Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Your mother,” he said. “She was apparently lost at sea.”
I felt my stomach clench. “What?”
Had I heard him correctly?
“She was on the boat with Oberon, and when he returned to dock, she was gone,” he repeated. “We’re looking for her now, but it’s not looking good. Oberon was too hammered to even notice when she went missing. He’s still hammered. We’re looking, but we’re searching a much wider area than we should be because Oberon can’t pinpoint where she went overboard.”
The words hit me like a hammer.
My mom, the last remaining person in this world related to me, was missing. At sea.
That was one of the worst things that could ever happen to her, truthfully.
The sea was the one place that I loved. The sea was the one place that my mom hated.
Why?
Because she was terrified of it. She couldn’t swim well, and she saw it as a terrifying, never-ending, black hole.
I’d always looked at it as limitless. As if it went on and on and on, and I could never be tied down as long as the sea was there for me to escape to.
But her?
God, how scared was she right now?
Where was she?
Was she alive? Was she dead?
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I was already shoving my feet into shoes.
• • •
Oberon was sober now.
Hell, anyone would be sober after eighteen hours.
Eighteen hours of looking for my mother, and nothing.
We couldn’t find a single trace of her anywhere.
It was Oberon’s laughter during the second worst time of my life that set me off.
My fist was flying before I’d even consciously told it to do so.
PROLOGUE II
Morning forecast: slightly exhausted with a chance of needing a nap in about three hours.
-Text from Alice to her grandpa
ALICE
Okay.
That was really messed up.
“I’m sorry, but can you repeat that?” I asked, sounding just as flabbergasted as I felt.
“I said, I’ve been grading you on how you mother my son, and you’re not doing well,” my about-to-be ex-boyfriend, Werner, said.
As if his words weren’t enough, he hit me with a double whammy.
“And I’m sorry to say this, but you’re going to have to get over this little allergy thing,” he repeated. “My son’s more important. The doctor said the service dog was necessary.”
No. No, he wasn’t.
Werner’s son, Griffith, was twelve. He suffered from seizures that they were mostly able to keep under control with medication. Medication that Griffith hated taking, and Werner didn’t want to force him to take if he didn’t want to.
The only reason they were even discussing a service animal was because Werner couldn’t control his kid. His kid was the worst, and he was one of the main problems I had when it came to Werner’s and my relationship.
We’d been dating for about five months now, and not once in all that time had I grown to like Griffith.
Werner was great when his son wasn’t around. However, it was becoming more and more prevalent since Werner’s ex-wife couldn’t handle their son either.
“Werner.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We can’t have this discussion again. I think it’s time for you to leave.”
Werner didn’t live with me. At least, not officially.
He stayed with me more often than not lately, but that was about to change.
“Stop joking,” Werner grumbled. “This isn’t a joking matter. The dog will be here in two hours. You’ll be okay.”
No, no, I wouldn’t be okay.
I was severely allergic to dogs.
As in, they got close to me, and I immediately got to the point where I felt like I couldn’t breathe or catch a breath. I carried an EpiPen, for Christ’s sake. Did he honestly think that I could just get over that kind of allergy?
“Werner.” I narrowed my eyes. “I think it’s time for you to take a step back. Go home. Think about what you’re asking me to do. It doesn’t make the least bit of sense. If your son would just take his medication like he’s supposed to, he won’t even need a dog. But, honestly, it’s a moot point anyway. This isn’t going to work out for us. You don’t even like me.”
And I sure the fuck don’t like you.
I’d been giving it my all when it came to Werner. He’d been a good friend of my dad’s, and at first, I’d actually enjoyed spending time with him. However, those days were now over. I didn’t enjoy a single thing about Werner, and at this point, he was just a roommate and not a person I was supposed to be dating.
Not to mention, I didn’t really like his kid. Anytime Griffith was there, my day got infinitely worse.
Then there was the fact that Werner had recently lost his job. For a while there, I’d spotted him the money because that was what friends did when times were hard.
But now, he was getting pissy if I didn’t give him enough money to float him through the week.