Page 43 of Summer Ride

That and her smile.

He was proud of her for being the woman she was today, despite what she’d gone through.

Chapter Thirteen

Kara wanted to think that she had the will to not reread her mother’s letter. But after the dream a few nights before, she pulled out the envelope from the drawer while Carter was outside feeding the goats that he was nursing back to health.

She sat at the counter and reread the letter three times. Each time, her mother’s words sank a little deeper into her mind, and her memories.

One thing had become clear since her brother’s visit. The memories of her mother were muddied, mixed in with the more overbearing memories of her father and brother.

At this point, she could barely even remember her mother’s face, let alone that of her younger sister, Ruth Ann. Hell, if her sister walked up to her on the street, she doubted she would even recognize her.

But Daniel and her father, she would know them from across a crowded room.

After reading the letter for the third time, she pulled out the cashier’s check and gasped at the amount. Had her mother really inherited this much money? Had there been more over the years that her father had squandered? Her mother hinted that she hadn’t been able to do anything she wanted with it. Had her father really controlled her mother that much?

From what she remembered, her mother had never worked or paid a single bill a day in her life. It hadn’t been allowed. Not in her father’s household. Women were for making babies, cooking, and being a quiet, silent partner who raised the children and kept a godly home.

“What’s that?” Carter asked when he came back inside.

She showed him. “Almost three hundred thousand dollars.”

He stopped and frowned at it. Then he turned his eyes to hers. “What are you going to do with it?”

“Nothing. I don’t want it.” She set the cashier’s check down.

“You can donate it to charity. You know, make it count and help out others in need.” He walked over and grabbed a beer.

“To what charities?” she asked, glancing out the window.

Carter shrugged. “Any one you want. Or a bunch of different charities.” He took a sip of his beer. “It might really piss off your father, knowing his wife’s family money went to help other ungodly people,” he added with a smile.

That thought had her smiling. But for now she decided to put it away. She didn’t have to make a decision just yet.

They only had two more days before they could head out on their mini vacation. She was seriously looking forward to spending a few days soaking up the sun and putting all of this behind them.

So far, since the night of the break-in to her apartment, nothing else had happened. There had been no more notes left anywhere. Thankfully.

Maybe, just maybe, Axel had gotten spooked away? She could only hope.

But even if so, that wouldn’t stop him from returning later. He’d found her. There was no time in her life, her future, that he couldn’t just return to torture her.

“Hey, how about we go out for dinner? Maybe head to the beach?” Carter suggested.

She shrugged, not really in the mood to deal with anyone else.

“How about we order pizza, then snuggle on the sofa until I fall asleep?” she suggested instead.

“I’ll call it in.” He pulled out his phone as she tucked the check and letter back into the envelope.

What she wanted to do was rip them both up, but Carter was right. The money could go to helping others.

She wondered if Daniel had known that he’d been carrying around that much money. Or if her father knew that her mother had given her the money that he had control of their entire marriage.

She couldn’t really remember anything about her parents’ lives. She couldn’t remember what her father did for a living. She didn’t know what her brother did for a living now either. Had he graduated from high school?

When she’d been in juvie, she’d taken her GED and had passed on her first try. Actually, she’d been told she’d gotten the highest score ever from one of the juvie attendees, and all of that after only roughly going through eight years of school.