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There was a pause, though that was expected. Liam didn’t break it, allowing Anna as much time as she needed to decide whether she would turn him away. Even if she did, he hoped she at least gained something from knowing he’d been willing to help.
Eventually, a response, so softly spoken that it only barely crept through the crack in the door and reached his ears, arrived.
“Yes. You can come in.”
Relaxing in one way but tensing in another, Liam applied the necessary pressure to slowly swing the door open, following it with his feet. He paused once he spotted Anna.
At the foot of her bed, which was so neatly made that it almost seemed as if she hadn’t used it last night, a slender woman with eyes of the most unique green he’d ever seen looked up from her lap. Hands clasped, her frame appearing smaller than he’d ever seen it, he mostly noticed the red around the green. Rimmed with freshly spilled tears.
“Sorry,” Anna said, lips wavering slightly as she tried to form an apologetic smile, though she only succeeded in the first part of the journey before it fell away.
He shook his head. “There’s nothing you need to be sorry about. I just wanted to come and check on you.” He tilted his chin toward the bed. “Can I sit with you?”
A nod allowed his feet to enter the room further, and he carefully sat a respectful distance away beside Anna at the foot of the bed. Another silence, more poignant than the last, dominated the room as if it were choked in smog. Liam hastily worked to think of the best way to break it. After a few more moments, they both turned their gazes ever so slightly toward the other. It was enough; their eyes met.
“Thank you for coming to check on me, Liam. I’m sorry for disappearing like that.”
He immediately sensed that reminding her that she didn’t need to keep apologizing might do more harm than good, so he decided to let her have the word, for whatever solace it might grant her.
“It’s okay, really. I just wanted to come see how you’re doing. We got a little worried after a while.”
Anna dipped her head. “Did… Tess mention anything?”
“About your father, you mean?”
Another nod.
“She mentioned not caring for him much, but we didn’t dive into a ton of specifics or anything,” he said.
“I believe you’re underselling things if you’ve concluded that she doesn’t ‘care for him much,’ Liam.”
“A little bit,” he admitted. “But that’s just how she feels about him. How doyoufeel? If you’re up for sharing it, of course.”
He watched her waver with her decision for a little while, during which he again gave her all the time she needed.
“My feelings are complicated,” Anna eventually explained. “I don’t share the same… vehement hatred for him that Avril and Tess have, but I know I would be lying if I claimed we have a good relationship. He has certain expectations of me as his daughter, and I know he doesn’t feel as though I have met many of them.”
“Does that include getting together with this Trent guy?”
Anna released an exhausted sigh. “That was what this call was about. He wants me to accompany him and my mother to the Alden’s estate for a Christmas Eve party.” She paused. “I… told him that I already have plans with Avril and Tess.”
“I’m guessing he didn’t take it all that well?”
“No,” Anna stated, looking down at her hands in her lap. “No, he did not.”
“Do you know how things are going to end up? I’d hate if you got dragged away from the people who you like, and who like you, to spend a miserable night over there.”
“I… think it will be fine. Since I mentioned making these plans Avril, I doubt my father will press the issue too much. He won’t want to agitate things too much over something like this. He’s just angry that I’m ‘disobeying’ him.” She released a morose sigh.
“Is Avril the secret solution to everything?” Liam asked, again noting the importance she seemed to receive in something he wouldn’t have imagined she would have any in. Why would Arnold Royce relent because of Anna’s troublemaking friend?
“Something like that, I suppose,” Anna said, allowing a small smile to slide onto her lips. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.” She snapped her gaze toward him. “Please don’t ever tell her that. I’m unsure what would happen if her ego grew any larger.”
Liam chuckled, imagining the sheer haughtiness rolling off Avril in waves if she heard what Anna had just said. He knew a bit about it, given the role she’d played inhisrecent triumph with Tess. He was already expecting her to croon about like a peacock once he revealed how well today had gone.
“I promise. We can’t let her bethatinsufferable. Not even you could humble her if that happened.”
“I don’t even know if I’m capable of it now,” Anna said. “Avril is who she is, and the only way to survive around her is to accept that. She marches to the beat of her own drum. In some ways, it is quite enviable.”
