Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 130955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Oh. Now she was crying. As if guilt-tripping him with words wasn’t enough. “Well, you got your wish. I’ll be staying in Dybukowo for a while. I need to recover my phone and stuff, but you’ll be able to reach me if you actually want to. I’m… sorry I didn’t stay for Christmas,” he choked out in the end. “But what’s done is done.”
She only sobbed harder, her slender shoulders shaking. “Telephone? Reach you? What? You won’t be here?”
“I’ll be staying at Yev’s cabin in the forest. He’s been helping me out.”
“Why would he help you? He hates our family because he has a pet fox and therefore it’s somehow unethical for everyone else to enjoy fur!”
Radek took a deep breath. This wasn’t ripping off Band-Aids anymore. If he kept going, he might bleed out altogether. “I want to close the fox farm. I’ve been there, and… it’s just not right.”
That had her spinning back, index finger raised in protest. Tears had trailed down her cheeks, taking with them some of the makeup she wore, but her face expressed determination. “You will not do that. Your father left it to you!”
Radek spread his arms. “Therefore I can do whatever I want with it. Don’t worry, we’ve got savings, and I’ll work something out.” Just thinking about that made him anxious, but he would not back down so easily, not after hearing the foxes call out to him.
Mom took a deep breath, her voice getting lower with each word. “I’m ill. I’ve helped your father build everything for years, and now you want to take away the income that allows me to live in comfort?”
The tiles seemed to crumble under his feet, and he found it hard to face her despite knowing what he wanted to do was the right thing. “I’ll take care of everything,” he said even though the thought of so much responsibility was making him nauseous. “Mom, when I was little, did something happen at the fox farm?” he asked, desperate to change the topic, because he was on the verge of running off in panic.
“Just stop it with the farm. Jesus, it’s giving me a headache,” she exclaimed and massaged her temples. “Be an adult for once. Responsible. Stop it with your animal rights activism. They’re just animals! Or are you now vegetarian too? Your dad would have turned in his grave.”
“I am an adult, and that’s why I’ll do what I think is right!”
She shook her head. “Go then! Go. Go live away from your mother even though you have the perfect home here, and go cut off my livelihood since it’s obviously the right thing to do! What does your mother matter when there are fox lives at stake?”
Radek clenched his fists, unable to stay here any longer. “Is the car I left at the farm last month still there?”
“How am I supposed to know? Don’t you dare drive in your state!”
Radek took a deep breath, but it did not calm his nerves. He didn’t want to deal with any of this. He just needed to retrieve his backpack from the car.
He rushed out of the room, with a storm in his chest and an invisible band squeezing his neck. How dare she treat him like this? She’d always been manipulative and selfish, but this took the cake.
Yev and Mrs. Irena sat on the dainty sofa. He held a cup of hand-painted porcelain in his palm, and it seemed so tiny in comparison it might as well have been a toy. But the sharpness of his gaze told Radek he’d heard the whole conversation.
Damn wolf ears.
“Thank you for having us, Mrs. Irena. We’ll be going, but we’ll stay in touch. Yev does have a landline, but it’s not like Mom actually needs me for anything.”
She stared at the uncovered stump as if she’d only noticed it. “Good God, Radek… I’m so sorry. I’ll be praying for you. Does it hurt?”
At least she cared to ask. “No, it’s healed very well. Thank you for… taking care of Mom.”
A small smile stretched her lips, as if she hadn’t expected any praise or thanks at all. He’d been such an asshole.
“Well, of course.”
“Thank you,” Yev said as he finished his tea. “Where do I leave the cup?”
Mrs. Irena actually laughed, her cheeks flushing as if… no. Was she trying to flirt with Yev?
“Oh, that’s no trouble at all. I’ll just take it to the kitchen once I clear away Mrs. Nowak’s plates.”
Radek itched to grab him and go, but Yev still needed to help Radek with the shoelaces, which was both so nice, and so humiliating. Taking care of him would get old for Yev real fast, and no other guy would be willing to take on that kind of burden.
Radek dropped from the top of the dating pool to the very bottom, and his brain still couldn’t cope. Yev hardly said anything on the way to the car, other than bidding Mrs. Irena goodbye a final time, but the moment the truck left the Nowak property, his steely eyes shot at Radek.