Never to Keep (Accepting Fate #1) by Aimie Grey Read Free Book Online Page B

for another minute and then logged off.
    “I could help a lot of kids with fifty-two thousand dollars, but I’m seriously not interested in taking money that isn’t mine. Maybe you can just donate it to some of the non-profits that serve the kids in my class.”
    “It’s too late; I had my financial advisor transfer the money to your account this afternoon.”
    I was stunned. “How did you get my account information?”
    “My private investigator is the best in the world—didn’t take him long at all.” She grinned at me. “And it’s fifty-two million, not fifty-two thousand. Don’t spend it all in one place.”

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Madison
    “Earth to Mads, did you hear a single word I said?” Ethan leaned over the table and waved a hand in my face.
    The din of the busy diner came rushing back to my ears. “Oh, sorry, I must have spaced out for a minute.” I blinked a few times to dislodge the memories of being here with him in happier times. It had been ten months since I’d seen Ethan at Ryan’s funeral and nine years since we’d sat in this booth wearing fancy clothes after Ethan’s senior prom.
    He took my hand in his. “It’s okay. I know this is hard for you.” He stroked his thumb across the back of my hand. His touch was almost foreign. It didn’t comfort me like it had a year ago. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you agreed to meet with me.”
    “I’m grateful to you for helping Olivia get the treatment she needs. I shouldn’t have gone back to school after Ryan’s funeral.” I took a bite of bacon and wiped my fingers on the paper napkin that rested on my lap. “I told myself I was doing the right thing by taking heavy course loads in the fall and spring, so I could graduate sooner. Looking back, I think I did it to distract myself from the pain. I guess I drowned my sorrows in schoolwork while Olivia was drowning hers in alcohol.”
    “You graduated?” he asked around a mouth full of eggs.
    “Almost, I still need to do my clinicals.”
    “What about grad school?” he asked before taking a sip of coffee.
    “I’ve decided not to go for an advanced degree.”
    “But what about your dream?” Ethan asked with a deflated tone.
    “It was our dream. I don’t know if I feel the same way about it now that there’s no longer an ‘us’. I need time to figure out what my dream is. Besides, taking care of Peyton is more important than anything.”
    Ethan and I had planned to become doctors and open a family practice that would provide affordable medical care to low-income families in our hometown. I’d modified my part of the plan a couple of times over the years.
    “Besides,” I continued, “I’m at least five years behind you. I can still help people as a nurse.”
    “I wish you wouldn’t have taken time off after high school. You’d be only a year or two behind if you’d gone straight to college.” He’d made his opinion on that matter very clear over the years.
    “I don’t regret it. Ryan and Olivia needed me to help with Peyton.”
    “You basically raised her for the first three years of her life.”
    “That’s not true. Ryan was busy with the police academy and adjusting to life on the job, and Olivia needed to finish college. They were still excellent parents during that time.”
    “She calls you ‘Momma’ for goodness sake,” he argued. She’d always called me ‘Ma Ma’ because she couldn’t pronounce ‘Madison’ when she first learned to talk. When I became her guardian last month, it started to sound more like ‘Momma’ and less like a failed attempt at my first name.
    “Whatever. There’s no point in arguing about the past. Besides, it turned out to be a blessing. If I had gone to college right after high school, I wouldn’t be a doctor yet, so I’d be stuck trying to find a job with a degree in biology.”
    When I finally made it to Ohio State, I decided to become a nurse practitioner instead of a doctor because it wouldn’t take as