’s as stubborn as a mule. I don’t know what the old man told him this time to get him to come back.”
“Wait, you don’t know why he’s back?”
“No, he wouldn’t say. Why did he tell you?”
“No.” It must be the fact that he was taking over the company. But why didn’t he tell them but tell me? And why did that give me butterflies?
“Monique, is this real?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid so. Remember that stubbornness I mentioned. If he’s set his sights on you, there isn’t much you can do to escape his clutches. If you’re not interested, I suggest you get your ass in the witness protection because he’s not gonna stop.”
“Is he crazy?”
“Not even a little bit. He’s too damn smart for his own good. But this is how he is. He’s been in every dangerous jungle, desert, and shanty town on the earth as far as I know, so he pretty much lives on guts and nerves of steel. Once he locks onto something, it would take an act of the almighty to get him to change his mind.”
“But, I’m an almost divorced woman with three kids. What could he possibly want with me when he could have anyone he wants?”
“That’s just it, he could, but he’s always gone his own way and done what he wants, what’s best for him.”
“It’s gonna take me a minute to accept all this.” I looked back at the house where I could see through the open French doors that my family and him were still debating the best way to handle my soon-to-be ex for now.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Sure.”
“You don’t look older than thirty-two, thirty-three, but Marcus said you have a son in his second year of Pre-Med. Wouldn’t that make him about nineteen?”
“Yeah, the math ain’t mathing, is it.”
“I’m thirty-three. My baby wasn’t conceived consensually.”
“What? I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was the worst thing to ever happen to me, but he turned out to be the best thing in my life.”
“What happened to the one who attacked you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
She turned and looked at me fully. “He was one of my mother’s junkie boyfriends, dealers whatever the hell he was. Nothing was reported; no one cared. I had my son and decided I wanted to keep him as young as I was. I won’t pretend that everything was honky dory.”
“I moved in with my grandmother after Damien was born; she helped me out a lot. I finished school, then went to community college with the intention of going to a better college once I got a decent enough job that could pay the bills.”
“Then I met that asshole one night, and my life changed. One week after I told him my story, which was a whole year after we met, the man who assaulted me slipped and fell off a roof.”
‘I think I just came.’ Justice that is not appropriate for this conversation.
MARCUS
I kept an eye on her out the window while her family and I brainstormed our next moves. I’d called them when I did because I knew once the adrenaline wore off and reality kicks in, she’s going to crash and crash hard, and at the end of the day, she and I were strangers; she was going to want her mama and her daddy.
I’m moving fast because when I agreed to come home and take over things, the last thing on my mind was meeting my future bride. I wasn’t prepared because I didn’t know that I needed to be, but I pride myself on always hitting the ground running in any given situation.
To me, this was small change; to her, it was a life-changing experience. She had more than herself to think about, which I appreciate, but I’m not the kind of man who could find what belongs to him and leave it out there like a bird without wings, especially not after the hurt she’d endured.