Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 106346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“I don’t give a fuck what you say.” Matthew looks at Viktor. “You’re in recovery. Would you sell baby Zara?”
“I would die before I gave her up,” he says without skipping a beat.
“The question now is when are you going to tell Caroline?” my father asks me.
“Tonight,” I say, and when the lawyer gives me a copy of the papers and I walk out of his office, I get sick right next to the car.
Chapter Forty
Caroline
“Caroline, can you please make sure that all emails have been verified?” Malika smiles at me.
I smile back at her. “I just did.” I give her the ones that have to be changed.
“It’s so good to finally have some real help here,” she says, turning and walking back to her own office. When I first started here, I thought I would just be answering the phone, but Justin stuck me in a office, and Malika came in with a coffee in one hand for her and another one for me, and she went through everything that we did. I was in awe with everything that Justin’s foundation does. I was also in shock when they told me that my salary was close to seventy-five thousand dollars.
“I’m just happy I haven’t messed things up too badly.” I smile when I hear voices, and look out of my office window, wondering if Justin is in. He was acting really weird the whole day yesterday, and this morning, he nearly ran out of the door.
When he went to bed last night, it was as if he wasn’t there. Even when we got lost in each other, something was missing. I tried to tell myself that he was tired. I tried to tell myself that it was nothing and all in my head, but this morning, he barely made eye contact with me, and my stomach dropped when he left without so much as a backward glance. In fact, he couldn’t run out fast enough.
“Hey.” I hear, and I am taken out of my daydream, and I smile when I see it’s him. “You almost done?”
“Yes,” I say. “I’m done.”
“Okay, I’ll be done in about fifteen,” he says, and then he looks at me and just fake smiles and my heart sinks.
I wait for him and Dylan to come and get me, and when he drives home, all I can do is look out the window. Dinner is quiet also, and he passes on going to the pool. I know it’s the end. When Dylan and I come back from the pool, he’s sitting outside, looking at the view. “We’re back.”
“Oh, yeah,” he says, and Dylan comes out, and he grabs him and brings him close to him and buries his face in his neck. “I love you,” he tells him, and then he puts him on his lap, facing out, and holds him as they watch the sun go down. I try not to sob. I try not to show my pain; after all, I’m good at hiding things. It’s only when I step under the shower do I allow the tears to fall.
Same story, just a prettier bathroom. I get out and get dressed, and when I walk out of the bathroom, he’s there sitting on the bed waiting for me. His eyes are down and papers are beside him, and I have to hold the doorframe to be able to stand. I love him so much that if me leaving is going to make him happy, I’ll do it. “Is everything okay?” I try to talk without my voice cracking.
“No,” he says and looks down at the floor, and my heart is shattered.
“I get it,” I say, and he looks up. “It was a whirlwind, and everything happened so fast.” He looks at me. “I’m just going to sleep with Dylan, and we can be out of here tomorrow.”
“What?” he says.
“I get it, Justin,” I say, the tears falling now. “It’s fine.” I smile, not wanting him to feel sorry for me or want to be with me because I’m crying. “We’ll be okay.”
“I’m so confused right now,” he says.
“It’s over.” I say it for him, although I shouldn’t. I should make him do the dirty work.
“What’s over?” he asks, confused, and I want to yell at him to stop pretending.
“Us.” I point at him and then myself. “This thing.”
“We aren’t over,” he says, scoffing at me even saying that. “Far from it.”
Now I’m the one who is confused. “Andrew came to see me.”
“What?” I look at him and take a step forward.
He holds up the paper for me. “I did it for you,” he says. “For Dylan.”
My head spins as I try to think about what he did for us, what more can this man could do for us. I grab the paper in my shaking hands, and I unfold it and it looks like a case file and my eyes go line from line until I see the words.