Catching Sam: Book 2 of 5: The MacDonald Brothers by Emily Matthews (best mystery novels of all time TXT) 📗

way out. He had a hard time holding a job and relied on her for most of their income. When she landed the job with Samatrix, she set up a side account that Wayne had no knowledge of and began buying company stock with every penny she saved. She knew it was risky to put all her eggs in one basket, but Samatrix seemed like a good bet. When the stock price exploded with Samatrix’s first product launch, she became one of the many instant millionaires created by the company’s success.

Wayne had insisted on a prenuptial agreement, probably assuming he was going to make it big in life and never imagining he would depend on her for money. At the time, it had hurt her feelings but was now her saving grace. She couldn’t imagine how pissed he would be if he knew about the millions she’d made over the years. According to the attorney, because of the prenup, she wouldn’t even have to disclose any financial matters during the divorce.

She wasn’t sure what made her start putting money away so early in their marriage, but she was glad she’d trusted her instincts. She thought she’d loved Wayne but looking back, realized she had settled, thinking no one else would want her. Sensing her eagerness to please and her lack of self-confidence, Wayne had taken advantage of her. So had all of her coworkers. So had her parents and most of her family. She was a doormat for pretty much everyone she knew.

It was a Brody Robinson YouTube video that changed her life. After searching “How to get over the loss of your child,” it had popped up as the top option. The ten-minute clip of him talking about how to take control of your life lit a spark that quickly became a bonfire.

The life-changing YouTube search occurred on the one-year anniversary of the death of her precious baby girl, Avery. After only a year with her angel, Annie’s world had been ripped out from under her. Drowning in a sea of anguish and depression, she was desperate for help, and the Internet was an easy, private place to get it.

She would never forget Wayne’s haunting screams from the nursery that morning. They’d called 911, but her baby had been gone for too long. When the paramedics arrived, she was sitting in this same rocking chair, tears streaming down her face, clinging to the tiny, cold body, refusing to let go. When they finally coaxed the baby from her, she fell to her knees sobbing, inconsolable.

They’d chalked it up to SIDS, but Annie never felt comfortable with that explanation. Avery seemed too old for that. She mentioned asking for an autopsy, but Wayne was adamantly opposed, and Annie didn’t have the will to fight.

The grief had overwhelmed her. Talking to other parents who’d lost children helped, but she couldn’t talk to Wayne. He was distraught for a time but, in Annie’s mind, seemed to recover quite quickly. After two months, he told her to get over it and that it was time for her to go back to work.

That had been the final straw. From that day forward, Annie started her plan to leave him. She thought she would have to do it in secret, but Wayne’s poor decisions made it much easier.

While she mourned the life Wayne took in the bar fight, she also saw his prison sentence as a blessing from heaven. He’d been locked up, and she’d been set free. It gave her three solid years to make her plan and disappear without his interference.

She boxed up his stuff and used the money from her pawned wedding ring to pre-pay for a storage unit. Her attorney mailed him the details, and she never looked back.

That first Brody Robinson video had been the start of a total transformation. She watched videos, read books, listened to CDs, and went to seminars. She initially wanted help to get through the grief of losing her baby, but after being baptized into the world of self-help and doing everything she’d been taught, she took control of every aspect of her life.

Dan, her sadistic life coach, forced her to implement the qualities she’d been reading about and longing for. What had once been so hard was now second nature. Now, her problem wasn’t asserting herself. It was trying to get her to shut up.

Deep down, she still had insecurities of being inadequate, and Sam especially seemed to bring them out. She didn’t feel worthy of his time or attention. He was used to so much better than her. How could she compete? Should she even try? Or would she just end up with a broken heart?

She had a fantastic job, an incredible house, and now, potentially, an amazing guy? Who was she to deserve all this awesomeness?

She wrapped her hand around her left wrist and held tight. It was a habit she’d picked up after getting the tattoo that her watch normally covered. Having Avery’s name permanently etched onto the inside of her wrist had been part of her grieving process. Covering it with a watch Pops had given her brought the two people she loved the most together, and in her mind, squeezing the watch and the tattoo together gave her strength.

Digging deep, she gave herself a mental slap in the face and a pep talk. She stood and let the blanket fall.

“You’ve worked hard to get where you are,” she said out loud. “You deserve to be happy. If Wayne shows up, you’ll tell him to go. If Sam breaks your heart, you can mend it and move on.” She stood straight and cited her oft-repeated mantra: “You are a lean, mean, self-confident machine.”

She bent to pick up the blanket. “Although, Sam may have ruined you for anyone else in the sex department though, eh? I mean, wow, am I right?” She chuckled to herself. “Even if you do talk to yourself and may be a bit crazy, you got this!”

Decision