Before: Less Than Nothing, Part One

By Kristen Holt

What do you do when the difference between what you have and what you need is miles apart?
What do you do when life throws you not just a curve-ball, but a meteor that destroys everything?

Kaitlyn Kavanaugh has the perfect life: the perfect husband, the perfect marriage, the perfect house, the perfect job. Then one day, she loses it all.

In Before, Part One of the Less Than Nothing trilogy, Kaitlyn's life falls apart at the seams.

Finding herself with nothing, she has to decide what to do. Give up?
Or fight back?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kristen Holt
• Release date: May 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370047024

Kristen Holt

Kristen Holt has been writing stories since the dawn of time, and her stories run the gamut of genres and subjects. From snarky detectives, to witches and vampires, to a suicidal pencil, and even a worm named Norman. She wakes up with a different song in her head every morning, loves bacon and cupcakes (together, and separately), brunch with her girlies, and is a bird nerd. She has never seen Thelma & Louise or The Notebook, has never watched an episode of Doctor Who or Sex in the City, but can recite almost all of Beetlejuice. She lives in Seattle with her husband.

Book preview

Less Than Nothing

Part 1: Before

Kristen Holt

Copyright © 2017 Kristen Holt

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2017 Kristen Holt

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons either living or dead (or undead) is purely coincidental.

The author recognizes the trademarks and copyrights of all registered products and works mentioned within this work.

All rights reserved

ISBN: 9781370047024

Contents

Before

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

About Kristen Holt

Before

Smile. The worst is yet to come.

– Mikky Ekko

Chapter One

I've been really worried about you.

I don't recognize the voice on my phone. It's male and deep. British accent. Equal parts whisper-soft and whisky-rough.

I laugh, confused. I frown and pull the phone away from my ear to look at the display. It looks no different than it did when the call came in.

Caller unknown. Not particularly helpful.

I don't normally answer calls from unidentified callers. They're either wrong numbers or telemarketers.

Once, many years ago, my phone number was one digit different than a local bank phone number, and I'd had to field wrong numbers for months. One old man called me six times in a row, trying to reach the bank. I kept telling him, as gently as I could, but getting increasingly frustrated, that, no, I was not the bank. The poor old man just kept hanging up, then hitting 'Redial'.

Finally, I had my number changed.

As much as I hated getting wrong number calls, I hated telemarketing calls even worse. Not that anyone ever enjoys telemarketer calls. I had a unique perspective on telemarketers, though.

I spent several summers in college working as a telemarketer, so I know what a terrible job it is. First, you have to learn and memorize the script, and not deviate from it. Then, you have to learn and memorize the rebuttals, too, for when the customer says, 'No', to try to save the sale of the product.

I know just how hard it is. I know how shitty it is to get yelled at, or hung up on repeatedly, trying to sell something that nobody needs, that even fewer people actually want, trying to convince someone to buy something they neither need nor want. I know how scary it is, trying to make your weekly quota of sales, when all of the best leads go to the favorite employees of the Shift Manager. I know how tough it is trying to make even one sale, when the only leads remaining available to you are the absolute scrapings from the bottom of the barrel.

So, yes, I know what a crappy job it is. I still hate getting the calls, though. I try to be patient, to listen to their script delivery without interrupting, and wait until they're finished before telling them I'm not interested. I find myself critiquing their delivery, and it nearly kills me that I don’t offer suggestions for improvement.

This call, though, must be a wrong number, because if it isn't, then it is the weirdest telemarketing call in history.

Either way, I really didn't want to talk to him.

Ooookaaaay. I said, slowly. Well, I thank you for your concern. Have a good night, now.

I looked over at my husband as I put my phone down.

Who was that? He asked.

I have no idea.

My phone rang again, just as I started to word some speculation.

Caller Unknown, again. I'd been getting calls from Caller Unknown for weeks, so, determined to put a stop to either the telemarketer or the wrong number caller, I answered it.

Don't hang up, Katie. He paused. Please. Just listen to what I have to say. He paused again. Please, Katie.

That gave me pause. It couldn’t be a wrong number if he knew my name. My legal name is Kaitlyn, and only my family and friends call me Katie. Even Charles doesn't call me Katie.

Alright. I said quietly.

Is your husband there with you?

I frowned. Yes.

Is he in the room?

My frown deepened. Yes.

Listen to me very carefully, Katie. I can't explain everything right now, not with Chuck in the room. It's too dangerous. He paused, and my mind started racing.

Dangerous? What was he talking about? How did he know my name and my nickname? How did he know