Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
I had no idea.
Out of all the things that could’ve come up, there were two people in this entire universe who could’ve fucked with my good night with their mere presence, and that was Amadea, my ex-mother-in-law, and Beatrice.
Beatrice was bad, but Amadea was worse.
Way, way worse.
At least Beatrice was half raised by her father. Amadea was a silver spoon baby that was never once told no.
Her husband never hesitated to get her whatever she wanted, and her parents had given her whatever she wanted before she’d gotten married.
Needless to say, if there was anyone more selfish in this town than Beatrice, it was her mother.
Cora growled under her breath, causing me to turn and study her.
“What’s…oh.” She opened her mouth, and then closed it.
I reached for her hand and squeezed it. “With any luck, she won’t notice us. There’re a lot of people here, and we’re sandwiched in here like a couple of sardines.”
Yeah, fucking right. I should’ve known better.
Not only did Beatrice know who Cora was, but so did her mother.
Not to mention they came right up to our table and looked down their noses at us.
It didn’t help that the woman on stage had finally stopped butchering “Bohemian Rhapsody,” leaving it strangely silent in the corner we were occupying.
“I guess you think you won, didn’t you?” Beatrice started.
I groaned and let my head fall back to my back as I tried to search for some calm.
Cora looked over at me worriedly, as if she was about to do something that she was going to get into trouble for.
It didn’t take me long.
“My lawyer told me that you weren’t testifying against me,” she sneered. “We think you filed false charges now. That’s a crime. We’re talking to my lawyer tomorrow.”
I studied the ceiling in an attempt to control my temper.
“Considering that there were five trained men who rescued her from her kidnappers, I’m going to go with a no, they do not think she faked it,” Janie supplied, crossing her arms over her chest and looking pissed. “And furthermore, the men who actually committed the crime for you are going to testify against you, not Cora. At their trials, Cora would testify. But since they entered a plea bargain, admitting their guilt, they will serve prison time without Cora having to show up and do that. I think you need to get your facts straight, my dear.”
Janie and Cora had a funny relationship. They were a lot like sisters, in a way. They fought and bickered, but ultimately, they had each other’s backs. If shit hit the fan, one would be there for the other, without question.
“Dear, let’s go eat before that horrid music starts again,” Amadea suggested, realizing before her daughter did that this wasn’t going to happen tonight.
“Beatrice, go away,” I said when she didn’t follow her mother.
She sneered. “Fuck you.”
My brows rose at that.
Beatrice never cursed. Never. She said it was crass, and only people who didn’t care that they sounded like inbred idiots used those kinds of words.
Personally, they were my favorite words to use, but that was just me.
“Beatrice,” Amadea gasped in surprise, having turned around when she noticed Beatrice hadn’t followed her. “That’s not how a lady speaks.”
Amadea put her hand on Beatrice’s shoulder, but Beatrice yanked her arm back out of her mother’s touch.
“You’ve ruined me, you know.” Beatrice edged closer to our seats.
That’s when I got tired of looking up at the psychotic woman.
That, and I had a feeling that if I wasn’t in a better position, Beatrice would launch herself at me like the deranged woman she was turning into.
Cora’s eyes caught mine as I stood.
The moment that our eyes connected, I let her see the worry there.
I was worried about what Beatrice would do next. Maybe she thought she was going to get out of the charges since she’d been informed that Cora wouldn’t be testifying against her, but she’s forgetting that her hired goons can supply all of the evidence against her that was needed.
I immediately thought about that money that she suddenly had in her account that wasn’t from her father.
Money that Janie said was so well hidden, she’d never seen anything like it before.
“You ruined yourself, Beatrice,” I countered, placing my body in between Beatrice and Cora.
Just in case.
“Daddy won’t hire me back, either,” Beatrice continued as if I hadn’t said a word.
“You don’t deserve to be hired back.”
“Normally when people commit felonies,” June said carefully. “They don’t get to keep their cushy jobs…sucks don’t it?”
June had made some questionable life decisions when she was a young kid and that had followed her into adulthood.
Before she’d started working for me, she’d had so much trouble finding a job that she was scared. I was glad that I’d given her a chance.
“Nobody asked you, whore.”
That’s when Johnny stood up, furious that someone would call his woman a whore.