Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
The urge to go to her and pull her into my arms and kiss away all that sadness was really fucking strong, but I had more to say. She deserved it.
“I’m an asshole. Even my dog seems to be smarter than me,” I said, motioning to Ozzy, who was now standing between us like he was ready to protect her at all costs. “Liberty, would you please tell me about your parents? Why you didn’t go to college like Selena did. Why you and Selena aren’t close. I want to hear it all from you. Not because I believe what she said. I don’t. Not anymore at least. But I want to know about you. You’re going to be the mother of my child, and I’d like us to respect each other. And I know I have to earn that from you, and I’ve done a piss-poor job so far of earning any respect, but I’m changing that. Starting right now.”
A single tear ran down her face, and she sniffed, uncrossing her arms and reaching up to wipe it away. Right now, she looked so young, but then she was, especially compared to me. There was also a lot of sadness in her eyes, and I would do just about anything to make that shit go away.
She lifted her chin, and her eyes met mine again. “Until I was seven years old, I lived in Charleston. My mom, dad, and I lived across the street from his mother, Mama D. It was perfect. Then, my Mama D got sick and passed away when I was six years old. It was hard on us all, but my dad struggled with it. Seven months later, my momma was in a car accident that killed her on impact. Nothing was the same after that.” She paused and sucked in air, then dropped her gaze to her hands.
“When my dad was in college, before he met my mom, he had a girlfriend, Abilene, that he got pregnant. They’d been broken up when she told him about it, but then she told him that she’d aborted it. After Mom died, that ex-girlfriend contacted him through Facebook. She hadn’t gotten an abortion, and her daughter wanted to meet her father.” Liberty let out a deep sigh.
“He packed us up, and we moved to Ocala so he could be near his other daughter. He wanted me to have a sister, and I think he truly believed Abilene would help ease the void in my life that Mom and Mama D had left.” A laugh that wasn’t from humor but sounded more seeped in pain came from her. “That wasn’t the case. Abilene hated me. Selena tolerated me, but she blamed me that our father had been with me and my mom. He hadn’t known about her. It was never his fault, but instead of blaming her mother, Selena pinned that hurt on me.
“When I was ten, my dad was in the hospital after having a heart attack. As soon as she heard, Abilene went and checked Selena out of school, then rushed to see him. They were with him when he died.” She shrugged. “My school was right next to Selena’s, but Abilene didn’t think to get me. So, I never made it to the hospital to see him before he was gone. And that was the first day of eight years in hell.”
Anger built inside me with each word she spoke. However, I wasn’t sure who I was angrier with—me or Selena or the bitch Abilene. I took a step toward her, and Ozzy growled again.
“The week following my dad’s funeral, Abilene moved me from my bedroom to one in the basement. It was the only finished part of the basement. The rest was one open area with a washer and dryer, but nothing else. I was given a twin mattress on the floor as my bed. Selena took my bedroom, along with my furniture. Which happened to be furniture I’d picked out with my mom on the last birthday I had with her.” She sniffled and rubbed her face again, and then her stare hardened.
“So, no, I didn’t go to Abilene’s funeral. I didn’t even send flowers. I had shots of tequila with some friends instead. Not one day in that woman’s life had she been even remotely kind to me.
“While Selena had big, extravagant birthday parties, neither of them ever acknowledged my birthday. The money my father had left behind for my college education was used for Selena’s. I tried to get loans, keep a job, go to college. It was too hard. I couldn’t afford it, and after almost two years, I stopped trying.
“As for a car, Selena was given a brand-new one on her sixteenth birthday and another one on her high school graduation. I rode the bus to school until I started having friends who had cars. I wasn’t able to get a driver’s license until I was eighteen because my guardian wouldn’t take me to get one.