Royally Broken by Elle Boon Page 0,17
anyone’s punching bag any longer, taking self-defense classes in the town over, she’d found friends who helped her learn to love herself. Until one-night, Thomas came home unannounced. The only good thing that came from that was her baby, that precious child who she’d do anything to protect.
She exhaled the breath she’d been holding, hating the times her mind drifted to the past. Walking over to Jaxson, she lifted the blanket back over his shoulders. “You’re the most precious thing in my world.”
“As he should be, princess.”
Palmer tried to control her reaction to her grandfather’s voice. She couldn’t even call him PopPop anymore. The sweet older man who’d been her protector was a monster. He’d sent her to the devil, knowing what awaited her as a bargaining tool.
“Hello, grandfather,” she said in a cool tone.
He sighed. “I wish you’d call me PopPop. We were sorry to hear of Thomas’s death. Such a tragedy.”
She turned away from his steely gaze. The will was being read today by the family lawyer. Palmer had a feeling her asshole of a husband hadn’t left anything to her. However, she had an ace up her sleeve none of them were aware of. In the library, with the lawyers present, if she had to, she’d produce the evidence she needed in order to secure her son’s future. For herself, she didn’t need the bastard’s money or her grandfather’s. She had her inheritance from her parents, which she’d been smart and kept separate from Thomas. Something even her grandfather didn’t know about. Yes, those old passages were truly good for a few things, overhearing the old man and his lawyer talking was one of them.
“A lot has happened since I left here, grandfather. Where is MeMaw?” she asked. The matriarch was still the same gentle older woman who’d tried to protect her as always. She’d just been brought up in a time when the men were the ones in charge. As far as she could tell, her MeMaw was happy.
“She’s playing Bridge with her friends. Now, are you ready for the reading of Thomas’s will? We can postpone it if you need me to?” Palmer Coker aka her PopPop asked.
Growing up she’d loved having been named after her grandfather and hadn’t thought anything of them changing her last name to theirs when she’d been a baby. It had seemed normal. Now, she stared at the man who’d been her mentor, her father figure; the man she’d set the bar for all men to be and wanted to slap him.
He looked at Jaxson who was stirring. “Do you need me to call a nanny for him?”
Over her dead fucking body. “No, we’re doing fine.” She saw his narrowed eyes. “Thank you for asking though.” She moved in front of her child, blocking the older man’s view. “What time are the lawyers coming?”
Her grandfather’s chest expanded, then he nodded, seeming to come to a decision. He rattled off a time.
“I’ll see you down there. I need to feed him.”
“Are you still nursing him?” He sounded shocked.
“He’s only eleven months, grandfather.” She wasn’t going to tell him most babies were breastfed until they were a year, some much longer.
“Well, you know men don’t like women who have a child attached to them, young lady,” he admonished her.
Shock held her immobile and mute as he walked out the door. How dare he say that to her, especially when it had been him who’d set her up with the bastard she’d married. He who told her in no uncertain terms she was to stick it out. A Coker did not back down from their duties or their vows, he’d said the day she’d returned from her honeymoon, bruised from head to toe, broken on the inside. On that day, she’d stopped calling him PopPop as he took her home, to the home she and the bastard she’d married had bought and he’d told her to do her duty.
“Hey, little man, you hungry?” Her precious child blinked up at her, his cornflower blue eyes were like looking in a mirror. Everything about him reminded her of herself. In that regard, she was glad. Thomas Kincaid had taken one look at the ‘Toe haired’ boy and scoffed, declaring him to be a waste and left the hospital. She’d been glad he hadn’t wanted to be part of her labor or birth plan. When she’d gone into labor, he’d been gone, showing up the next day. Her MeMaw had just made a tsking noise before