Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 36820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 184(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 184(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
“What?” Jin demands, voice sharp like a blade. “You’re angry.”
I scrub my palm over my face and blow out a huff of air. “Not angry with you.”
The tension bleeds out of her and she nods. “Okay, then. What’s wrong?”
“Leah.” I pull out my phone and open the text from my ex to show her.
“She’s reaching,” Jin says, waving it away from her face when she finishes reading. “There’s nothing to report.”
“Maybe not yet,” I say with a heavy sigh, “but she has someone following me. Followed me to the babysitter’s house and was taking pictures.”
Her head snaps my way and she scowls. “Silver sedan?”
“Actually, yeah. He took a picture of me walking to the car with Penny. Have you seen it as well?”
“Carol says it’s been parked out by her house a time or two. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”
I pace the floor in front of Jin, working out what she’s saying and trying to make sense of it. “It’s strange Leah is having some private investigator guy scope out where you take your kid for babysitting on the off-chance I pick her up. Right?”
Jin cuts her eyes away from me and she fidgets. It’s something I notice she does when she doesn’t want to tell me something. Whether the marriage is real or not, we’ve made an agreement, and I can’t be blindsided by shit. Not when the custody of my kids is on the line.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I demand. “Is the investigator following you? Does it have to do with that house? Come on, Jin. Tell me. Does it have to do with Christopher? If this jeopardizes—”
“What do you know about Christopher?” Jin hisses, pouncing over to me. Her normally calm eyes are flickering wildly.
I clench my teeth together. “I know he’s the son of the woman whose house we just got married for in order to save. Carol is Penny’s babysitter, but to be honest, it’s kind of odd you’d want to help her just so you don’t lose where your child is watched.”
Jin scoffs and throws her hands in the air. “Owen, don’t be ridiculous. Now who’s reaching?”
She storms off toward the door, but I follow after her, refusing to be ignored.
“He’s awfully friendly with Penny,” I say to her back. “Am I missing something here?”
As if I’ve whipped her, Jin flinches and then whirls around to face me. Her small finger flies up to my face, just centimeters from my nose. “Penny sees him all the time because he lives there. She adores him. Stop grasping for straws.” Then, Jin smooths out her features and contorts her expression into doctor mode. “Have you been sleeping okay?”
I’m an asshole.
A stupid one.
Got rid of an awful, wicked witch of a wife, and snatched up another one before the ink was hardly dry on my divorce.
Fucking idiot.
I’ve been treated like I’m crazy one too many times and Jin’s crossed a line whether she realizes it or not.
“I’m too pissed to have this conversation with you right now,” I say in my most neutral, unaffected tone. “We’re in this arrangement to help one another. Keeping secrets and hiding shit will only have things blow up in our faces.”
Jin’s nostrils flare, the only tell she’s still angry. The rest of her expression is placid.
“I’m fully aware of our agreement,” she says, ice in her tone. “And the second we close on Carol’s house, and the rental agreement is in place, we’ll be done.”
“So, you get what you want,” I murmur coolly. “And all I get is more trouble and another ex-wife.”
There’s a long moment of silence between us before Jin answers me.
“No.” She lifts her chin and offers me a brief smile. “I’m going to help you. If that takes months or even a year to get Leah off your back, then so be it. What you’ve done with Carol’s house and saving it from the bank is more than I could ever repay you. Together, we’re going to get through this.”
Jin pats my shoulder and leaves my bedroom without another word. While I’m grateful for her reassurance of our agreement, specifically her end of the bargain, I’m unnerved by why she wanted to save Carol’s house in the first place. Whatever she’s keeping from me could fuck me over one day. It’s a blind spot I’m determined to shine a light into.
My head throbs and my mind races.
The anxiety clawing at me reaches new peaks.
I may as well chain my ass to my bed tonight, because there’s no doubt my disorder will rear its ugly head later. It always does. Like a bitter dessert after an ex-wife supper.
Fuck my life.
Chapter 10
Mei
Mei.
Mei.
Rattle. Rattle. Rattle.
Mei.
I wake with a start, a cold chill racing down my spine. The room is dark, and for a moment, I’m disoriented. I’d been dreaming about my dad’s condo in Missouri. But, instead of Dad coming in after a late shift, it was Owen. He’d been in his boxers and shivering. When I’d gone to him, his fingers and toes were black from frostbite. His eyes were murky and his skin was cold. He was a corpse standing in the doorway.