Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Without showing the sadness in my heart, I pointed out that Viktor had already given me far more than I was owed. She shrugged and grinned that shifty little grin again and told me to call it alimony. She basically suggested I bug Viktor twenty-four hours a day until he got so sick of hearing from me that he paid me to leave him alone.
Fortunately, I hadn’t let her in on the truth of Viktor and my real situation. I didn’t trust her not to talk – my mother was a gossip and there was no doubt in my mind that if she knew what was going on with Viktor and me, that everyone she worked with and half of the trailer park residents would soon know it too, and then whoever they told and whoever those people told, and so on and so on until the whole fucking city knew the situation.
But even if Viktor and I had really split up, I wouldn’t be doing that. I was perfectly capable of living without a man paying for me and if my mom wasn’t, then that was her problem.
I told her in no uncertain terms I wasn’t planning on doing any such thing.
She pretended to understand, but the cogs where her brain should have been were still turning, and a couple of days later, she suggested maybe I should give Viktor another chance. It was clear why – she thought if I married into money, she’d be set for life.
Again, I made it clear it wouldn’t be happening. I told her Viktor and I were done and I wouldn’t be calling him or texting him, and I certainly wouldn’t be accepting any money from him. She got pretty huffy then, and tried to make out she was just looking out for me.
Learning that my mom didn’t really want me back because she actually loved me was painful, but that she wanted me back just to access someone she had decided was a meal ticket was even harder to take. My mother was greedy to almost immoral proportions. I had missed that completely.
The worst part of being back in my old life came on day five. I had been into town and wandered the shops for a few hours to kill some time. I debated calling some of the girls I worked with to meet for lunch or something, but I didn’t. It would’ve been nice to see them, but I didn’t want to lie to them, and I would’ve had to.
When I returned to the trailer, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Dan was there. He was so brazen, so smug, just spread out on the couch, his arm wrapped around my mom’s shoulders, like he was the king of the fucking castle.
I didn’t mince my words when I saw him. I demanded to know what the hell he was doing there. My mom explained that Dan had come and apologized to her, and they were going to try again.
The whole time, he sat there with a smirk on his ugly face.
I went to my room, praying that Viktor would hurry up and fix this mess so I could leave this place and go back to my life with him, the life I loved. I was desperately unhappy, I even thought about calling him. He’d said to call him in an emergency, but I wasn’t sure this counted.
Sure, I hated Dan and the thought of him being anywhere near me made my skin crawl, but was it bad enough for me to involve Viktor and put him in a place where he had to worry about me again?
I told myself I’d wait and see. Maybe Dan being back in my mom’s life, and by association being back in my life, wouldn’t last long. That, it turned out, was merely wishful thinking, because he did last.
Oh, he fucking lasted alright.
He moved out of his trailer and into ours, and I slowly put the pieces together. My mom and Dan had never really split up. That was all just a lie my mom fed me to get me here. Dan had been talking for a while about moving trailers, and that’s what they had done. He’d kept his for a couple of extra days to work on the ruse that they had split up. Why? To try to get money out of me, or more accurately, out of Viktor.
My mom must have thought she’d won the lottery when I came to her with my bags packed and told her how I had spoken to Viktor about maybe moving back in with her for just a while, because Viktor and I were over. The sympathy wasn’t real. She was just seeing the dollar signs lighting up before her eyes.
The whole time, she’d been playing me like a tune.