Page 77 of The Roommate Subtext

Cora laid her hand over Maggie’s. “Mags. I’m not a kid anymore. You know that, right?”

Maggie looked over at her sister, at Cora’s calm smile, the tiredness in her eyes. “You work too hard,” she said automatically.

“Mags,” Cora repeated softly, the undertone of concern so alien that Maggie wanted to push back against it. Cora shouldn’t be worried about taking care of her. It had always been the other way around.

Maggie couldn’t hold back the passage of time. “I wanted you to have a normal life, like it would have been if we hadn’t lost Mom and Dad. You shouldn’t have to worry about whether there’s enough money in the bank.”

“But that’s what people worry about.” Cora squeezed her hand. “We’ve had a lot of privilege, you and me. And I appreciate all you did to protect me from the stresses. But now, I’m grown up. And I’d much rather be part of these decisions than left out of them.”

Maggie nodded. She should have realized Cora would react like this, in her typical levelheaded style. “I have a hard time accepting that you’re grown up,” she admitted. “You don’t need me like you used to.”

Cora tsked. “But I’ll always need you. You’re my big sister. Time doesn’t change that.”

She was right, of course. “I still don’t know what to do,” Maggie said.

Cora’s brow furrowed. “Of course you do.”

“What?”

“You’re going to break the deal with Chauvel.” Cora said it as if it were completely obvious. “That’s why you’re here.”

“The inheritance might get frozen.”

Cora sat up straighter. “If Mom and Dad got that money illegally, it’s not ours to keep. And we can work. We both live within our means.”

“Chauvel will surely pull your funding.”

Cora nodded slowly. “I’ll have to talk to Vanessa. But we don’t want to be relying on one donor, anyway, and especially not if he’s an asshole. We’re still sending out other grant applications.” She gave a wry smile. “All we can do is keep trying. If this falls through, we’ll find another way.”

Against her better judgment, a tiny tendril of hope began to curl open in Maggie’s chest. Maybe she could talk to Blake. He was a grant writer. He might be willing to help, or at least look over the grant applications. She would ask him before she volunteered him for anything, though.

The last threat was the biggest: Chauvel’s implication that he could have her blamed for obstructing the investigation. “I have to tell Wiggins and James everything.” Maggie would need to make her lawyer and her financial adviser aware of Chauvel’s promises and threats. She squirmed at the thought of confessing how she’d gone along with Chauvel, even knowing the legality was questionable at best, but she needed to confront the repercussions on her own terms. “Chauvel has been using my reluctance to confide in people against me. If I’m going to get free of him, it has to stop.” She looked at Cora. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Cora had a gravitas that Maggie had never fully appreciated before. She spoke confidently and calmly, and Maggie felt better even with the uncertainty ahead of them.

Maggie pulled Cora into a hug, surprising them both. Cora paused, then returned the embrace. Whatever uncertainty lay ahead, at least this was certain: she and Cora had each other.

Maggie pulled back, swallowing the unexpected lump in her throat and composing herself. “When I meet with them, do you want to come with me?”

Cora nodded. “Definitely.”

By evening, Blake knew he had to go home. He couldn’t stay away forever. Andrew was still at that wedding with Zane, and his other friends were all busy on such short notice, so he’d killed time doing paperwork at PlantSeed, then spent the rest of the day in the library until they closed.

When he got home, though, after dark, the condo was empty. It was unlike Maggie to leave without a note of some kind. He may be avoiding her, but he wasn’t an asshole, so he sent a text.

Just got home. Nobody’s here! You OK?

She wrote back right away. Heading back from Cora’s. Thanks for checking up on me.

He felt a wave of relief. It had been strange to enter the condo and not know where she was. Even though he was angry about the way Rose had lied to him, he somehow couldn’t transpose that anger onto Maggie, even though he knew intellectually that they were the same person.

He changed into sweatpants and checked his phone again. No message from Rose, either, which was probably good. She’d lied to him, and he couldn’t ignore that lie.

Maggie wouldn’t lie to him like that.

She’s the same person, he repeated, and yet … they didn’t feel the same. That disconnect had been warring in his thoughts all day.

Maggie wouldn’t lie. Maybe Rose wasn’t lying, either. If she’d really been enjoying their time together, and if she felt the same for him as he did for her, then perhaps they could find a way to keep Chauvel from getting in the way.