"I love you too."
I kiss his eyelids, then massage his freshly shorn head. This man makes me so happy.
"What are you going to do with all your extra cash?" he asks practically purring from the massage I'm giving him.
"It's gone."
"What did you spend it on already, greedy girl."
"Our new apartment."
"Our what?"
"I realize that I was suffocating myself. Making myself miserable. All I had to do was leave, so that's what I'm doing. I'll miss taking care of my father, and I'll miss Bottle too, but they will be fine. They have each other. Just like you and I have each other. I want us to live together. I mean...if that's what you want."
"You're going to need to get your money back, Ariana."
My stomach drops.
"What?"
I thought we were on the same page, but I guess we aren't. I try wiggling off of his lap, but he holds me in place by wrapping his thick, tattooed arms around me.
"Everything I'd been told about my birth family was a lie. Jack paid off workers at the agency to make sure that the truth stay buried.”
"Why?"
"I guess Jack didn't want me to go looking for my real family. He wanted me to think it was a lost cause. Like many adoptive parents, I think he was frightened.
“I was born out of inconvenience, not addiction and hopelessness. I have living, breathing family members, and some of them have been looking for me."
"That's fantastic, Stone!"
"I didn't want to tell you until I met with them. Made sure that it was real. My father is dead, and I'm not sure who my mother is, but I know that I have two brothers. I like them, babe. And you should see them. I look just like them."
"Wow."
"They said that all the things that I'm good at are all the very attributes that will work well in thefamily business."
"They want you to work with them?"
"Yeah and I think I'm going to do it."
"So that's why you don't want to live with me?"
"Babe, they're fucking loaded. I'm going to be making three times what you do. I'm not trying to rain on your independent woman parade, but we're going to need a bigger place."
"Ohhhh."
"I can't wait for you to meet them."
"I can't believe that there's actually two other men in the world who look like you. What are their names? Are they big like you?”
"Camden and Cutter."
"King?" I almost sputter.
"Yeah, how'd you know that?"
