Read Online Controversy by Adrianne Byrd - Free Book Online Page B

it being her ex-husband made it all the worse.
    Of course, her nerves might have been a little better if her sisters would stop calling every other hour. Then again, they had every reason to be as anxious as she did. Phil had threatened to have them all thrown in jail.
    This stalling tactic either meant Phil had had a change of heart or he’d learned a few tricks of her trade and was making her and her sisters sweat. If it was the latter, she was impressed.
    The phone rang.
    Michael jumped. When she realized it was just a telephone, she nearly fainted with relief, but then remembered that bad news often came by phone. Crossing her bedroom, she looked at the caller-ID console on the nightstand. This time, she allowed herself to collapse on the bed, relieved to see Joey’s cell number.
    â€œHey, Joey. What’s up?”
    â€œYou’re kidding, right?” Joey laughed. “Don’t tell me you forgot about tonight.”
    â€œTonight?”
    Joey sighed and then laughed. “So you did forget. Figures. Let me guess, you’re still playing Nancy Drew with your ex. Girl, exhale already before you do something you’ll regret. You’re getting too old for us to keep bailing you out of jail.”
    If she only knew. So far, Joey was the only sister who didn’t know about Phil’s kidnapping and escape. So far, she and her other sisters saw no reason to drag Joey into it. They were pretty much just hoping Phil had calmed down and chalked the episode up as another one of Michael’s wild pranks.
    Keyword was hoping.
    â€œMichael, are you still there?”
    â€œYeah, I’m still here. Changing the subject, what did I forget about tonight?”
    â€œDad and Donna’s first anniversary.”
    Michael groaned. Only the shenanigans of the past few days could have made her forget about their father’s anniversary party. While it was still strange to have another sister—one that was thirty-six years younger—she found it even harder to accept her new stepmother.
    They all had.
    â€œYeah. Yeah. It’s all starting to come back to me now.”
    â€œDon’t worry about it. I hear the mind is the first thing to go.”
    Michael rolled her eyes. “Laugh all you want. You’re just a year behind me.”
    â€œA year and a half,” Joey corrected. “Get it right.”
    Michael appreciated and welcomed this short reprieve and laughed. But going out tonight, when she was still waiting for Phil to make his intentions clear made her more than a little wary about going out. “Look, Joey, about tonight—”
    â€œDon’t even think about canceling. If I have to go, then so do you.”
    Silence.
    â€œMikey,” Joey insisted. “We promised Dad we would put more of an effort into welcoming Donna into the family.”
    â€œI know. I know,” Michael huffed. The main problem the Adams clan had with the whole Donna issue was the way their father had kept his relationship with this mysterious young woman hush-hush. That is, until he knocked her up and then did the gentlemanly thing by marrying her.
    For years he’d hid his playboy ways under the ruse of poker night out with the boys. Actually, it was a stroke of genius to keep his nosy daughters out of his personal life. However, the end result was his six older children having a stranger as a new stepmother and a new sister: Theodore Jamal Adams—Teddy for short.
    In a nutshell, their father’s marriage was awkward for everyone involved.
    â€œI’ll go,” Michael said, deflated.
    â€œAll right. Knew we could count on you, Mikey,” Joey bubbled.
    â€œI’ll see you in a little while,” Mike said.
    â€œGood. Don’t be late.”
    Michael’s smile disappeared the moment she ended the call. She did not want to do this. After a quick shower, Michael painted on her best face, squeezed into a pair of jeans that she refused to admit were