He Called Me His Plaything in Front of His Men, So I Left Carrying His Heir novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Bare
Ximena's POV
He came back to my mother's house at noon, alone, in a truck I had never seen.
It was a green Ford pickup with a cracked windshield and a bench seat held together with tape.
He told me later it had been his father's.
It had sat in a garage in Columbus Park for twenty-two years under a tarp, because nobody had ever asked what was in the garage.
He had broken the lock with a tire iron at ten that morning.
I stood on the porch with my coat on and a bag at my feet.
My mother had packed it for me in ten minutes without asking one question.
She had packed one for herself too.
"Where are we going?" I said.
"Your mother's cousin has a farm outside Gardner," Aurelio said. "It's in Kansas. The door is open and the key is under the milk can."
"How do you know that?"
"Perla called the cousin from the church hall." He rubbed the back of his neck. "She called him before she told me."
"So you didn't pick anything."
"No." He almost smiled. "She picked. I'm only driving."
My mother came out behind me with her purse on her arm.
She carried a foil-wrapped pan of enchiladas in both hands.
"Take this," she said to him.
Aurelio took it.
It was the first time I saw her give him something he hadn't first had to wash.
We drove southwest with the windows cracked and the heater roaring.
My mother sat in the middle of the bench seat with her rosary in her lap, and I leaned against the door.
Nobody followed us.
I watched the mirror for forty minutes, and so did he.
At the state line the road went from city to wheat stubble, flat and brown under a low gray sky.
I did not say anything about the baby.
I could feel it sitting in the cab with us, and I knew he could too.
The farmhouse was white and two stories high, with a tin roof and a porch that sagged at one end.
Cedars stood on the north side as a windbreak.
Past the barn the land ran out to a creek line of bare cottonwoods.
My mother walked through the kitchen once, touching the stove and the table.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of He Called Me His Plaything in Front of His Men, So I Left Carrying His Heir are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →
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