AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he parks the car in the garage, I hurry to get out and head inside.
Ava is standing in the kitchen as I enter the house.
Christian follows behind me, nodding to her before heading to the library.
I exhale slowly and take a seat at the kitchen island.
“What was that about?” Ava asks, her tone gentle as she opens up the fridge and grabs a bottle of white wine. “He called me and said that you signed the contract for La Neige. I thought that we would all be celebrating tonight.”
“He called you?”
Ava nods as she rummages through his cupboards. When she turns around with two glasses in her hands, there is a small smile on her face. “He called me and asked me to come over to celebrate. Had Ruben let me into the house before you got here. I know I’m skeptical about him most of the time, but I think he really does care for you in his own way.”
I stare down the hall in the direction Christian went.
He is a confusing man at the best of times. He doesn’t want me to perform but he still calls my sister over to have a good time. It doesn’t make sense.
“He has his moments,” I say as I turn my attention back to her. “He thinks it’s a bad idea, though. But he called the security team, and they’re going to find a way to make it safe.”
Ava bites her bottom lip. ”I don’t know how to feel about it either, if we’re being honest. You’re talented, and I want you to chase your dreams, but when you have so many new things going on in your life, do you really think it’s the best time to chase down a career like that?”
I hold back the tears that threaten to fall.
I know that she doesn’t mean anything by it.
Ava is practical. She’s never been much of a dreamer. Our entire lives, she has been the one to evaluate situations before jumping into them.
She wants to know if the risks will outweigh the rewards. If they do, she is going to hold back.
Ava still wants to see me succeed, though. She’s my sister. She supports me, she just has to act as the voice of reason.
I can appreciate that. Ava isn’t one to hold back her thoughts, but at the end of the day all she wants is for me to be happy.
Between the support I get from her and Christian, I’m starting to see a life where I achieve all of my dreams. Without them supporting me, I don’t know where I would be right now.
I’m going to have to think of something special to thank the both of them.
“How is work going?” I want to catch up with her after days spent apart.
Ava shrugs and pours the glasses of wine. “It’s alright. The inmates are a lot to handle, but they are not impossible. A few fights here and there, but nothing that really affects me. My peers respect me and so do the men doing time there, which is all I can really ask for.”
“You know, sometimes I worry about you working there.” I reach for my wine and swirl it around the glass. “Don’t you think you would be better off in a more stable career? Something with a lot less criminals?”
Ava rolls her eyes and tips her glass toward me. “I see what you’re doing here, and you’re right, but it still doesn’t change your situation. I could leave the prison tonight and find a job in the hospital. You don’t have that same kind of plan in place.”
“I have plenty of plans in place. They’re just plans that you don’t agree with.”
She takes a sip of her wine. “I know that you’re going to do great things with your life, Zoe. I just worry about you and whether or not you’ve really thought about what you’re doing here and with your career.”
“I’m here because Dad needs me.”
“Is that really fair to you, though? You shouldn’t have to be here because Dad needs you to be.”
“I do a lot of things because Dad needs me to do them. Enough of that, though. It's just going to upset both of us. Tell me more about your job. How is working with hardened criminals all day?”
Ava takes her wine and makes her way over to the couch. She settles into the plush cushions as I get up and take one of the armchairs. “They’re not all hardened criminals.”
I give her a flat look. “I know that. But I also know that most of the ones who end up in the infirmary to see you are.”
