Chapter Seventy Five

The phone hardly got through the second ring when the line went through.

"Before you go into some kind of a rant, I need you to take a deep breath, Ali."

There was a pause. Then I heard him take the breath. Then he released it. I could almost see the tension leaving his body just a little bit.

"Better?"

"A little," he told me. "How are you, little sky? You have no idea how much I wanted to come straight to where you are when I heard about what happened."

"Oh? What kept you away?" I asked teasingly, purposefully adding a lilt to my voice. Not that I would have ever expected to wake up to see Ali, but the thought of him being the first face I saw after the situation I'd just faced calmed my anxiousness a lot.

"Jules threatened to cut an entire year's wage if I took off."

"A whole year? That sounds a bit much, even for Aunty Jules."

"Well... she started with a week and continued to keep adding until I stopped walking towards the vans."

I whistled. "Gosh, it took them a lot to keep you aw