Bittersweet (Redemption #3) - Jessica Prince Page 0,41
left,” he continued, still not making a damn bit of sense. “You never finished your degree, your car should’ve been traded in years ago, and your house is a fucking disaster!”
“My house is perfectly fine!” I shouted defensively while wrenching my arm away so hard he had no choice but to let go to prevent me from hurting myself. “I’m doing the best I can. Who the hell are you to judge me when you’re the one who walked out!”
Jensen squeezed his eyes closed and placed his hands on his hips, pulling in a huge breath while dropping his head like he was working hard to calm down. When he finally looked back at me, the storm that had formed in his gaze had banked, and his words came out much softer.
“I’m not judging. I just need to know where it went, sunshine. That was a lot of money, and as far as I can tell, you don’t have much of anything to show for it.”
“What money?” I asked, throwing my arms wide.
“I pulled five hundred grand from my trust before I enlisted. I set it up in an account for you and Brantley, and I’ve been making deposits into it every month for the past five years.”
I suddenly felt like the wind had been knocked right out of me. Stumbling back, I tripped over my own feet and slammed into the desk, bracing my hands against it to keep from falling. “I—you—No. No, you didn’t. That’s not—I haven’t . . .” My brain glitched, turning into that spinning rainbow pinwheel of death that popped up on my laptop last summer right before it kicked the bucket, never to be fixed.
“Shane?” Jensen’s voice sounded like it was coming from deep inside a tunnel, like the teacher in all those Charlie Brown cartoons. Wha wom wom wha wom.
“I didn’t . . . I never got any money.”
His eyes bulged before narrowing into slits, the gray in them turning nearly black. “That doesn’t make sense. I had my father set it up through his attorney and everything. I still have access to the account. I can log on at any time to check the balance, that’s how I know it’s all gone.”
“Jensen, I never got any money,” I insisted, stressing each and every word that came out of my mouth. “Not a single dime.”
“That motherfucker,” he snarled, his face twisting up, taking on a look I’d seen more times that I’d cared to. It was the look he got right before he exploded, right before he beat the holy hell out of someone. “He fucking lied to me. We had a goddamn deal. I’d give up the only thing that mattered as long as he held up his part of the bargain.”
Oh my God.
I knew what he was saying was monumental. I didn’t understand it, but I could still feel the heaviness of his words. But I was too busy trying to control the swirling in my head to focus on them. It was a puzzle I couldn’t piece together because right then, everything was getting really freaking hazy.
He’d pulled from his trust fund. He’d taken some of the money he’d sworn to himself he’d never touch because it was tied to his family. Blood money, he’d called it on several occasions. He’d told me it could sit there and rot for all he cared because that money was tainted. But he’d pulled it out. For me. And I’d never known. How the hell did I not know?
My hand shook as I lifted it up and pressed it against my forehead, my arm so heavy it felt like it had been dipped into cement. It was too much. Everything was too damn much. The exhaustion, being on my feet for hours, dealing with Rina’s shit, and now this. A domino had been knocked over, toppling the rest of them with it.
“I-I don’t feel so good.”
Chapter Twelve
Jensen
Shane pushed off the desk and attempted to take a step, only to wobble from side to side like a baby trying to take its first steps.
“Whoa, shit.” Reaching out, I grabbed her before she could fall and pulled her against me. “You okay, honey?”
Her trembling hand came up to brush some hair off her face and I saw up close she’d gone really pale. “Got really lightheaded there for a second. I think . . . I think I’m okay now.”
Like hell she was. “Come on. I’m taking you home. You look like you’re seconds away