Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
“Samuel, what is he talking about?” Laurie asked, walking over to her son.
“I, he…” Samuel shut his eyes, and when he opened them, he didn’t say anything.
He couldn’t bring himself to tell the truth. It sat tangled behind his tongue, a web of lies and deception. He was a coward because he still wouldn’t say it. He wouldn’t tell the truth even though it had already been revealed.
“He got Catherine pregnant all those years ago, not Jake,” Aiden said, airing all of Samuel’s dirty laundry. “He made Jake pretend that he was the father after Catherine gave up her rights. He made it all up, so he wouldn’t have to face you, Mom, with the truth. And ever since then, he’d been pretending to be something he’s not. Is that why, Dad? Is that why you kept helping Jake? Because you feared he would tell your little secret if he didn’t get money from you?”
“Oh, my goodness,” Mama mumbled as she stood beside me.
Samuel’s eyes released tears as his voice cracked. He turned to his wife. “You don’t understand, Laurie. You and me… we never saw each other. There was no romance between us. I was struggling being in Los Angeles alone…”
“Ha!” Mama laughed sarcastically at Samuel’s pathetic attempt to explain.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen, Laurie, I swear, I didn’t. I was just flying out to Los Angeles for an audition and ended up, well, it was a mistake, okay? I fucked up. But, look at the miracle it brought us.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “We have our son because of my mistake. He’s our miracle baby.”
What was wrong with that man?
Laurie ripped her hand away from her husband’s and held a hand up to him. “No,” she ordered. “Get out.”
Samuel shook his head. “No.”
“Get. Out,” Laurie hissed as she shoved him hard against the chest. “Get out, get out, get out!” she screamed as tears fell down her cheeks. Her heartbreak began to unleash from her vocals as she cried and slapped Samuel against his chest.
Dad had to remove Samuel from the house. He physically lifted the sobbing man and took him outside. When he came back, we were all still frozen in place. Laurie looked around and choked on her sobs.
“I’m fine,” she swore.
Mama went to step forward to comfort her best friend, but Aiden was already wrapping his arms around his mother.
“We should give these two some space for a little while,” Dad said, nodding to Mama and me.
I didn’t want to leave them, but I knew it was the right thing to do. That mother and son needed one another right then and there. Still, I wished I could’ve been there for Aiden the way he was for his mother.
I knew he needed the comfort, too.
Later that night, I saw Aiden’s bedroom light turn on. I instantly crawled out of my bedroom window and knocked on his.
He saw me and sighed before turning his back on me.
I knocked again.
And again.
And again.
I pounded on that window repeatedly until a grumpy Aiden appeared and pushed it open. “What, Hailee?” he snapped. “I need space right now.”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
I climbed into the window and stood stern in front of him. “I said no. You don’t get space right now because this whole situation is a mess. And just to be clear, I was going to tell you. I found out about the whole thing while you were gone and was waiting for you to come home, but he said he’d tell you first thing. It turned out you already knew. It’s important for you to know that I have not been sitting on this big secret for a long time, Aiden. I didn’t know.”
“I hear you. I do, but—”
“No buts. You don’t get to push me away right now, okay? Because, like it or not, you need me just as much as I need you, so I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”
“Hailee—”
“Be pissed off. Be pissed off at the world. Be pissed off at everything that exists. Heck, you can be pissed off at me, too, but you can’t push me away, Aiden. I refuse to be moved. We aren’t doing that.”
“Hailee—”
“No. I’ve read enough romance novels to know how this is supposed to go. We are supposed to fight and break up at this point in our story, but I refuse to do that. No third act breakup, okay?” I took his hands into mine. “We are not going to have some dramatic fight between us and a breakup for a short period of time to just come back together to be happy. We already did that part, Aiden, okay? We are happy. You and me… we are good. It’s the rest of the world around us that sucks. So we aren’t going to screw this up because of them. I’ve already lost five years of you due to that man. I refuse to lose one more second.”