Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
I toggled over to walk, and my heart sank at seeing it would take almost two and a half hours.
Judah would be miserable by then.
Hungry, inconsolable.
My arms would be jelly.
My feet raw.
But… what other choice did I have?
This was survival.
We could survive two and a half hours of misery to get to a better future.
So I painstakingly jotted down the directions on my stolen piece of paper.
Then I took Judah to the water fountain, watching him giggle and drink the water that I hoped would help artificially fill up his tummy for a bit, then I hiked him up on my hip, and I started our long walk toward freedom, praying that Warren wouldn’t happen by as we made our way there.
My heart was in my throat for the entire first—blessedly overcast—hour as we walked down a busy road, me constantly having to shift the restless Judah from hip to hip before, finally, putting him up on my shoulders to give my arms a short break.
After the main road, though, we found ourselves in a neighborhood. Quiet. Safe. Making us look a little less out of place. Surely lots of moms walked around with their babies in their neighborhood.
And as any mom knew, toddlers were moody and unpredictable. So when Judah’s hunger made him whimper then start to wail, it didn’t exactly draw any attention.
Half an hour of crying later, my heart squeezing, my ears buzzing, he cried himself to sleep.
There were tears in my eyes, feeling like the worst mother in the world as I kept walking. And walking. And walking.
Until, finally, my directions told me I’d made it to his street.
Fairmount Avenue.
I liked the sound of that.
It was an affluent area full of beautiful, large houses. Not exactly mansions, but large, large houses that, in this area, likely cost well over a million each.
Each was different than the last, no two homes or even styles the same. Colonials and Victorians, Tudors and Georgians.
According to my search, Aurelio Grassi lived at number sixteen.
I glanced side to side, finding the right one at a distance.
It was something I might call a Modern Farmhouse, but almost with a gothic twist. There were black accents on the front mixed with gray-wash stones.
The front gardens weren’t overly fussy, but full of perennial shrubs that made it look neat, but welcoming.
My breath shook through my chest as I sucked it in, then forced myself to make my way up the front path.
There was a car in the driveway.
He had to be home.
He had to be.
Tears pricked my eyes again as I pressed my finger into the doorbell.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then, finally, the door pulled open.
And there he was.
CHAPTER FIVE
Claire
I swear the second those kind eyes landed on my face, the dams burst, and the tears flooded down my face.
“I need help,” I said, voice thick with a mix of fear and relief.
Aurelio’s gorgeous eyes slid from me, down to my arms, where Judah was waking up with the way my chest was heaving with my silent sobs.
It was complete understanding in his eyes as he looked back up at me.
Like all the pieces clicked together for him.
Me in the car, cuffed, captive, refusing to let him save me.
Because I didn’t have my baby with me.
“Come in,” he said, stepping aside as I shifted Judah up, my arms screaming and shaky, but knowing I couldn’t put him down yet.
The inside of the house was, put plainly, gorgeous.
Welcoming.
And, what’s more, there was very little harsh white to be found.
The floors were a light wash that made the space in the entryway feel airy. There was a center staircase then a living room to the left, the walls painted a dark gray, but thanks to the light streaming through the windows, it wasn’t dark and depressing.
To the right was a dining room dominated by a massive table. The walls in there were a lighter gray, allowing the spaces to flow together without being too matchy-matchy.
“Come on. Let’s get you off your feet, angel,” Aurelio said, leading me past the staircase, past a much larger family room with a fireplace and tons of sectional seating, and into the kitchen.
There was a little white in there in the form of the white quartz countertops. But the cabinets were a shade of gray that allowed the appliances to blend right in.
The space was dominated by a massive island, but there was a small table and chair set over toward windows that overlooked the backyard.
Aurelio led me to the table, and my arms practically wept in relief as I was able to set Judah on my lap.
“I’m sorry, but… but can you get him something to eat?” I asked, wiping at my tears, but they were immediately replaced with fresh ones. “Anything. We… we left before I could feed him. It’s been hours.”
“Yes, of course,” Aurelio said, turning and making his way right to his fridge, reaching inside, and pulling out a Greek yogurt, then grabbing a spoon and bringing it to me. “Get him started with this while I make something more filling.”