Irreplaceable (Underneath it All Series: Book Three) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Read Online Free Page A

gathering herself. “I’ve been hurt. I’ve been screwed over...and so have you. It doesn’t help me, you, or us if I keep holding you at a distance or stepping into the ring with you to find out whose scars run deeper. We all have scars. I don’t want to compete for the trophy of who had the worst childhood. I want to be there for you...and let you be there for me.”
    More sniffling erupted beside me, but Rose didn’t say a word.
    The next move was all on me.
    Rationality told me to take a minute. Weight out the pros and cons.
    My heart whispered, “Fuck it.”
    “I’m here, Red. I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
    Driving be damned, when her fingertips stroked my neck, I closed my eyes and let the ripple of warmth race over me.
    That word was back with a vengeance.
    Love.
    It was more than just a word.
    Love was Sadie McLeod.
    Love was letting Rose turn the volume back up on full blast after she murmured, “Mom’s gonna be okay. We’re all gonna be okay.”

Chapter Ten: Sadie
    “Y ou look just like your mother.”
    Most people who shared that assessment said it with nostalgia, like they were transported back in time just by looking at me. One glance and they were back at Falcon High, cruising down the halls, worshipping at the throne of my mother. Of all the cool kids: the jocks, the cheerleaders, the badasses who skipped class to smoke cigarettes in the bathroom, my mother was the coolest. Beautiful, athletic, decent grades; everyone just knew she was destined for greatness.
    After I confirmed that I was Colleen McLeod’s daughter, their next question was, How is she? Their eyes were bright with hope. Riveted. They waited for me to regale them with stories about how my mother was kicking ass and taking names in the business world. Or a retired supermodel who had taken her contacts and started an agency of her own. Or how she was lighting up Broadway with that bright smile that was immortalized in the trophy case by the entrance of the high school.
    Growing up, I’d lied to teachers, creating stories as fantastical as the ones I escaped into. My mother was in Africa, working with Doctors Without Borders. She couldn’t make Parents’ Night because she was penning the next Great American Novel in the Australian outback. I’d tell classmate’s Dads who had hearts in their eyes that I’d pass along their hellos when my mother got back from her top secret mission from the President of the United States. Eventually, they stopped asking and when they did, I stopped caring that the truth was nothing quite so extraordinary. She didn’t come around because she was too busy polishing off her daily box of wine and living vicariously through soap operas and the rich and famous on E!
    The charge nurse, Donna, had no teenage sigh attached to her declaration. The nostalgia that flickered in her eyes wasn’t awe. Her memories weren’t happy ones, and it was clear that being faced with my mother, and a daughter that reminded her of Colleen McLeod, was far from a good thing.
    Under different circumstances, like not being in the emergency room, I might have shared that I was no fan of my mother, either. Today was an exception.
    Instead of blushing and trying to disengaging, making it clear that I wasn’t my mother’s daughter, I cleared my throat. I felt Rose and Jackson’s eyes on me, burning through the glass window that separated the waiting room from the hallway.
    I straightened my spine and glared right back at Donna. “Thank you.” I didn’t have time or interest in using my imagination to figure out their connection. Like my mother, the woman in front of me was surely a ghost of her old self. Her scrubs were the color of gangrene and it made her pale skin glow as brightly as white blonde hair. The curl of her lips told me that she went to school with my mother, which meant she couldn’t be older than mid 40’s, but lines and wrinkles made her look a decade older. Age was just a number, and not a