Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 136743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
“I thought about that. You and the girls could go live with Mom.”
“In Boston?” I shriek. “You want me to uproot our daughters, move them from schools and friends they love, leave the house we took years to make feel like a home, to live in Boston? A place they’ve rarely ever even visited?”
“Whose fault is it they’ve so rarely visited? They barely know my mother.”
“Your mother favors Lupe over Inez and Lottie because she looks white.”
“What the hell, Sol? How could you even think that?”
“It’s true. You just don’t want to admit it. They would pick up on it, if they haven’t already. I’ve spent their whole lives building them up and making sure they knew we loved them all equally. I won’t risk your mother undoing that in a year with her biases.”
“She’s from an earlier generation. Cut her some slack.”
“An earlier generation? We’re not talking about not knowing how to FaceTime. It’s racism.”
“I can’t believe you’re making this harder for me right now. I ask you to do this one thing.”
“Really? When this one thing is covering up stealing six million dollars? You expected my cooperation?” Sitting on the bed, I dig my nails into the mattress, wishing it were his flesh. “The hell you did.”
“Be very careful,” he says, lacing his words with warning. “If you lose your head, you could ruin years of planning. If you just do everything I tell you, you’ll be back to designer bags and diamond facials in no time.”
“Is that what you think I do with my days? Shop and get facials?”
“I know you don’t work. I do that, so if you could just let me do my job and take care of you and the girls the way I see fit, we’ll be fine.”
“You don’t think what I do is work? Cleaning, cooking, organizing, driving, taking care of our children. All tasks people pay to have done for them. Is it not a job because I do it for my family? Did you think all these years you were the only one working just because you left the house every morning?”
“Oh, God, Sol. I don’t have time for this feminist bullshit tirade. I know you have some things you do to stay busy, but I’m talking—”
“To stay busy? There aren’t enough hours in the day for all I do, and you think I’m looking for ways to ‘stay busy’? Was I staying busy when I worked at the hotel’s front desk during the day and cleaned rooms at night, seven months pregnant, so you could focus on your MBA? Was that just staying busy?”
“That’s ancient history. Focus. We need to deal with now.”
So it’s we when he needs something and all about him every other minute of the day.
“I have to go,” I say abruptly, not sure I can take another minute of his bullshit and disrespect.
“Where are you going? I still have some time.”
“Sorry. I have shopping and extravagant lunches scheduled before picking your daughters up from school.”
“Dammit, Sol, this is no time to get self-righteous. I’m trying to speak as plainly as I can.”
“The time to speak plainly was before you did this stupid shit and expected me to fall in line. To be your accessory.” I rub the back of my neck, where tension has been building for the last two days. “Look, whatever. I’ll check with Brunson to see if we are any closer to getting you out of there. Not for you, Edward, but for the girls. They want you home. We’ll deal with what happens once this goes to trial.”
“I won’t…” He clears his throat. “I won’t be making bail.”
“They haven’t put a lien on the house yet. I can try to—”
“There won’t be any bail,” he says as if it’s an admission.
“Edward, let me try to—”
“They’ve deemed me a flight risk, Sol. No bail.”
“Why would they think that? How—”
“I didn’t want to tell you unless it became necessary because I knew you wouldn’t understand, but they found out about a plane ticket I purchased.”
“Plane ticket?” I ask with the still quiet that occurs before an explosion. The ground slides beneath my feet. The world tips and I don’t know when my life will be upright again. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I knew Cross was closing in on me. I panicked and bought a plane ticket, just as an insurance policy in case I needed to get out of the country to a place they couldn’t reach me.”
“And leave me and your children here with no money, no house, no car, and the FBI considering me a suspect?”
“I never planned to use it,” he says in a defensive rush. “I just needed an escape route if it became necessary.”
“And where were you not planning to go, exactly?”
“Bali. They don’t have an extradition treaty with the US.”