Page 118 of Rhodes

"Eleven minutes, Rhodes. I got eleven minutes of knowing that I had handled it myself before everything crashed because you decided I needed your help."

"I didn't know it would freeze everything."

"That doesn't make it better."

"I know."

"I'm so mad right now I could spit. You know? What the absolute fuck, Rhodes?"

A group of students passes behind him, laughing too loudly, and I wait until they're gone.

"I told you what they did to me. Coop deciding where I should live, my father and Grandbank deciding what I could handle hearing about Oak Moss. I'm sick and goddamned tired of everybody making choices around me because they love me and they're scared I'm not capable. And you knew all of it."

"I know."

"Stop saying that. It makes it worse."

He nods once.

"I thought you were different."

That one lands. I see it, and I keep going.

"You stood in your kitchen and told me I didn't need watching. You told Granger that and got angry at Coop for keeping things from me in the name of protecting me."

His eyes close for an exaggerated moment.

"And then you did exactly the same fucking thing. God, you're worse than they are, because you knew."

"I was trying to help you."

"I know. That's always the excuse."

The words are flat.

"That's what makes you the worst one."

His head comes up.

"Because they never fooled me. I knew what Coop was doing and I knew what Daddy was doing. Grandbank didn't trust me with this, and he didn't make any attempt to sugar coat it."

I swallow once.

"You made me believe you did."

"Tallulah, I do trust you."

"No. You trust me as long as I'm doing something you agree with. The minute you decided you could make this easier for me, you stepped over me and did it yourself. That isn't trust. That's management."

"That's not what I meant to do."

"I don't care what you meant. It's what you did."

He takes that without moving.

"Friday, my father called me manipulative. He dragged me straight back to the worst version of myself because of something you did."

His throat works.