Johannes looked at Laura, and each time one of them called the kids bastards, she got angrier. That was good. His wife was a fighter.She wasn’t going to be taken out easily.He hoped Phillip had underestimated her.“Do you think it was hard? Lucas didn’t even know I existed. He already had his main son. The heir. His pride and joy. I was … nothing to him. He didn’t even see me when I stood in a room with him. It wasn’t hard to figure out I could learn everything I needed to by just being in the right place and right time. The men would come with their whores, and they would ask him to fix it. So he did. If she didn’t have an abortion, or was too far gone to, Lucas made sure the baby was taken, and I found out where. Sometimes the kids were put in foster homes, but like the case of little Stuart, he was hurt, left, and abandoned. It was a coincidence that day that you found him, you know, but I have a feeling that is what led to the Augustus Horowitz alliance.”Phillip glared at Johan

She was lucky, though.They had all banded together to make this work. She’d overheard the kids talking one night that if they didn’t help her out or make this work, there was a chance they’d all be taken away. She wasn’t sure if that was accurate, but according to her father when she asked him, there was always a chance that if it didn’t look like things were working out, social workers, the police, and just about anyone else, could step in and take them away from her.Laura couldn’t allow that. She loved these kids. They were hers, and she was going to give them the best damn chance she could.With the kids in school, she often drove home and did a mad dash around the house, cleaning and putting everything neatly. She’d spend a short time studying as she’d taken up her classes again, and with her dad’s help, she’d arranged for all her work to be done from home. The lectures were already recorded, so it wasn’t so hard to watch them. If she didn’t get a chance during the day, when the

Johannes already had a big ego, although she wasn’t really seeing it of late.They had been living with each other for a week. She’d expected him to be gone within three days. Johannes took over from the guard and Billy, driving the kids to the three different schools.He was always awake at five thirty, and they had been ready for breakfast on time. Each morning, he rounded up the kids, helping with buttons, hair, and collecting all their homework. After a braid disaster, he did stop helping the girls with their hair. Laura had to unknot their hair. Laura couldn’t even understand how he’d been able to make it so bad, but this was Johannes, and well, he clearly knew what he was not good at. The dishes were always done before they left for the school trip. Each morning, he fist-bumped the boys, telling them to have an amazing day. The girls kissed his cheek, and he told them the same, but added to kick all guys in the balls.Laura tried to talk to him about that, but he wouldn’t have a

WinonaMonths went by, and Daddy got worse.I wrote HJ every week, not sure if he was reading my letters and not really caring at all. The outlet was there, and I needed it.HJ,We celebrated my seventeenth birthday at Dad’s bedside. He sang softly to me before I sang him a lullaby and tucked him in that night.He winces in pain a lot more these days, and I’m not sure how to get better care for him.I’ll find a way, WinonaPS Cleopatra supposedly was not beautiful but smart enough to marry some of her political allies. PPS I’m also reading Edgar Allan Poe. He seems to know darkness and pain better than anyone else. I need a friend like that.A daughter’s love made me do what I had to do. I tracked down a suited man’s son in school.Jared let me into his home. He let me into his bed, too.Weeks of my father in pain went by, and I begged Jared’s father for money. The man’s slimy gaze trailed my body over and over again. I started to learn the looks, the sly brushes of his hand, and the

But my heart jolted back as my mind registered her words.“Sasha,” I whispered. The name matched my unborn baby’s mother, my ex-fiancée. The rhythm of my heart sped up, my stomach suddenly jumped into my throat.It had to be a coincidence.But there weren’t coincidences in the mob.Dallas set a hand on my shoulder. “Not your Sasha, son. She’s an untouchable. Who is this Sasha?” he asked.Jimmy eyeballed us both. “Look . . .” He sighed and then ran a hand through his hair that was wet with his sweat.The walls around me shifted at the fear in his voice. No one’s voice shook like that unless they knew they were about to reveal something unredeemable.“This morning, I went there when you were working, HJ.” He groaned at his own story, as if he was disappointed in his actions. “I shouldn’t have been seeing her. You know how she was though? How she looked at you with those big doe eyes, huh?” Was.I attempted to rise from my chair, but Dallas held me down, a hand on my shoulder. “You’re ly