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I clenched my jaw and didn’t answer. If that was what Amara wanted, I wasn’t sure I could give it to her. I fucked up, but I wasn’t going to let it destroy what we had. All I needed was one more chan
ce. I wouldn’t hurt her again. I wouldn’t let anything or anyone take what we had away.
--
The waiting room wasn’t busy. The random family member came in to raid the vending machine or to get a cup of the pathetic free coffee that was made every few hours. Other than that, I was in the room by myself.
It gave me time to get over my hangover and deal with the messages already piling up from Gigi. I skimmed through some of them, most of them praising me on what a good job I’d done. The last one, sent less than twenty minutes ago, asked when I was coming home.
I clenched my jaw and hit connect on her name. It barely rang on her end before she was answering. “There is a flight to Roanoke that leaves in two hours. If you hurry, you can make it.”
“Why this sudden rush to get me home, Gigi?”
“Your father wants to see you and thank you himself. He got a call from the congressman this morning, assuring him that he would make sure the bill passed.” She sounded out of breath, but she wasn’t coughing. I was glad for that much, at least. There had been plenty of times when she would cough for minutes at a time during one of our phone calls. Maybe she had been faking it, or even overdramatizing it to make me feel guiltier so I would give in and do what she wanted. It wouldn’t surprise me. The woman was a pro at bending people to her will, especially me.
“After what happened last night, I’m surprised Connors’s daughter didn’t convince him not to vote in Dad’s favor.” I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes against the harsh lights in the room.
There was a short pause on her end before she exploded. “Why would she do that?” she practically growled.
“Because I told her to fuck off,” I told her honestly.
Another pause, and I could practically hear the wheels turning in her head. “I thought you liked this girl. You seemed to be happier lately. I assumed that this thing with Connors’s daughter was the cause.”
“The cause?” I snorted. “You thought a snobby bitch who needs her father to so much as piss would make me happy?”
“Watch your language, boy,” she cautioned.
“Was that part of the plan all along, Gigi?” I gritted out, realization smacking me in the face. “Were you trying to set me up with that chick?”
“I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything if you started seeing a nice girl for once.”
“You thought this ‘nice girl’ would do what? Wrap me so tight around her finger you could use her to control me?” But I already knew the answer to that. Of course, that was what my grandmother was hoping to do. When I left, she’d lost all the power she had over me. Getting sick was probably the best thing to happen to her, because she knew she could use it to twist me into doing whatever the fuck she wanted me to do.
“You used the wrong girl, Gigi,” I told her, my tone empty and cold, just like the spot in my heart where she had once been. “You should have looked a little harder. Lindsey’s roommate would have been a better match. She came with the connections that would have gotten Dad his vote in just one phone call.”
“What are you talking about? That Riley girl has no connections that could have helped your father.”
“No, the other one. Amara Marks. Her stepfather is Malcolm McIntire.” Her quick inhale told me she knew exactly who I was talking about.
“Well, no matter,” she muttered, brushing off McIntire’s name like it meant nothing to her. But I heard the small tremble in her voice. “You accomplished what was needed. Now, hurry up. Catch that flight, and I’ll have someone meet you at the airport.”
“That isn’t happening. I’m not coming home. Ever. I did your dirty work, but that’s it. I’m done. With you. With Dad. With all your twisted shit. Helping you has fucked up everything that means anything to me. I’m not letting you touch that again.” I rolled my neck left and right, trying to get the tension out of it. “You got what you wanted, Gigi. But getting it cost you me. Congratulations.”
“Cash—”
I hung up without hesitation. All my life, all she had ever done was manipulate me into doing whatever she needed. I loved her more than my own mother because she had given me the time and attention I needed growing up. But what I thought was her love for me, went only as far as she could control me. That wasn’t love.
My phone rang, showing me Gigi was calling me back. I hit decline and then blocked her number. I wasn’t just blowing hot air at her to make her bend to my will as she had done to me so many times over the course of my life. I wanted nothing to do with her or my father ever again. They could rot in hell together for all I cared.
All any of this had shown me was that Gigi still couldn’t accept the real me. She wanted to set me up with a “nice girl,” someone she thought could be useful in manipulating me more. Someone she assumed I would fall for and then fall in line for her and the prestigious Mathias name.
Fuck that, and fuck them. Letting Gigi back into my life cost me the only person who saw the real me and loved me anyway. Loved me because of it.
And I’d be damned if I let her go without a fight.
Chapter 16
Amara
