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“Well, I just wanted to give you a heads up since she’ll be around soon. You’re okay with this, right?”
I gave a tight-lipped grin while images of the snotty little girl I knew drifted through my mind. The girl that used to turn her nose up at me and complain about me being too loud while she was studying. The girl who used to turn every differing opinion into a debate of some sort. If I was not mistaken, she had once called me a chauvinist pig. Yet she insisted on staying around me, likely just to spite me.
“Yeah, I’m cool with it,” I lied, because I knew there was nothing else I could say. After all, Tobias was like my brother, which made Joanna my sister by default even if I didn’t like it. “Gotta look out for family, right?”
Tobias smiled. “Thanks, man. I knew you would understand.”
“Of course,” I said, although my throat felt a little tight. I reached for the bottle of water at the corner of my desk and took a long sip. “Just out of curiosity, how long do you anticipate her working with us?”
Tobias stood and shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? Probably not long though. Joanna has always been independent, so I’m sure she’ll be moving along as soon as she can. This is just a temporary fix. Anyway, I’ll talk to you later.”
“All right,” I said as Tobias left my office.
I knew he had a point though. Joanna wouldn’t be around long. The more I thought about it, the more insignificant the situation felt. Not before long, I got back to work, no longer caring about what was going on with Joanna one way or another.
CHAPTER 3
Joanna
It was funny how a week could feel so slow and long at the same time, but that was precisely how I felt after staying with my brother. Tobias was accommodating as usual, but there was still a lot of adjustment. First, the simple transition of moving back to Chicago after living in Miami was a lot to adapt to on its own. When I added in the fact that I’d left a good job and a beautiful apartment—sometimes it felt too much to bear. Yet I kept reminding myself that it was for the best; no job, apartment, or beautiful climate was worth me being unhappy, terrorized, and battered.
I hadn’t seen my brother in a while, but I should have known his taste was as extravagant as always, especially now that he had such abundant funds to back it up. After leaving the airport, I took an Uber to his place even though he had offered to have someone get me.
“Tobias, I’m grown. I don’t need you sending me chaperones,” I had told him.
“Your age has nothing to do with it. You’re just stubborn. Fine, suit yourself.”
“Is this where you’re going, miss?” the Uber driver asked as he pulled up in front of my brother’s mansion with its perfect lawn.
I looked down at the address Tobias had texted to my phone. “Yep.”
The driver let out a low and impressed whistle. “Wow. Must be nice being you,” he said.
I huffed. “Looks aren’t always what they seem,” I muttered, readjusting the sunglasses on my face and then letting myself out of the car. “Thanks for the ride.”
“No problem. Need any help with your luggage?”
“No, I got it. Thanks.”
By evening, I was sitting at the dining room table with my brother, in front of a meal that was way too extravagant for just the two of us. In his eagerness to give me a warm welcome, he’d had all my favorite foods catered in for dinner. I couldn’t deny that everything looked and smelled delicious, rotisserie chicken, baked macaroni and cheese, green beans, buttermilk biscuits, apple pie, and iced tea. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much of an appetite.
“Tobias, honestly, you shouldn’t have,” I said.
“Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do in my own house,” he said. “If I want to treat my little sister to a nice dinner, then I’ll do it.”
“Whatever,” I said.
“Take off those sunglasses, Jo. You look ridiculous.”
I pressed my lips together and stared down into my plate. Although I knew I couldn’t walk around wearing sunglasses indefinitely, it made my stomach squirm to let him see what Zander had done to me.
“It looks worse than it feels,” I said, and then reluctantly removed them. I remained staring down at my plate for a long time. When I finally got the nerve to look at Tobias, he wore a deep frown.
“Are you going to tell me precisely what happened or not?” he asked. “How long has he been treating you like this, Joanna?”
I didn’t want to engage the conversation, but with the way Tobias stared at me from across the table, demanding an answer, I knew it couldn’t be avoided. Besides, considering the major favor he was doing for me in allowing me to stay with him for a while, he had the right to know.
I sighed. “He didn’t start out that way, I swear. He was perfect in the beginning. But maybe that was the problem all along. He was too perfect. I should have known something was off… The first time he hit me, it was because I hadn’t cooked dinner for him. It was stupid, but so was every other time we argued. Our arguments never had any real substance. He was just always nitpicking, and I was always making excuses for him. I just kept telling myself not to worry about it. That he was just stressed and it was no big deal. But the arguing kept getting more and more frequent. And we kept getting more and more agitated with each other and…”
