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

television like nothing had happened.
    Donna didn’t push the envelope, her scowl returning to her lips. “Just as stubborn as your mother.” She left it at that and revved back up, striding down the corridor like some military hot shot. Her coworkers didn’t salute, but they snapped to attention nonetheless, only relaxing after we passed.
    She came to a second hard stop, but a collision was no longer a danger because I was too busy freaking out.
    What if this was my fault?
    I’d been making the payments, but the man I’d been working with made it clear that our arrangement was subject to change at a moment’s notice. What if they’d decided to take the remainder of the balance out of my mother, plus interest?
    Donna didn’t bother with knocking, shoving her way into the room. The door thudded shut behind her. After sprinting behind the woman for God knows how long, my legs were suddenly filled with lead. There wasn’t a drop of saliva in my mouth to combat my bone dry throat, and I couldn’t handle the way my heart was being squeezed into a bloody pulp in my chest.
    I took a breath and closed my eyes. You can do this. Rose needs you. Think about Rose. Think about the man who cleared his entire schedule to be there for you guys. Now’s the time to be strong.
    I gripped the door handle and twisted. Now’s the time-
    “Mom?”
    I mouthed the word, the volume at a level only audible to animals. I had no breath. No anything.
    My mother glanced at the doorway, the eye that wasn’t swollen shut resting on me.
    My hand flew to my mouth just as the door clicked shut behind me and all the air, everything , left the room. Her face was covered in bruises, a rainbow of colors that started at her temple, rippled over her eyes, spilled onto her cheeks, and raced past her chin to her neck. A halo of tender, red and purple contusions wrapped around her neck like some twisted jewelry. My mother attempted a smile, but quickly brought her hand to her jaw, cupping it gingerly. It was like the act of smiling, which was rare for her under normal circumstances, was impossible now.
    That eye scanned the bed and when it found a cylinder that was nestled in between her covers, she groaned and pressed it multiple times.
    Donna stormed to the side of the bed and I expected her to snatch the device from my mother. Smack her hand like she was a disobedient child. “One click is more than adequate. If you abuse the pain meds-”
    “Look at my mother,” I interrupted. My words were muffled because I didn’t even realize that my hand was still over my mouth. I dropped it and focused my anger, my fear, on Donna. “Leave her alone.”
    Donna’s fierce red lips parted like she wanted to remind me who was in charge, but I raised an eyebrow, reminding her that I could, and would, report her ass.
    “I’ll leave you two to catch up,” Donna spat out. She held her head high, like she was so much better than the likes of us. “Tug the cord if you need anything.” She aimed one last dig at my mother. “I know you’re used to people waiting on you hand and foot.” She was out of the room before I could scowl, trip her, or otherwise demonstrate just how badly I wanted to hurt someone.
    But I didn’t really want to hurt Donna. I wanted to murder the person who hurt my mother.
    Now that we were alone, there was nothing to keep me from taking full stock of what happened. I was still near the door, my hands rattling at my side and turning my entire body to some wretched leaf in the wind. I couldn’t look at her eye, the one that I felt on me. I couldn’t look at the gash beneath the other one, red and furious and discolored. Small cuts seemed to be everywhere, like she’d been thrown through a glass window.
    Or...
    “Jesus Christ, did someone throw you onto the coffee table?” I gasped in horror.
    Most glass coffee tables were more fragile than sturdy. Time chipped the edges. A crack here and there. She’d found that monster of a table at