Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 129571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
“Are you stalling?”
“A little. However, I do want to know what the big mystery is.”
He shifted a little in front of me. “My mother always wanted a girl, but when she had me, it was a difficult pregnancy. She barely survived the labor. Her doctor recommended that she have no more children. So ... when my father wasn’t around, she would dress me up as a girl and have me live like one.”
Ummm. Maybe we should have left this for another day.
My eyes widened in shock. “How old were you?”
“It started at four.”
“Four years old?”
“Yes. I thought it was completely normal. She and the staff would call me Cynthia. I’d wear dresses and ... panties. I had to sit on the toilet, I couldn’t stand in front of it.” He blew out a long breath. “It just so happened that Benny came by one time and realized what was going on. I heard him yelling at my mother one night, telling her that it wasn’t right, that she was going to fuck up my head.”
“Oh my God, Chase.” I embraced him. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”
“No, I’m fine now. Clearly, I didn’t end up as a cross dresser, and I’m a very secure man.”
“Yes.” I smiled up at him. “You’re a god.”
“Exactly. Look, I’m only telling you all of this because I can’t have any more secrets between us. Benny killed her because of it. I’d planned on telling no one about the whole dress-up secret. Dawn and the others never knew. All of the paintings and pictures that Mom had done of me as Cynthia, I’d destroyed.”
I frowned.
“What?” he asked.
“I kind of would have liked to see what Cynthia looked like.”
“It was me with a dress.” He shrugged. “Of course, I was adorable.”
“Of course.”
“But what I’m trying to say is that I want a future with you. You’re all I think of, when I write my goals down in my head. My forward plans all have your name within them—from business ventures to simply purchasing a proper home for you and me to live permanently in. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes.” I grinned. “You love me.”
“No.” He fumbled a little as he dug into his pocket. “I mean ... Yes, I love you, but there’s something more—”
And then the door opened and all the peace in the hallway ceased as my mother stepped out and rushed to me with open arms. “Oh, Jasmine, baby.”
I could’ve stepped back or held my hand up to stop her.
I could’ve simply just let her hug me.
Give her the moment.
Not make it awkward for all of us.
Just give Mom her way so I could walk on by her and go straight to our room and pass out within Chase’s arms.
But instead, I did the opposite.
There was this rage inside of me that I had no idea was bubbling within my gut. Chase had kept it at bay to the point where I’d thought it all left, but as soon as I spotted her twisted face, it rushed back. I boiled into anger. It unwound in my body like a stiff ribbon, ramming into my frame and pushing outside of my skin.
I raised my hand in the air, formed my fingers into a fist, and socked her right in her pretty little jaw. “You evil bitch!”
Shrieking, she fell back into the doorway and struggled to get to standing position, even glancing at Chase as if he was supposed to help her.
I turned to him and he did his best to remove the grin off his face, but he couldn’t.
“Jasmine,” Mom shrieked again and held the side of her face.
My fingers screamed in pain. I raised my fist in the air one more time, hoping she would come closer. “I don’t want to see you the whole time I’m here. Do you understand me?”
“B-but, Jasmine. What’s wrong?” She stepped back into the opened doorway.
“Your son is dead!” I screamed and then gave her a standing ovation. “Good job! You put it together. I don’t get how, but we all know that you’ve orchestrated all of this, and now your son is dead. Good job, you evil broom-riding witch!”
She swayed back to the floor. “Troy is dead?”
“Yes.” I clapped again. “Good job.”
“Tesoro.” Chase wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him. “Let’s go. This isn’t going to make you feel any better.”
I almost pushed him away. I had more to say, and she needed to hear it, but it was something in the way Chase’s hard body smoothed against me.
It was something in the way he embraced me.
I stood next to a man. He loved me. He got hot for me over all the others. He saved me, when I couldn’t rescue myself. But most important, he had my back in everything.
And in that moment, his arm told me that none of this mattered anymore. We stood together, and everyone else could either bow down or get crushed by our feet.