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)
Screw old age. I could stay in shape. I’d do whatever was required to take care of her. There was the fear I’d lose her, but I’d be damned if I went the rest of my life without her. I’d go to my death bed, making sure she never again felt the way I’d made her feel yesterday.
37
Liberty
I touched the ultrasound photo that I had left on the kitchen counter for Liam.
When the nurse had first shown me the little face, I had started crying. By the time she told me our baby’s sex, I was in a full-blown sob. They were so worried about me that the doctor came in and someone had to bring me a glass of water. I couldn’t get myself under control and explain I wasn’t going crazy. My emotional wall I’d tried to hold up while I dealt with the swings fate kept aiming my way crumbled upon seeing the life inside me. The one that looked like a baby now. With little fingers and toes. It was the trigger that had cracked me.
That tiny baby’s photos was the reason I’d managed to drive home. After a doctor’s visit where I found out the sex of my baby, alone, without Liam, who never came home last night or called and then blew off the appointment, I’d had the good fortune to run into Selena in the parking lot at the hospital.
No, I wouldn’t think about that. My new OB-GYN had told me several times that I had to calm down. Stress wasn’t good for the baby. I had to be strong and survive this for him.
The letter I’d written Liam lay beside the photo, along with the keys to his car and the house. I’d made sure Ozzy had plenty time outside and filled both his food and water bowls. Thinking too hard about leaving him behind would send me into another fit of tears I might not be able to get under control.
Lifting my eyes, I looked around at the house one more time. It was never meant to be mine. This life here with Liam and our baby. But even though it was ending this way, I would hold the good memories close. I just couldn’t dwell on them for now. I had to heal, and unlike with death, time could heal my soul this time. And if time didn’t, I was sure my son would.
I looked down at my phone. The Uber was seven minutes away.
I bent down and kissed Ozzy on the head one more time. “Thanks for being the best friend a girl could have,” I told him.
Then, I stood up, took the handle of a suitcase in each hand, and pulled them toward the front door. Ozzy whimpered when I walked out and closed the door, leaving him inside. I took one suitcase down the front doorsteps, repeated with the other one, then wheeled them down the driveway.
By the time I reached the end and the gates opened for me, my driver pulled up. Unable to help myself, I glanced back over my shoulder before handing the driver my suitcases and climbing into the back of the car.
38
Liam
It was too quiet. Ozzy walked into the foyer slowly, and he stopped when he saw me. There was no happy greeting or wagging tail. I’d spent the entire drive here going over what I would say, but in the silence, there was an alarm going off in my head.
“LIBERTY!” I called, stalking toward the back of the house to look outside. “LIBERTY!” I shouted again as my heart beat frantically inside my chest.
What had she done? It was one night. She wouldn’t do this. She wouldn’t leave.
“LIBERTY!”
Maybe she had gone to the store. I paused, then remembered my car was outside. She had to be here.
“LIBERTY!”
I headed for the kitchen. She normally started dinner by now. She could be in the shower after gardening.
I stormed into the kitchen, desperate to see something. A sign that she was here. I scanned the clean, tidy, unused area, until my gaze landed on keys and a note.
No!
I rushed over to it and read it to find out where she was so I could go get her. She’d tell me where she was going. She wouldn’t disappear. She was hurting. She’d left because she was upset. I could fix it.
The world fell away around me the moment I saw it. That small photo. Slowly, I reached for it as my hands shook. My eyes burned, and I sucked in a ragged breath.
Written at the top of the photo were the words, It’s a boy!
My teeth grinding together was the only sound I heard as I stared at the picture. I had missed being there when she’d found out that our baby was a … a boy. She’d been alone. I couldn’t go back in time and fix that.