Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 108868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
If he knew what I was up to, I have no doubt he’d do everything in his power to stop me. I have no idea how much he knows about my conception; I’m pretty sure he knows the truth. But sometimes I doubt it because the man I know would’ve ended this Ricci fuck long ago, and Alonzo Ricci is very much alive.
Just thinking about the man pisses me the hell off, and it only makes it worse that I look like him, makes it hard to look myself in the mirror sometimes, but I know the end result, so I bear it for now. Two days isn’t going to make much of a difference, but after spending the last couple of years on this without missing a beat, it feels almost foreign not to be solely focused. She’s screwing with my concentration in more ways than one.
I had the screen on dark and a book in hand by the time they made it to my room. My eyes were immediately drawn to her, but I played it off, no point in giving the twins any more food for fodder since they already seem to be on some shit. “What do you want? I thought you were studying?” I have to remember never to trust my sisters because they didn’t give shit away.
No one watching or listening in would ever guess that we’d rehearsed this shit, though I’m beginning to think they didn’t buy my spiel about only looking out for her because of what I saw with Victoria. I’m walking a tight rope here; what with trying to keep them from making this into something it’s not. If I leave it up to these two who knows where that shit would go.
“We’re done for the day. We promised Gia that you’d show her around the grounds.” That wasn’t part of the deal, but I can’t call them on their shit because I have no doubt that they’d use that shit against me. “Sure, let’s go.”
DRACO
What the hell are the three of them up to now? It’s a good thing I’ve taken things legit because as much shit as my kids get up to, I wouldn’t have had time for much else. It didn’t strike me as odd when the girls asked about the tutoring, but after my wife fell asleep in my arms this afternoon, my mind had gone on a trip.
I started out thinking about Gabe and what he was planning for the man who’d harmed his mother, and from there had segued into other things. It was then that I remembered being proud of my daughters for how well they’d taken to Calculus when their brother taught them a year earlier. Not saying that they couldn’t still need a tutor, but my princesses would die before letting one of their peers teach them shit.
I’m not saying that my kids are snobs, but they’re not the ones to show weakness of any kind in front of people they know. So, from that assertion, I started wondering what the hell they were up to and why go to such lengths. I hadn’t gleaned much from my conversation with Fontane; he seemed as surprised as I that his kid was being asked to do the job; though he didn’t object, I got the feeling he only agreed because I was the one calling. Which strikes me as something my son would know.
I didn’t pay much attention when the girls were talking at breakfast, but now that I think about it, there was something about her home life that the women were gonna look into or something like that. What really spiked my curiosity was Gabe’s reaction when they came home. The boy could barely spare me a second when saying hello when usually he talks my ear off.
That’s why I’d done something I haven’t done in a very long while and spied on him. He’s too smart not to know that I have eyes and ears on him but fuck if he’s not a pro at ignoring that shit. When I saw him watching the girls on the monitors in his room, my antenna went on full alert. Now I looked at the girl as she stood in the doorway to his bedroom with new eyes.
Gabe isn’t the easiest person to read, so I couldn’t tell much from his reaction, but she was more obvious. Well, now, I’m nothing if not an attentive father. If my kids are up to some shit, then I might as well help them out. I do have my own selfish reasons, no doubt, but it’s for a good cause. First things first! I picked up the phone and called one of my favorite people. “Lancelot, I need a favor.”
DRACO
Right! So that’s how it is. “Thanks, I don’t have to tell you that this conversation goes no further than here. Keep me posted.”