Broken Read Online Free Page B

he needed time alone, so she left it at that. But, she had a definite plan to make a visit to the school the next morning.
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    “ H ello ?” Bella said as she quickly answered her phone just after eleven at night. Ethan was fast asleep, and she didn’t want her loud Black Eyed Peas ringtone to wake him up.
    “Desiree? It’s Nathan. We need to have a chat.”
    She felt acid literally rising up her throat at the sound of his voice. Nathan had always grossed her out with his yellow teeth and paunchy belly. He was exactly the guy most people would imagine sitting on the other side of his computer screen watching X-rated movies.
    “What?” she said trying to sound disinterested.
    “Sonya tells me you had your stuff shipped to some redneck Georgia town?”
    “That’s really none of your business.”
    “Well, you see, it is my business. You signed a contract, Desiree. You owe me three more months, and I plan to collect. You know you have fans, and they are expecting to see a lot more of you. You need to get your ass back here pronto because you’ve cost me money holding up production.” His tone was angry and pointed, and Bella didn’t appreciate it at all. She and Nathan had never been friendly. He was only interested in what was between her legs and how much money it could make him.
    Bella sat there silent for a moment trying to figure out what to say next. On one hand, she didn’t want him to know anything about her personal life. On the other hand, she knew that he would never give up hounding her until she told him why she left like she did. She figured that he might have a heart if she was honest with him. Anything was possible, right?
    “Look, Nathan, I’m going to be honest with you. My sister was killed in a head-on collision with a garbage truck. She was my only family except for her little boy. I now have to become his mother, and I am not coming back to California.”
    “I’m sorry for your loss, but that doesn’t change the fact that we have a contract we have to settle,” he said. She could hear him rummaging around doing something else, and it irritated the crap out of her. Why did she open up to him in the first place?
    “Nathan, I have to go now.”
    “You’d better come up with a babysitter for the kid so you can come back and finish shooting this movie. I will give you another week to figure it out, Desiree,” he said before he slammed the phone down.
    Bella sat there staring at her cell phone for several minutes. What was she going to do now? She knew that Nathan would never just let it go. When he was a man on a mission, he was unstoppable. The last thing she wanted was for him to show up in her small town and create havoc for her and Ethan. She also knew that there was no way on Earth she could just leave Ethan so soon after his mother died.
    Heartsick and nauseous from her phone call with Nathan, she slid down under the covers of her sister’s bed and attempted to fall asleep. At one in the morning, it became apparent that she wasn’t going to fall asleep, so she flipped on the light and started reading. It was going to be a long night.

Chapter 5
    “ S o , that’s a decaf, no foam, Irish Creme latte with chocolate sprinkles?” Bella asked the teenager at her cash register.
    “Yeah,” the teen said while staring at her cell phone and texting.
    Bella was finally getting into the swing of her new job. She and Roslyn had really bonded, and Bella considered asking her to keep Ethan for a week so she could finish up the movie. She knew she’d have to make up some elaborate story, but getting Nathan off her back was job one. As much as she hated the thought of taking her clothes off and having sex with multiple people on camera, she could at least get that last jolt of money and be done with her seedy life in California.
    “Bella, is that your phone ringing?” Roslyn called from the other end of the work area.
    “Oh, yeah, sorry. Let me grab that,” she said running over to her