Ruin Me, Daddy novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: The Receipt

I read it three times.

The numbers didn't change.

I heard the front door, and boots in the hall, and his voice before he reached the study.

"There's a pen in the..."

He stopped in the doorway.

He looked at the paper in my hand. Then at my face.

He didn't ask what it was. He knew.

"Monday the nineteenth," I said.

"Jessa."

"You stood right there." I pointed at the rug by the bookshelves. "Sunday night. You said you told him to go ahead. You said you weren't buying your son off for the rest of your life."

"I meant it when I said it."

"For how long? Till breakfast?"

He came one step into the room and stopped.

"He called me at four in the morning," he said. "Crying. Somebody'd been at his apartment in Lexington. They'd kicked his door in and broken two of his fingers and told him it was the down payment."

"I sat in the truck in the dark outside the bank and waited for it to open," he said. "I wired it at nine. I didn't think about anything except his hand."

"And then you didn't tell me."

"No."

"Not that week. Not when he posted my name. Not when I sat in the cottage and told you he stole my grandmother."

"No."

"Not in the truck." My voice was rising, and I let it. "You watched me hear it, and you said the road was bad."

He closed his eyes.

"And last night," I said. "I asked you. I asked you straight, in that bed, and you said he didn't ask you again."

"He didn't."

"Don't you dare."

He opened his eyes. He didn't argue.

"I knew what it'd look like," he said quietly. "I told you no and did yes. I kept thinking I'd find the right day."

"There's no right day for that, Forrest."

"I know."

← Chapter 15 · All chapters · Chapter 17 →

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