ve to be covered. A full-ride scholarship is great and all, but I’m afraid that doesn’t quite cover all your bases.”
“So…I’ll get a job,” I shoot back dismissively. “What’s the big deal?”
“You can’t go to school full time and work and keep up with track all at once,” she asserts, looking at me like I’m crazy. “I’m afraid…you may have to consider…going to school somewhere nearby. So you can still live here with us.”
A million things flash before my eyes at once. Every moment in WJ Prep when I first came here and the Elites tortured me. All of my worst memories of Emmett before he was free from their control. My destroyed car and the sight of it flying off the cliff. Emmett’s apartment and the hopelessness in his eyes that grows every day we’re forced to stay here.
“No!” I exclaim too quickly and too loudly. “Absolutely not. I appreciate everything you did to get us here so I could go to WJ Prep, but after I graduate, I have to get out of here. I just…I have to. I’ll figure it out. I’ll work however hard I have to.”
Her hand reaches for mine again. “Honey, I know it’s been a rough year. You and Emmett found his dad’s body…and then you disappearing those few days. The car accidents and your dad coming back into the picture…” I bury my face into my hands, thinking while that sounds like an awful lot to deal with, those are just the things she knows about. They’re only the tip of the iceberg. “I can understand why you’d be anxious for a fresh start.”
Brendan clears his throat, grabbing her attention for a moment. He nods as if there’s something else she’s not telling me.
“There’s one more thing you could consider,” she offers with a lingering uncertainty. “To ensure you have plenty of time to focus on everything you need to without stressing over money. And so you could attend any school you want to.”
“What?” I ask anxiously.
“When your dad visited and brought your new car and phone…,” she says slowly. I immediately start shaking my head ‘no’ before she even has a chance to finish, which just makes her speak louder and more urgently. “He offered to pay for whatever expenses your scholarship wouldn’t cover. An apartment, miscellaneous funds, textbooks, supplies…whatever you need. He said he’d be happy to take care of it.”
“No!” I shriek. “Are you crazy!? This is getting to be ridiculous!”
“That’s enough, Ophelia,” she barks sharply. “Theo has made a lot of kind offers to be the dad he should have been all these years, at least financially if nothing else. And you’ve been nothing but rude and ungrateful to him every step of the way!”
I fly up from my chair in exasperation. “I faked a smile and sat through his surprise dinner visit! I let you talk me into taking that car and the phone. I even had lunch with him one day!” I fume. “I’ve tried my best to go along with all this…for your sake. But you…you don’t understand who he…,” I catch myself as naïve faces burn into me. They don’t know Theo like I do. So, of course, they can’t understand why I’m acting this way. It dawns on me that this may be the time to tell them everything. I’m not ready and it hasn’t been planned, but I don’t know if I have a choice. It may be now or never.
I take in a sharp breath, feeling a million different explanations and reasons bursting from the tip of my tongue. But just as I am about to lay everything out for them, my mom’s phone rings. She immediately answers after looking at the caller ID, making me lose my nerve.
“Yes, hi,” she speaks quietly into the phone, stepping away to the corner of the room. “I’m talking to her now.”
I groan to myself as I hear her talking to who I can only assume is Theo. They must have planned this whole conversation out. I can imagine her telling him it’d be better if they talked to me alone. Maybe I’d be easier to convince without him around.
“No, no. Don’t worry about it,” she whispers. “She’ll come around.”
I slump back into my chair and dramatically plop my head against the dining room table. Brendan shifts in his seat with a heavy sigh and I can picture the look of exhaustion that’s probably plastered on his face. He hates dealing with arguments between my mom and I. Probably because he’s so kind-hearted he can’t bring himself to pick sides. He loves us both too much.
For a moment, I wonder why Brendan can’t be the one with all the money. I’d be more than happy to accept his help and I know he’d be just as happy to give it. But I guess that guys like him rarely get rich. The Jamesons and guys like Theo climb to the top by stepping on everyone along the way. Brendan doesn’t have the heart or stomach for screwing people over just to make a fortune. I guess that’s the same kind of softness that Emmett’s family saw in him. And that’s exactly why they cut him off and kicked him out.
“You’re just like your mom,” Brendan grumbles with a smirk. “In a good way. You’re both so stubborn and independent.” I lift my head and look to him, feeling completely lost. “I know it’s not easy to accept help. Especially from someone you don’t like. I mean…hell, I don’t care much for Theo either.”
“I wouldn’t give you all such a hard time about it if I didn’t have good reasons,” I urge him. “You just have to trust me. Call it a gut feeling or whatever you want. I just think it does more harm than good to accept Theo’s help.”
“But if it gets you into college and into a position where you can focus on running,” he pleads. “Or whatever else you may decide you’re into in a year or two from now, then wouldn’t that really show him? To really make something of yourself so you never have to take anything from him again?”
I groan and slam my head back down, desperately wishing that I could just bring myself to scream out that Theo is a murderer and a liar. They think those few days I went missing was me and Emmett just being irresponsible and running off together. But really it was Emmett trying to save me from Theo in the only way he knew how. Without him, Theo would have kidnapped me. And I might not even be sitting here today if that had happened.
Taking deep breaths, my fingers trail up to the running shoe charm hanging from my neck. I rub it gently, wishing more than anything that he could be here right now to tell me how to handle this. He’s one of the only people who really understands Theo the way I do. And he’s so good with people. He could think of the perfect thing to say on the spot.
“Sorry,” my mom chimes as she slides back into her chair.
“I need some time to think,” I blurt, feeling like I can’t sit at this table for another second. “Is that okay? I’m tired from the drive and I kind of just want to be alone for a little while.”
“Of course,” my mom tilts her head. “We didn’t mean to spring all of this on you. But I’m glad it’s all out in the open now. You go ahead and think it over.”
I race from the kitchen table, desperate to escape the pressure of accepting Theo’s help. Taking a car or a phone or even sitting down for the occasional dinner is one thing but signing up to be intertwined with him and dependent on him for at least the next four years is more than I can bear. I lock myself away in my room and pull out my phone to call Emmett.
“You get it, right!?” I fume after I’ve caught him up on everything. “He’s no good, Emmett. Guys like him never put it all out there in the open. There’s always some ulterior motive in hiding, waiting to come out. If we give him an inch, he’ll take a mile. He’s already done that! First, dinner. Now all this.”
“Mm-hmm,” he grumbles, listening carefully. “No, no. I know. I get it.” His silence is not the reassurance I was hoping for.