Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“Well, he won’t succeed,” I told her. “He might have raised me, but I’m twice the man he’ll ever be. And I know how to finally stop him.”
“Camden, please,” Monica cried. “Please… just stay here tonight. I don’t want to lose you, and I don’t trust him. Please.”
She grasped my arm in her hands, and I looked back to see my mother begging me, pleading with me. My mother. The woman I’d spent so long looking for. The woman I’d blamed for abandoning me, only to find out it wasn’t true. And she wanted me here. She wanted me to stay.
So, I nodded. And I stayed.
My father would get his due.
I would damn well make sure of it.
36
Katherine
“I brought you clothes,” Lark said early the next morning as she entered my hospital room.
I was still waiting for a doctor to discharge me. They were swamped, and the nurse had kept putting me off. I didn’t particularly like it, but it didn’t seem like there was much that I could do. So, I’d been sitting around in this horrid hospital gown until Lark showed up with a change of clothes.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the bag from her.
“I cannot believe they cut you out of an Alexandre D’Oria original.”
“Tell me about it. I haven’t told him yet. He’s probably going to cry.”
“I feel like crying,” she said as she sank into a seat.
I eased out of the bed and slid into the soft leggings and long-sleeved shirt she’d brought me. I’d told her how freezing I’d been all night. When I sank back into the bed, I saw she was wearing the Lark concerned face. I should have expected it earlier. I was amazed she’d even managed to hold it off for that long.
“I really don’t want to hear it.”
“And I really don’t care,” she snapped back.
I winced at her tone. Lark didn’t often get mad. But when she did, she reverted back into her old self, in which she exploded. I prepared myself for that.
“You know the entire crew wanted to come here, but I told them that you wouldn’t want all the fanfare.”
“I appreciate that,” I told her.
“But I should have let everyone show up,” she said as she began to pace. “I should have let you see how many people care about you. How many people worry for you. How many people you could hurt by doing this shit again, Katherine.”
“I’m not sick.”
“And you’re still denying it!” she yelled at me.
“I was sick,” I amended. “I was sick, and I didn’t realize it. Even when you asked me about it in Puerto Rico. I was sick then, but… I didn’t know it.”
I’d had all night to think about it, and I’d come to the conclusion that I hadn’t seen what was going on in my life. That I’d been too wrapped up in my own misery to realize it. Yes, I was exercising more. Yes, I was seeing a nutritionist. I was still depressed and worrying about my body image to a point that was beyond reality.
But I was getting better. No matter what Camden had said about my fainting. I’d been pulling myself out of it with his help.
“You think you’re magically better?” Lark asked.
“No. I think that I was on the mend, and now, I’m here. Everyone is freaking out for no reason.”
Lark shook her head. “You’re unbelievable. You always think you’re one step ahead of everyone. Even one step ahead of yourself. Well, could you put on the brakes and look at the situation at hand?” Her lips quivered. “We’re worried about you, Katherine. We’re scared. I’m scared. You need help.” She stepped forward, taking my hand. “Please listen to me when I say that I want you to get help. And I’m going to be here and annoying you about it until you do.”
The first thing I wanted to do was argue. I wanted to yell at Lark to mind her own goddamn business. But when I looked up at my friend, I couldn’t do it.
I saw only love in her eyes. She’d stood by me through thick and thin. We’d known each other too long for bullshit in this moment. She was worried about me. She had reason to worry.
“Okay,” I finally said.
“Okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll start going to therapy again. I’ll see what my psychiatrist says.”
“Really?”
“I don’t want everyone to worry about me. I don’t want to be the person I was when this was bad.”
“I didn’t think it’d be this easy,” Lark admitted.
“It’s not easy. I’m still mad. I don’t want to be here. I don’t think that I’m bad enough to be here. There could have been another way.”
“What other way?” Lark asked. “You weren’t listening to us. If you hadn’t ended up in the hospital, would you have ever come around to going to therapy again?”