“Not next to the vinyl. They’re worth more than your whole life,” I said, taking a swig from the glass. The liquid burned pleasantly down my throat.
“Pocket’s a little light there, Charlie? Can’t afford for each of us to have our own drink?” he snarked. I put the tumbler down and walked over to the bar, giving myself a generous pour of the amber liquid and throwing it down my throat. Niall laughed.
“Thirsty?” he asked.
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Another date with one of your mum’s Stepford socialites?” he asked. I scoffed. “I knew it. Who was it this time? Maybe I know her.”
“Barringer. Annaliese. Blonde. Pretty girl.”
“But still not good enough for the Duke I see,” he teased.
“If you want her number just tell me,” I said, grinning.
“When are you going to stop doing this shit? You hate those dates. You’ve never lasted more than a single date with any of those women.”
“Dating is a numbers game these days. Any day now, I’ll meet the woman of my dreams and we won’t have to have this conversation anymore.” I poured myself another drink.
“You’re wasting your time and you’re wasting theirs.”
“I need to get married, Niall. I need an heir. If I don’t have a kid, the title and the estate go to you and the whole world burns.”
Niall laughed. “Keep it. Knock up the next girl your mother sets you up with. I don’t want it.”
“You taking it off my hands would solve all of my problems,” I said.
“Too bad you can?
??t just have a baby without finding a wife first,” he said.
“Yeah. It doesn’t work like that.”
“How about this,” he said, getting up. “We head out to the club and find a couple of wives-for-the-night to help you get your numbers up?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m good. You go on. Have fun.” Niall sighed but he didn’t try to convince me. His usual recipe for a good time was going out clubbing and he always asked me to join him, even though I never really went with him anymore. I didn’t want a wife-for-the-night. The one woman that I would want to be with wouldn’t be hanging out at a club anyway.
I finished my second drink as he headed out for the club. I went upstairs and took a shower. It wasn’t even ten but I was done. I dried my hair and checked my phone to make sure I didn’t have any messages from my mother yet. Annaliese Barringer just wasn’t the one. Niall was right. Taking the wife bit out of the equation would solve all of my problems. It wasn’t impossible to have a kid without finding a woman first. It was difficult, but it wasn’t impossible. How much did the marriage part matter anyway? The heir was what they needed. How hard could it be to get my hands on one of those?
2
Brenna
I squinted. No, that number could not be right.
I knew that it would be high but not this fucking high. I made less than this in a year. I made less than this in five years. I put the bill down and picked up my coffee. I had prepared breakfast but the bill had completely ruined my appetite. Even with insurance, the cost of my mother’s treatment would still come to an arm and a leg. My arm and my leg.
I could just not pay. I didn’t have the money, that was probably what was going to happen. If I didn’t pay though, they’d stop treating her. I looked over at my mother, a few feet away in the living room. She had gotten up early this morning and dozed off again in the armchair - a side effect of her new treatment. She was responding well to it. It was getting rid of the cancer but it wore her out. She’d be asleep almost sixteen hours of the day. She was still in a lot of pain though so if anything, I was glad she didn’t have to stay awake through it.
She looked so small on the couch. The brunette hair I had gotten from her was short now and her dark eyes, so full of life were closed most of the time. She had lost considerable weight since starting the treatments but besides the fatigue, she was still alert and as active as she could possibly be considering the circumstances. Cancer sucked. It had turned my mother from an active, lively woman in her fifties to someone who slept the day away, not because she wanted to but because she literally lacked the energy to keep her eyes open.
I was tired too but that was for other reasons. I looked at the clock.
Shit.
I threw the rest of my lukewarm coffee back then ran out of the kitchen and grabbed my purse off the couch. I kissed my mother on the forehead, careful not to wake her, and then left the tiny apartment. I made a dash for the subway. I was going to be late. I spent too much time staring at my mother’s bill.
I was panting when I got to work, barely on time. I hustled to my desk like nothing happened. I didn’t need to give them a reason to fire me. I had been an accountant with my company for a few years now, since getting out of college. Accounting was just as glamorous as it sounded but it made me enough to pay for a place in the city and take care of both myself and my mother which was all I needed to be able to do. In addition to that, my best friend Maggie worked for the same company which made the hours go by faster.