Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I felt my belly contract as it threatened to revolt.
All those snack cakes I’d eaten were coming back to bite me in the ass.
I suppose it was fitting for a day like today.
I’d nearly convinced myself that I was okay, but then Rosie pressed her hand against Johnny’s shoulder, and he didn’t pull away.
“I had no choice.”
Bullshit.
Everyone has a fucking choice.
“Everyone has a choice,” Silas said, echoing my thoughts exactly, though a lot more eloquently.
“I didn’t. It’s my mother who helps me pay for all of this.” She gestured at the house around her, then gestured to her son with a tilt of her head. “And Hank was a very sick baby when he was born. He had to have open-heart surgery when he was six days old. Since then he’s had two more. I needed her help in this. Since she didn’t like Johnny, it was either allow my son to suffer, or make him suffer.”
Well, that was a damn good reason.
At least, in my opinion.
I wasn’t sure that Johnny felt the same way, but again, I wasn’t too sure what to feel myself.
“Is he okay now?” Baylee asked, suddenly alarmed.
She’d put voice to everyone’s fears, not just mine.
Looking at Johnny’s face, I realized that he was alarmed as well.
“Yes,” she hesitated. “They expect him to have to go through a few more surgeries, but for now, he’s fine and should be for a while.”
I didn’t know quite what that meant, but I was sure that Johnny would figure it out, and then let me know.
For now, I had to go get some air. Listening to her talk, trying to get into Johnny’s good graces.
I couldn’t make myself catch my breath, and I was literally on the verge of passing out.
So, I went outside and nearly ran into the nanny who was on her way back inside.
She stepped back, took one look at my face, and thrust her arms underneath mine to help in case I fell.
“Are you okay?”
And that was how I went about telling a practical stranger about all that had happened over the last couple of hours.
By the time I was finished, she looked like she’d swallowed a bug.
“You’re the nanny, right?” I asked, wondering about her reaction.
She looked almost…alarmed.
She nodded. “Brigid. Mrs. Corrasion hired me. The elder Mrs. Corrasion. Not the younger,” she explained.
I nodded my head in understanding. “You’re a home care nurse?”
I think that was what she’d corrected me with a few moments into my story, when I’d explained that I’d seen her, “the nanny,” leave, as well as what information Silas had been able to give us in his short time researching.
“Yes,” she said. “I was originally his home care nurse, and then I was hired to take care of him because…”
She halted her words mid-sentence.
I waited for her to finish, but she didn’t.
Then I wondered why she didn’t.
“Because…” I said, hoping she’d finish.
She didn’t.
I could tell that she didn’t plan to, either. At least not right now.
But her hesitation made my insides swirl again.
Something was wrong here.
Something was very, very wrong.
An idea struck me, and I lifted the purse I’d been holding for this entire time from my shoulders, and then dug inside to find my cards. The cards that Coke had made for me so I could hand them out to anybody who might need them.
I handed her my number. “If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call.”
She took it gingerly, then deposited it in her shirt.
“I’ll call.”
***
What I hadn’t expected was for her to call when Johnny and I were walking in the door of his apartment.
It was silently agreed upon that it was best to go to his place seeing as at my place, Amanda would be home for at least another couple of hours before she was to be at work.
I answered the phone right after we breached the threshold of his place.
“Hello?”
“Is this June?”
I instantly knew who it was that had called. Brigid.
Johnny slammed the door closed and passed by me with a flourish that made me realize he was more on edge than he’d appeared.
I bit my lip and tried to keep my voice quiet as I spoke.
“It is,” I confirmed. “How are you?”
“I’m…I’m…can you meet me next Saturday?” she whispered.
I thought about that.
Could I?
Yes, yes, I absolutely could.
“Yes,” I said, looking over at Johnny who was grabbing a beer out of his fridge. While I was watching, he twisted the top off, threw the cap on the counter, and then tilted the beer up to his lips. He didn’t stop drinking until it was gone.
I swallowed, knowing that I couldn’t tell him about this. Not yet, anyway.
He had to work next Saturday anyway since he was off this Saturday, so what he didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt him, right?
“Okay, great. I get off at like ten, and I’ll have about two hours of free time before I have to get my errands under control and tackled. Could you meet me at…” she rattled off a specific place, and I realized I was going to have to drive another hour there and back, but I didn’t care.