Happily Ever After (The Drug Lord's Wife #5)

Purse

I stiffly scooted down to the ground to sit in front of her crossed leg,"Hey, I know you had some shit thrown at you. Way more than most people, but I I really can't stress enough that whatever you had to do to survive before you'll never have to do again. You're never going to be hungry or poor. I swear..." she still wouldn't look at me as if she were embarrassed by her past. I wasn't saying the right thing. Damn, I wish Jennifer was here. She knew after a few hours of knowing Lara that she was her daughter no ifs ands or buts about it. I just don't know what to say. She can't keep doing this. "I get it. Or at least I think I do comma it's like a security blanket. If I have food on standby I'm good no matter what. I get it. You remember Michael?" Her jaw tightened as has she looked up at me. With an almost scowl, she nodded yes. "I know, he can be kind of a dick. But he's my brother at the end. Anyway, when he was maybe four our mom got him a teddy so he would sleep in his own bed at night. Well he got really attached to this thing. I mean if he went to the bathroom the bear went with him", I couldn't help but smile at that memory," I remember, my mom bought him a night outfit complete with a little sword and everything. The bear made Michael feel safe. At a time when, he didn't. Food is your teddy".

She didn't need to know how Michael lost his stuffed animal. I guess Michael was just too happy one day because Rodger snatched the bear out of Michaels hands and threw it in the fireplace. The poor bear didn't stand a chance seeing as it was made out of cotton and velvet. Rodger was worried the bear would make Michael too soft and one of those "gays". I wasn't going to do that to Lara just make her quit cold turkey. We just needed to put limits on it. Like no refrigerator in our bedrooms. And no leaving bags of food on the ground so that ants would invade our house.

We didn't say anything to each other for a long while. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and started to pull up my banking app,"Come look".

She did resting her head on my arm," What's this?"

"Your uncle, Brandon, came up with this system of how we split and track my money. I've never shown anyone this. Not even your mom", mostly because Jennifer insisted we have a joint bank account we both put money in. She had her personal funds she worked hard for and I did too. I normally put about three million into the account each month, and Jennifer put in around ten thousand. The only time the account got use was for the kids: clothing, schooling, activities, piano tuning ect.

The app finally loaded and asked for my password," I'm going to have Brandon put this on your phone. You can check it when and where every".

I started to type the password in when Lara asked,"What are you typing?"

"Password", I said.

"What is it?"

A small smile wrapped around my face, "You can't tell anyone ever, okay?" She nodded yes, "It's 12-26-17-J-E-N-N-I-F-E-R-04-15-93-C-F".

"Mom's name and..."

"Wedding date, her birthday, and our last names", I said handing her my phone.

"What are these numbers", she said examining the phone.

"Money coming in and money going out---"

"Why is money going out", she questioned with concern in her voice.

"Expenses, bribes, repairs, payroll---"

"What's this?" She pointing to a withdrawal of five million dollars.

"Michael, but look here", I said pointing to the refresh button. Lara hit it,"In the time it it took you to refresh this page we made $75,245.19. Do it again", she did,"$12,894.93. You could do this all day, and I promise you this is never going to drop below half a billion dollars. And this is one of many different accounts. So I'm going to make you a deal. You can get into this account anytime you want. But no more stockpiling food. Maybe a small purse with some snacks but we can't keep doing what you've been doing. You'll know just as much as I know when I know it in real time. Your my daughter, you're never going to be hungry. And no one's ever going to deny you anything. When you're ready, I want to know what life was like for you before you met us. But those things take time, and when you're ready I'm here".

"Forever?" She said looking up to me with big eyes.

"Until I breathe my dying breath", I promised. I saw apprehension and fear in her eyes. This was a big step for her, but Lara knotted her head yes. "Now, let's go get you a purse", I said trying to get off of the floor.

"I don't know anything about picking a purse".

"That makes two of us. My mom always  had Louis Vuitton and Jennifer likes... Chanel? So we can start there", I said as my bones cracked. "Go get your shoes".

Lara hoped up and ran into her room. Now that I was finally off I hobbled over to my cane. I texted Thomas to bring the car around. Once we got back from the store I would text Jennifer and say how things were going. Maybe by then I would have solved Lara's food hoarding problem.