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“You shouldn’t have to do this.” She’s embarrassed. “My dad didn’t even pretend to try. I don’t know if he’s planning to come back at all.”
“Don’t worry about him. We’ll finish packing. We can pick up Mia and Ben early, if you don’t want them to have to come back here.”
It’s a dire situation. I didn’t realize just how dire until I was standing in the middle of it.
I know, because I recognize this place. Our house was often the site of a natural disaster growing up, except the natural disaster wasn’t a storm. It was my father. The fifty thousand dollars she took doesn’t mean anything to me. I really couldhave spent it on coffee, if I’d wanted to.
It’s a fortune to Bristol.
And she used absolutely none of it on this apartment. Not on furniture. Not on the cheap dress she wore to dinner. Not on making it better for herself. All of that went to keeping a roof over her siblings’ head.
Anger heats my chest. Bristol would have been better off if she’d taken the money for herself. She could have used it to rent another apartment. Escape. Anything.
I’m furious with her father. I’m furious with myself. But I understand her. I can’t look at her like a corporate whore. I can’t look at her like a woman who will leave. She doesn’t leave when it counts, even though she should.
“Where are the bags?”
Bristol eases herself down from the bed and stands in the center of the room. It’s so small that I could reach out and touch her. “Are you sure about this? I know you have meetings at the office.”
“I canceled the meetings. This is more important.”
“Nobody—” She swallows. “Nobody can fix this overnight. If you know of a cheap hotel, or somewhere—”
“You’ll stay with me. I don’t care if it takes a week. I don’t care if it takes two.”
That’s longer than she’s supposed to work for me, and we both know it.
Bristol’s face softens. “You’re not mad?”
“Did you learn how to create storms and use your power to destroy your apartment roof just to get back at me for being a jackass? I’d deserve it.”
She cracks a smile. “No.”
“Then point me to one of those bags. I’ll pack up the next room.”
16
BRISTOL
Mr. Leblanc’sdriver takes me to Mia and Ben’s school to pick them up, and it’s more than a little weird, waiting in the carpool line in a fancy SUV. The final bell rings, and kids pour out of the front entrance. They all run down the steps like they barely survived. Like they can’t wait to be free in the sun.
Mia and Ben are walking a little slower than the rest.
We were all up most of the night. It would probably have been best for them to sleep, but the apartment had to get cleared out. It was much drier at school.
Mia picks up her head as they reach the bottom step and sees me standing by the black SUV. Her eyes fly open wide. Then they’re both sprinting to me, colliding in a hug.
“Is that your car?” she asks. “What’s going on?”
“It’s my boss’s car.” I could tell them a white lie and say that Mr. Leblanc is my friend, but he’s not. He’s never been my friend. “We’re going to be staying at his place while the apartment gets fixed.”
I usher them into the car. When we’re finished buckling up, I find Ben staring at me.
“Your boss’s apartment?” He says this like I announced we’d be living on the moon until the Queen of England came to personally renovate the apartment in Building C. “Is it close to ours?”
“No. It’s in a different part of the city.” A nice part, judging by the address.
I don’t say anything about timelines. I’m still in disbelief myself. I knew Will Leblanc was rich. I assumed he was powerful, like all people with money are powerful. I knew he was good at managing his company. I knew he was meticulous.
