My Loving Family Paid to Destroy Me novel · Chapter 8 of 24
Chapter 8: Rest Cure
The lake house was my father's idea.
"Reporters are camped outside the city house," he said that afternoon. "You need quiet, son. Water and trees. Your mother will cook."
I did not argue.
I had a court order in my head and Laurel's three silent words in my eyes, and I wanted to be somewhere I could think.
The lake house sat at the end of a gravel road, forty minutes from the nearest town.
It had a stone fireplace, a dock, and a front gate that locked with a keypad.
"For the press," Trenton said, when he saw me look at it.
My mother carried in grocery bags and talked about soup.
My father carried in my duffel.
Trenton carried in a plastic bin and set it on the kitchen counter.
"Phones," he said, and held out his hand.
"What?"
"Doctor's orders. No screens, no news, no calls for a week. They want your head quiet."
"Whose doctor?"
"Dad's. The family doctor." He smiled. "Come on, big guy. Just a week."
I handed over my phone.
It was a cheap one, new that morning, with four numbers in it.
He put it in the bin and snapped the lid.
I watched where the bin went.
It went into the hall closet, and the closet had a lock.
That evening my father called me to the dining table.
It was a long oak table, and the lawyer sat at one end of it with his leather folder open.
A pen lay across a stack of pages.
"It's only a formality," my father said, warm as bread. "You were missing five years, Nolan. Everything's been frozen. Your trust, your accounts, your grandmother's estate."
Keep reading free with an account. Start My Loving Family Paid to Destroy Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 7 · All chapters · Chapter 9 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend