She sinks back to the couch.
“He laughed in my face. Asked with what money I was going to use to leave. When I didn’t answer, he laughed in my face again and said, ‘See, that’s what I thought. You’re not going anywhere and you’re not taking my kids.’
“Then he left to let me cool down.”
“Is that when you booked a flight for you and the children?” I ask.
She shakes her head.
“I couldn’t. I was too messed up to think. This happened two days ago. I let him leave and go to work as normal, acting like I had calmed down. But yesterday I took the kids to the library, and I used the computer there to book our flights and rental car.”
Shanice looks at me with so much hurt and anguish that my heart breaks.
“Because of the money you gave me, I was able to leave,” she says before breaking down completely.
I hold her and rock her back and forth as she sobs. She murmurs her thanks for the money, but I pat her back and console her knowing I would have given her my last dime to keep her safe.
After I received a pay out from my mother’s life insurance, I gave Meghan and Shanice both a portion of the money. While it was to do whatever they chose, I encouraged Shanice to keep it in a separate bank account and to never tell Jake about it.
“A woman should always have her own money.”
Those are the words I told her not long after she got married and told her father and I that she was abandoning a career in media communications to focus on being a wife and eventual mother.
I’d loathed myself for setting such an example.
“It’s going to be okay,” I tell Shanice, kissing the top of her head while she cries.
CHAPTER 29
Ellyn
“I could strangle that boy with my bare hands!” I seethe the next morning on Joel’s porch.
“No,” he says, voice rumbling. “You don’t want to break a nail. I’ll do it,” he says, venom filling his tone as he hands me a mug of piping hot coffee.
After holding Shanice until there weren’t any more tears, she went to bed, but I stayed up for a few more hours. I had half a mind to fly to Atlanta to find Jake and … well, I shouldn’t say what my thoughts were in the middle of the night.
Without thinking, I reached for my phone and texted Joel. He shocked me when he actually responded, telling me he couldn’t sleep knowing something was wrong with my family, when I asked why he was awake.
As soon as the sun began to rise around six-thirty, I made my way over to his place, and of course he met me halfway.
“Thank you,” I say for the coffee and the offer to strangle my son-in-law.
Joel lowers, kissing my lips. “I’d do it for free,” he says, looking me straight in the eyes. “No one would find the body.”
There’s not a hint of humor or unseriousness in his gaze. It shouldn’t make my heart speed up the way it does.
Shaking my head, I retake my seat in the chair. “No,” I say as if it were even a viable option. “I just hate knowing what she’s about to be put through.”
Joel brings his chair closer so that our knees touch. He lays one strong hand on my thigh, comforting me.
“Divorce isn’t easy. Not even after knowing it’s the right move and time. It’s still emotionally taxing. And I didn’t have two young kids when I made the decision.”
I gasp, making Joel’s eyes go wide.
“I never had to work out custody and all of that with Rick. What if Jake drags this out and …”
Joel squeezes my thigh. “Breathe,” he encourages. “We’ll take this one step at a time. Your daughter and your grandkids are here now. Let’s just get through Christmas and then take it from there.”
