AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And I couldn’t look past the logo. I really couldn’t.
“Your little brother came to me one day with the college name,” Dad told me, but my blood pounded loudly in my ears, almost drowning him out. “I put in the application. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to apply to an online college.”
“What…why…” I opened my mouth and closed it, staring at that logo with a spinning mind. “What changed your mind?”
“The point of raising a child is to let them grow into who they want to be,” Dad said, and Mom nodded ever so slightly, even if it looked a little strained. “Not whowewant you to be.”
“You deserve the right to make your own choices…even if we may disagree with them.”
Dad squeezed her shoulder.
“We want you around for Christmases and birthdays,” she added, and for the first time ever, I saw Mom’s eyes fill. I’dneverseen Mom cry. “We love you too much to lose you.”
Dad pressed against her side. “It was easy to get caught up in the glamor of it all, in the reputation and everything. But none of that is worth ruining our relationship with our kids. Withyou.”
They were the words I’d always wanted my parents to say, tobelieve, and right in that moment, they were giving me what I always dreamed of. A chance of freedom—achoice. I could’ve wept at that.
But I looked back down to the letter. Mom’s and Dad’s eyes were on me, and I knew there was probably an intensity there, but I couldn’t look. Nerves would finally swallow me whole if I looked. Instead, I’d pretend my parents weren’t there. With a deep breath in, I glanced down.
At first, the words were gibberish. They all blended together, the sentences turning into one incoherent blob of ink and mush. Indecipherable. I almost asked Mom to read it, to take it from my shaking fingers, when three words stood out.Pleased to accept.
No way. No way, no way. I almost couldn’t feel totally excited because this moment didn’t feel real. It felt like I’d been trapped in a dream, becoming self-aware but still unable to wake up. Even so, I didn’t want anyone to pinch me.
When I looked up, I found Dad grinning. And Mom—well, she wasn’t smiling, but her face also wasn’t pinched. “I should’ve listened to you,” she said slowly. “Should’ve thought about what you wanted more. And I’m sorry I didn’t give you the freedom you wanted.”
“We,” Dad corrected, stepping close enough to place his hand on her shoulder. “Thatwedidn’t give you the freedom you wanted.”
“I just want to explore,” I told them, turning back to the paper, rereading those words again. “The country, the world. Myself. I…I don’t think I really know who I am.” I didn’t know who I was without my parents’ direction, but one thing was for sure. “I’m excited to find out.”
“Well, we’ll be here to find out with you.” Mom straightened her posture. “The best part is that the credits transfer if you change your mind.”
A startled snort came from me. “I can’t believe I got in.”
“It’s an online college,” she said, a line forming between her brows. “Doesn’t everyone get in?”
“Alice,” Dad murmured, and I watched his fingers squeeze her shoulder again. “Destelle, there’s something else downstairs I want to show you. It’s in my study.”
Nellie stepped into the doorway, her eyes immediately locking on my head. I forgot all about the wig until she said, “That’s so pretty! Can I try it on?”
“How about later?” I asked, reaching up and easing it off.
Mom got to her feet, holding her hand out to my little sister. “Nellie, why don’t you help me with dinner?”
“I get to help you?” Nellie’s eyebrows rose with a happy sort of surprise. “Can Jamie help too?”
“Don’t burn dinner,” I told her, standing as well. “Or I’ll be furious.”
“Furious,” she said automatically. “F-U-R-I-O-U-S. Furious. And don’t worry, I won’t. It’s Jamie you have to worry about.”
Dad led me into his office, but I lingered in the doorway as he made his way around the oak. His movements were swift as he opened the drawer beside his desk, the one he normally kept my cell phone caged in. “It took me some time to find this,” he told me. “I couldn’t remember if I kept it in the office or here. Turned out, I’d placed it in my glove box. So I’d always have it with me, I suppose.”
It didn’t take him more than a second to fish out something—an envelope with a crease on one corner. Without a word, Dad offered it out to me.
I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering what kind of game he played at. Another envelope? What, another college acceptance letter?
I took it from him and eased the broken seal apart, finding a letter inside. It’d been written on a piece of notebook paper, folded and creased. The black ink looked rushed, written across it—handwritten. Once I pulled it completely out, I saw the name.
Harrison Russo.
