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“Harrison? What are you doing here?”
“Something I should have done a long time ago,” he says. “Dad, I’m out. I’m leaving your house, and you won’t hear from me again. Cut me out of your will or whatever it is you need to do: I don’t care. My tuition at Crescent Academy is already paid, and although I appreciate Adalee’s willingness to apply for scholarships, Mom set up a fund just for her to pay for her education.”
She did?
Lily set something up for me?
I don’t know whether I should cheer or cry. The thoughtfulness of Harrison’s mom completely overwhelms me. I had no idea.
“If you walk out that door,” Frank says. “Then don’t ever come back.”
“I won’t,” Harrison says. “And neither will Adalee.”
He takes my hand and hauls me out of the office without a backwards glance.
“Wait,” I tell him. “My backpack.”
“It’s already in the car,” he says. I had packed it earlier, just in case things with Frank didn’t go well. “Mine is out there, too,” he says.
We see Margaret in the lobby as we prepare to leave the house, and she’s smiling.
“I knew you could do it,” she says. “I knew you’d find a way.”
“What’s going on?” Tamara comes marching out of one of the offices. Her too-high heels teeter for just a moment, and then she looks at us. “What are you doing?”
“Getting lost,” Harrison says.
“You can’t just leave,” Natasha appears. I really can’t tell her and Tamara apart very well. They both wear too much makeup and their hair is piled way too high.
“Actually, they can,” Margaret turns to them. “And so can I.”
“Margaret?” Frank appears in the doorway to his office. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Consider this my resignation,” Margaret says. She turns then and walks ahead of us out the front door. Harrison looks at me and shrugs. Okay, so apparently ol’ Margaret has had just enough of Frank’s crap as we have.
Well done.
Together, Harrison and I leave the house. Frank, Natasha, and Tamara are all screaming at us as we head outside. Harrison’s dad gave him a car, and I can see now that it’s parked in the front driveway. Margaret is standing beside it.
“Can I trouble you for a lift?” She asks.
“Anytime,” Harrison laughs. He opens the front passenger door and Margaret climbs in with her purse. Harrison helps me into the backseat. Then he gets in the front of the car, and he drives away from the house.
I look back behind us to see a few faces standing on the porch, but I can’t bring myself to care that Frank looks lost or scared.
I can’t bring myself to care that Natasha and Tamara are crying.
“You did a good thing, Harrison,” Margaret says.
“I don’t know about all that,” he says.
“You did. You were brave. Your mama would’ve been proud,” she tells him.
“Thanks,” Harrison says.
“And you, Miss Adalee,” Margaret looks back over her shoulder. “I’m glad you finally found your spine, girl. I always knew you had one in you.”
“Thank you.”
