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)
Madeline lifted her chin as she stared at me, her eyes now glistening. “You should have told her all that before she left. What was selfish was not letting her know how you feel. Making her think it was all one-sided.”
“Then, Madeline, please, honey, help me. Blaise can find her faster than anyone else. If you walk out that door, still refusing to help me, I will hire someone. But every second that goes by, she’s somewhere, thinking I don’t love her. That I don’t want us. And it is killing me.”
She pressed her lips together, and a spark of hope came with the sympathetic look she gave me. She stepped forward and placed her hand on my arm. “I love you, but I won’t do that. You were in control, and you screwed up. Now, Liberty has the control. Let’s see what she can do with it. Give her time,” she said, then scrunched her nose. “And take a shower. You stink. Try to eat something too. Sleep wouldn’t hurt either.”
Then, she squeezed my arm and headed for the door.
If I thought falling to my knees and begging would work, then I would do it. But I’d just been exposed to Etta’s daughter. That look on her face was one I’d seen on her mother all those years ago. I wasn’t going to get through to her when she had made up her mind on something.
She reached the door, then glanced over her shoulder at me. “You can try to hire someone to find her, but it’ll be a waste of time. No one is going to do anything that would piss off Blaise, and every private detective in the state of Florida has received the message not to find Liberty Dillard,” she said, then opened the door and walked out.
I stared at the door as she closed it.
I had to find Liberty. I’d figure out a way. No fucking Mafia boss was going to stop me. There had to be someone out there who wasn’t scared of him.
41
Liberty
I stood at the window in my new office, looking out over the busy street below. Palm trees blew gently in the breeze as the world seemed to be in a rush to get home or go to dinner. I’d had a whirlwind of a first week here. Starting with this room. I turned around to look at the private office I’d been given the first day. I had been speechless while Martha continued to rattle on about the desk, computer, printer, my bathroom.
When we had arrived at GG Center, she had walked me past several desks with people working at them, sitting out in the open area of the main office. I was looking over them, wondering which one would be mine, when we passed them all, and she opened this door to show me my desk.
How had I managed to get this?
I smiled, shaking my head, still amazed.
This week, I had made calls to the different vendors that the company had chosen to use. Gotten to know the point of contact I’d be working with at each one. I met with the head of design, who would be making sure all the stores had the same layout, determining what the brand would look like so that I was clear on what all we were going to carry in our stores and which ones would have specialty items. There were stacks of catalogs to go through and either toss or keep, depending on what that vendor offered. I spent hours with the lady they had hired for media marketing because she’d been assigned to teach me how the software program worked for inside the office.
It had been a good week. I’d been kept so busy that it wasn’t until I walked into my apartment at night that the heaviness in my chest truly affected me. I missed Liam, and although I was enjoying my job, he was never far from my mind. I wondered what he was eating at lunch when I sat down with mine. I would learn something new and think I couldn’t wait to tell him, then remember we didn’t have a relationship like that. I’d only lived in a fantasy in my head where I thought we did.
Heartbreak, my closest friend, was always right there by my side to nudge me when I had a moment that made me smile. It wasn’t going to let me forget it was there, and I expected it never would. Learning to live each day with it clinging closely to me was the only way.
I walked over to pick up my purse, then grabbed the two files I wanted to take home and work on this weekend. I had nothing else to do. Right now, the idea of being alone for two days with no work seemed like torture. I’d have so much time to think, to feel. But I knew once the baby came, I’d love having that time with him.