Epic by Ginger Voight Read Free Book Online

her already ample frame filled out with his child. Maya, too, looked happier than all her other photos. If nothing else, I had been conceived and carried in love. That had to count for something, right?
    I felt Jace’s hand on my back as he offered his silent support. I spared him a small smile before turning back to Maya so she could continue her story.
    She stopped momentarily for another sip of coffee, before hacking coughs seized her, nearly doubling her over. “Are you OK?” I asked.
    She nodded as she reached for the nearby oxygen tank. She breathed in deep before she turned back to us. “You don’t smoke, do you?” she asked and we both shook our heads. “Don’t. It gets its claws into you and won’t let up until it kills you.”
    She punctuated the sentiment by sucking deep from an inhaler, before affixing nose tubes for the tank around her neck and into her nostrils. “Where was I?”
    I swallowed hard. “When you gave me to Daddy and Marianne.”
    She nodded with a haunted expression. It was clear the pain lingered. “The first few months were the hardest,” she confided. “And of course I was all alone because Joey was spending time with his new family. I started smoking again… and drinking again. Joey thought that if he could sneak you over to see me, it would give me incentive to take care of myself. It worked for a while, but Marianne quickly put a stop to it. After she forbade him from seeing me, there was nothing left in Iowa for me. I bid him farewell before my heartache killed me.”
    “How did you end up in Nevada?” I asked.
    She offered a wry smile. “How does anyone end up anywhere?” she pondered. “I ended up going east originally, and wound up on a gambling boat on the Mississippi River. That’s where I learned to deal blackjack. Everyone told me that I should head to Vegas to make better money. Since going back east or staying near Iowa only reminded me of what I couldn’t have, I thought it was the best idea. I’ve been here ever since.”
    She closed the bo ok and leaned back in the chair to suck down more oxygen.
    I took a deep breath. She seemed reluctant to offer more information, so I knew I’d have to dig… but dig delicately. “Did you ever marry?”
    She shook her head. “By the time I came to Vegas, I had gained a considerable amount of weight. I never lost my pregnancy weight, and it was holding me back from getting jobs at the upper scale hotels. Finally a manager at one of the smaller casinos took a chance on me, and took me under his wing so that I would lose the weight I needed to lose. He was older, like the father I never knew. After I lost the weight, his son, Ronald, started to court me. This went into overdrive once I became a dealer for a corporate hotel on the strip. The tips were incredible. I was making more money than I had ever made in my life. Men no longer looked through me like I was invisible. Instead they flirted and tipped me even more to win me over. I don’t think Ronald liked the idea of sharing me. So he wined and dined me, showing me a life I never thought possible. Within months I was pregnant, and that was when the relationship started to change. I didn’t want to abort the pregnancy, not after losing you. Ronald stuck around, mostly to punish me for not being more careful. As the weight came back on, he got more and more aggressive. I think he wanted me to miscarry.”
    My stomach sank. Had I really wanted to know my family history? Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did.
    “By the time Diego was born, I had ballooned back up to my original weight. Ronald didn’t want anything to do with me or the baby. Instead he convinced his father that I had used the pregnancy to trap them. Since I was let go from my position due to my weight gain, it was an easy enough story to sell.” She paused. “He was out of control by then. He was abusive, both verbally and physically. And he threatened that if I ever told anyone what