Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
“Um, Cooper…?” I say, as the woman strides our way like a Bond girl.
Seeing the look in my eyes, he turns just in time as she reaches us, but what happens next, I never could have expected.
The woman wraps her hand around Cooper’s head, pulls him to her, and brings her lips to his.
They kiss. And not just a little kiss either. They kiss like long-lost lovers who haven’t seen each other in years. Open-mouthed and everything. There’s no doubt there’s tongue involved. And when I see it, my heart absolutely shatters.
My knees go weak. I’m not sure whether I should scream or collapse into a heap.
Cooper breaks their embrace and pushes her back with one hand.
“Tiffany, what are you doing?”
Tiffany, Tiffany…where do I know that name from? My brain starts spinning like a tornado, sending splinters and debris crashing against the inside of my skull.
And then it hits me.
Tiffany is Mark’s wife. Mark, the man from Cooper’s office who Mark was sure was cheating on him. And apparently, she was sure he was cheating on her too.
But it can’t be that…that she was cheating on Mark with Daddy!
How can I even think that? How could he have even pulled something like that off?
I mean, I guess he could have plenty of time away from me while he was at the office. And he was definitely in a hurry to send me away to Italy and Croatia right after graduation. I thought it was just him being nice and treating me as a celebration for finally finishing high school, but could it really have just been him wanting to get rid of me so he could spend time with this woman?
“Come on, Cooper,” she coos, her voice sultry and sexy. “Mark’s not here right now. You don’t have to pretend.”
“Pretend?” Cooper scoffs, glancing back at me. “Tiffany, don’t be ridiculous. I’m not—pretending!”
He takes a step toward me, but my heart rate is racing, and I’m so on edge that I feel like I’m about to explode. I step back and raise my hands defensively.
“I—don’t—” I stammer, searching for words.
“It’s okay, baby,” he says. “This is all just—I don’t know what she’s doing here, but this is all a big misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding?” I repeat. I don’t know what he could have said here, but that sure as hell wasn’t it. “That’s what you’re going with?”
Tiffany circles around and presses her body up against him. She’s not wearing anything underneath—I can tell by how hard her nipples are and how they’re poking out through the thin fabric of her dress.
“Cooper, you don’t have to hide what we have from her,” she purrs. “Mark knows. He’s cheating on me with some waitress. I’m leaving him. Our entire marriage is a sham! You and I can be together!”
Pure panic floods through me. The entire world seems to slow down as Cooper shouts something back at her—something I can’t even make out. I’m doing my best just to keep myself from losing all control.
Behind him, I see the door to a black Mercedes Benz open and a man step out. A suited man who I recognize.
Mark, Tiffany’s husband. The man from Daddy’s office.
He strides quickly across the street toward us, fists balled tightly at his sides. Tiffany glances back over her shoulder and sees him. She cries out just as he reaches us. And that’s when the panic and heartbreak inside me reaches a height I can no longer bear.
I’ve been completely played, and I have to get the hell out of here.
And even though it’s nearly impossible to run in heels, I do my best. I turn around and toss my bag from the boutique into the street and run, only carrying my broken heart.
8
Mandy
“So am I your legal guardian now?” Sarah asks with a little smile meant to bring some levity to the situation. I’m sitting across from her on the floor of her room, each of us sipping a hot chocolate that her mom was nice enough to make for us, contemplating the end of the world.
“Well, technically, now that I’m eighteen,” I start to say, but then a surge of sadness comes over me like a wave of nausea, and I wave my hand and collapse onto my back. “Fuck it, never mind. Yes, you can adopt me. As long as that means I can live with you.”
“Can you even adopt an eighteen-year-old?” she asks. I groan.
“Just go with it, okay?”
Sarah laughs. “Okay.” She leans forward and pats me on the ankle. “I really am sorry, okay? What can I say other than men suck?”
“Yup.” I nod. “Men suck.”
I told Sarah everything after I managed to run away from Cooper and Mark and Tiffany and their crazy altercation on the street in front of the boutique, then call her and have her come and get me and take me back to her place. I know it’s only a temporary situation, but I definitely can’t go back to Cooper’s house right now.