Susan squeezed Kaylin. “She did amazingly well. I think before long, she will be able to read.”
“Can you come here to teach her?” Jace asked.
“Yes. She’ll feel more comfortable here, won’t you?” Susan asked her.
“I think so. I don’t like to be away from the guys.”
“How about I call when I get back to the office, and we’ll set up some times?”
Mack stood and shook her hand. “Thank you for coming and helping our girl.”
“It was my pleasure,” Susan said. She turned and waved as she left the room.
Jace pulled Kaylin onto his lap and hugged her tightly against his chest. “What do you think, baby?”
Kaylin couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “I can’t believe it. I never thought I’d ever be able to learn.”
“I’m so glad it’s going to work,” Mack said. “You deserve everything in the world.”
“How about we go to a restaurant and celebrate?” Mack said.
“Really?”
“Yeah. You can pick.” Jace put up his hand. “But please, no Chucky Cheese.”
Kaylin giggled. “How about that pizza place we like?”
“That sounds wonderful,” Jace said and kissed the side of her head. “Let’s go.”
Kaylin couldn’t think of a time in her life that she’d been so happy. She was with two men that cared for her, and she’d be able to learn. It was a dream she thought would never be fulfilled.
Chapter Thirteen
Kaylin rushed down the hall and into the office. Her Daddy Mack told her she needed to be prompt or get a spanking. It wasn’t her fault she had to stop and read all the signs. God, just saying that was enough to feel happiness burst from her chest. She was learning fast, and it helped that she practiced as much as she could. It opened a whole new world to her.
She walked past Jace’s office. The door was cracked open, and she was going to wave at him on the way to her other Daddy’s office until she heard Mack. Her fingers were on the door when she heard her name.
“Kaylin has really come along,” Mack said.
“Yes. She’s getting to the point where she believes in herself. Now we need to decide what we’ll do with her.”
Her brows snapped together.Do with her?
Any happiness she felt a moment ago turned into dark despair. She had thought they liked her. How could they have sex with her and plan on letting her go? Maybe it was because she was handy, and they thought she owed them or something. God, so many thoughts were racing through her brain, but the emotions were taking over her body, and that was all she could think about.
Kaylin turned and ran back out the door and down the hallway. She needed some time to herself to figure out what to do and get her emotions under control. She could be overreacting, but it was always in the back of her mind that it was too good to be true. Her life was beyond her expectations, and people like her, who came from drunks and trash, didn’t have comfortable lives.
The building had a few empty offices, and she found one that was unlocked and rushed in. She locked the door behind her before she slid to the floor with her back against the door. She wrapped her arms around her knees and pressed her forehead to them. Her only thought was to try to calm down enough so she could think, but her feeling of betrayal and anger made it impossible.
She knew she had to leave, she just didn’t know where. The tears she tried to hold back tore out of her. They went on forever, but she couldn’t seem to stop them. How could a person go from massively happy to devastated within a minute?
When she lifted her head, the dim light coming into the window told her a lot of time had passed. She hadn’t realized she’d been there so long because she had cried herself to sleep. She moved to stand and groaned as the muscles in her legs stretched, and she had trouble getting to her feet because she’d sat so long on the hard floor. She stumbled over to the desk chair and sat.
What were her options at the moment? She thought of her friends, but she didn’t know the girls’ numbers or their last names. Her da—the guys—had always set up her playdates.
She decided that she never needed to return to the house because nothing was truly hers. The men had bought everything. The clothing she had on would not be warm enough out on the streets, but she’d survived before and could again.
The one thing she hadn’t had before was the ability to read and write. She wasn’t great at it, but she practiced as much as possible.