Mr. Mitchell Billionaires' Club Book 2 - Raylin Marks Page 0,50
“I think it’s a beautiful picture of palm trees and the ocean.”
“No, silly,” she scoffed. “It’s your castle that you played in.”
My stomach tightened. I thought I could come home with memories and move the hell on from what I shared on my vacation with Jim. In fact, I did pretty fucking awesome, and that’s why my daughter knew Mommy got to play in a castle in England. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Addy held onto that. We’d built enough sandcastles on our beach days for her to be excited that I stayed in a real one. Why did I have to remain emotionally attached to it all, though?
“I think it looks more like the sandcastles we make at the beach,” I said with a smile.
“Can we go to the beach?”
“You get to go to Papa and Grandma’s this weekend.”
“Ugh,” she said in annoyance. “I wanna go to the beach.”
“You’ll mind your manners, young lady,” I said.
Addy pointedly ignored me after that. The one thing she hated hearing out of my mouth were those words.
“I missed you today, Addy,” I said, bringing her over to the beat-up Volkswagen Rabbit I owned. Poor car was barely hanging onto dear life.
“I missed you, Momma.”
I buckled her into her car seat, and we went for our usual Friday treat before I dropped her off across town at Derek’s parents’ house. Derek hadn’t been on a bender for at least two months, and thank God for that. I didn’t need his bullshit. We pulled into a drive-through and got soft-serve ice cream cones to last the fifteen-minute drive across town.
When I pulled down the street to where Larry and Annette lived, I saw a brand new—lifted—full-sized truck. Fucking Asshole! I thought, knowing this dick still lived with his parents, didn’t pay child support, and this was probably an underhanded move to try and beat me out for custody if we finally did make it past threats and into court.
“That’s Daddy’s new truck,” Addy said.
“I gathered that,” I answered, but immediately feigned excitement. I wasn’t pulling Addy into my drama. “I bet it’s a lot of fun to ride in.”
“Daddy says it’s sixty billion dollars for it.”
“Sixty billion, eh?” I said, getting out and pulling Addy out of her seat. “Wow, I didn’t know Daddy had that kind of money.”
Addy laughed. “Daddy says he bought it for me. It’s big and fun.”
“Hey, Avery,” Larry said. “There’s my baby girl.” He squatted down and held his hands out to Addy.
“I’m a big girl, Papa,” she exclaimed.
“Everything cool?” I asked, wanting to get the fuck out of here.
Then, out came my ex. He looked like death warmed over. His face was swollen, his once muscular body was overweight and bloated, and his formerly tanned skin looked pasty, almost ashen.
“Hey, Dad. Bring Addy in the house,” he said, kissing our daughter on the head. “We’ll go get ice cream later.”
Addy didn’t question her dad blowing her off. She happily went with her grandpa because the truth was that she hardly ever even saw this asshole. If he was at home, he slept all fucking day. How his parents hadn’t kicked his ass out of their house yet, I’ll never know. Addy only knew him as daddy, and I could see by her lack of wanting to hang back and reunite with him since my sister dropped her off for his birthday last Friday, she didn’t give a shit. She’d rather be with her papa. He was more of a dad to her anyway. He was also the only reason I played along with this custody arrangement.
“Like the truck?” Derek asked.
“It’s a truck. If it keeps Addy safe, then yes. It’s also a nice way to bury yourself in debt while living with your parents.”
“Do you always have to be a bitch to me?”
“What do you want? Your daughter is here for exactly forty-eight hours, and the clock is ticking on that.”
“Who’d you fuck in London?” he asked.
“What the fuck did you just ask me?”
“You know what I asked. Britney said you were off with some man-whore in London. Who the hell was it?”
“You lost the right to ask those questions after we broke up two years ago. I’m leaving. You bring shit like this up to Addy, and it’ll be the last time I play nice, dropping her off.”
“So you did fuck some stranger then. You’re such a fucking slut, Avery.”
“I’m not listening to this.”
“That’s always the easiest way out for you, isn’t it? Well, I hope