I shudder at his threat. I don’t even know what it’s like to have a real family. My dad is a wealthy sperm donor, nothing more. My mother is non-existent. I haven’t seen her in so many years I can barely recall what she looks like. And because of my father’s attitude, I have almost no relationship with his side of the family and even less with my mother’s. If I choose Briana over him, I have to be damn sure this is going to work. That she won’t get scared again and run away.
I hang up on him, fisting the phone in my hand so tightly it feels like it could snap in half.
“Is she okay?” Preston asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
Drake leans over the bench in front of him. “Your dad offered her money?”
His mother’s side of the family does business with mine. Like the Rivers, the Carroways are old New York money. Drake’s grandparents are loaded. They own oil refineries, railroads, financial institutions, and just about every major business you can imagine. He knows what it’s like to deal with rich assholes like them. But Drake wasn’t raised that way. His dad is new money, his mom old, but she’s pretty cool for a Carroway. Most of my teammates are rich but very few know what it’s like to come from a family like mine.
“Yeah, he gave her a check,” I admit.
Drake’s eyebrows rise. “And she took it?”
I nod.
“Damn,” Drake says. “That’s fucked up.”
“Tell me about it,” I mutter, staring down at my cell phone.
“Sorry, man.” Drake slaps my shoulder.
“She won’t cash it.”
“You sure about that?” Knox chimes.
Why does he always have to be a dickhead?
I shoot daggers over my shoulder at him. “Yeah, I’m sure, Knox.”
I hope I’m right about Briana. Every single fiber of my being tells me she won’t keep the money and that I mean more to her than whatever my father offered her. Maybe if I give her some time to think she’ll make the right decision.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Briana
“Walk me through that night,” Dr. Saxon says, resting her heel on her knee. She shifts the notepad from her right to left hand and readies her pen to take notes.
I rehash how cheap and dirty I felt when Jonathan Rivers forced me to take his check. Her facial expression remains stoic, unreadable. I can never tell what she’s thinking. Therapists are good that way. No matter how many of them I’ve met, they all remain unresponsive whey they talk to patients.
“And you stopped speakin
g to Julian because of his father?”
I nod. “Sort of. Yeah, I guess. I didn’t know what to do. Julian called and texted at least a dozen times after the game. But then, he suddenly stopped calling. I haven’t heard from him in days. Which is weird. Even Sadie, who’s now dating Julian’s best friend, has no idea what’s going on with Julian. He hasn’t started dating anyone else. No one has seen Julian on campus with other girls. But he hasn’t contacted me again either. So, I don’t get it.”
“Why haven’t you reached out to him?”
I roll my shoulders against the chair. “I’m still trying to process it all. I feel disgusting after everything his dad said to me. Plus, he made it clear that Julian has no family, money, or future if I stick around. It’s better this way. He can have a good life without me. He’ll meet some pretty, skinny, rich girl and have beautiful babies with her and live in some mansion with manicured lawns and giant statues that spit water from their mouths.”
“And you feel like you’re doing the right thing by walking away from him?”
I can’t tell if she’s baiting me into saying what she wants or not. It’s hard to tell with Dr. Saxon. But she’s helped me a lot over the years, so I answer honestly.
“Yes, I do. I love Julian. I want what’s best for him.”
“Do you know for certain this is what Julian wants?”