Addicted to Mr Parks (The Parks Series #2)(114)

“She manipulated one of the new doctors. Told him she was better and ready for release. I don’t understand why they didn’t ask your permission or at least check in with you.” That was the voice of Jasmine, equally as angry as Parks. “She’s a conniving little bitch.”

“Stop.” Harriet was crying. “We need to find out where she is and get her back inside. Who knows what harm she’d do to herself?”

Who on earth were they talking about?

“Herself?” Jasmine scoffed. “Mom, you need to worry about yourself and Abigail. That girl is unhinged.”

Abigail? Maybe they were talking about her biological mother?

“She’s not well, Jasmine. Don’t talk about her that way. The sooner we find her, the better.”

Harriet was still crying, and it seemed into the arms of Parks. “Wade, please tell me you’ll find her.”

“I promise,” he said.

Okay, I wished I’d never heard that conversation, because now my mind was running like wild wildebeests in a stampede. How could I ask Parks about it when I wasn’t even meant to be listening? Then I thought, well actually, this has nothing to do with me. Butt out.

I made my way back upstairs and suddenly heard my smartphone ringing. I closed my eyes exhaustedly when I saw it was my dad.

“Dad.” My tone was clipped.

“Evey, hey, kid. How are you?”

“Good. I’m in America right now, Dad.”

“America? Christ, kid. What ya doing over there?”

“I’m with my boyfriend.”

“Oh.” He gulped. “My little girl has all grown up.”

“Dad, I grew up twenty years ago.”

He sighed. Then there was a pause. “I just wanted to ask—and you can say no if you want to…”

“How much?” I rolled my eyes to the ceiling as I flopped back down onto the bed.


There was another nervous gulp. “It’s not a few quid, kid.”

“Dad, how much?”

“A grand.”

“What?” I shrieked. “I don’t have that sort of money.”

“The thing is, we’ve got a dealer on our case and—”

“Another one? How many times do I have to bail you out, Dad?” My parents made me so angry. They would never learn. Maybe I should have stopped bailing them out. Let them have a kicking for not paying up. But how the hell could I live with myself if I let that happen? I couldn’t.

“It’s your Ma, Evey. You know what she’s like.”

“Yes, I do. She’s a waste of space who doesn’t deserve a man like you, Dad. Fuck.” I cursed because tears began to stroll down my face. Out of anger, frustration, and built-up emotion. The overwhelming feeling of exhaustion that I felt towards my father for constantly putting up with my mother was killing me. It was actually killing me.

“Dad, you could be such a good man without Mum. You could live a happy life without stress. Without drugs. Please, let me help you.”

“I don’t want to be lonely, Evey.”

“You won’t be alone. You’ll have me.” The silence that fell across the phone was my undoing. It gave me his answer. “I was never enough for you, was I?” I choked back tears and swallowed down a lump. “I was never enough for you or Mum. Never enough to keep you both happy. I came second best to drink and drugs. How could I ever compete?” As wounded tears slipped from their cage, Parks entered the room. He caught me crying and was immediately by my side, pulling me into his lap and waiting anxiously for me to hang up.

“Dad, I have to go.”

“Evey, wait. Please don’t cry. It kills me to hear you cry.”

“And it kills me to know my parents never loved me the way they should have. Never put my needs first. Never hugged me when I needed you. You were never there for me, but I’m always there for you. Whenever you need something from me, I give it to you because I want to make you happy. Why do I bother?”

“Evey, don’t say that.”

“Bye, Dad.” I hung up and curled into the warm and inviting lap of my beloved man.

“Why has he upset you, Princess?” He smoothed out my fallen tresses that had stuck to my cheeks from tears.

“He needs money, as usual, and it hurts because I only ever hear from them when they need something from me. Why can’t they just want me?”

Parks stiffened, his hands stilling at my cheeks. Evidently, he despised the way my parents treated me. He hated that he couldn’t put it right and change the past. Because if he could, he would. Parks was the only person that would walk on fire for someone like me. How could I not love him?

“How much money do they need?”

I pushed off his chest with my shoulder. “You’re not bailing them out. I’ll get it, somehow.”

“I won’t have you worrying about trying to raise the funds.”

Wiping those damned tears from my eyes, I tried to put on that brave face that had built itself into me like a moulded mask. “Promise me you won’t bail them out.”

He looked down into his lap. “Hmm.”

I pushed him in his shoulder. “I mean it. They realise you’re a frigging billionaire, they will latch on to you like a leach.”