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“Especially when you screw up and do impulsive things,” he reassures, kissing me gently. “What are you going to do?”
I smile widely, feeling happy for the first time in days.
“I’ll figure it out. I always do.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
On Saturday, I’m helping Luanna move to her new and small apartment on the border of the city. It’s not that far from mine—that I went back to—but I’m still bitter that Uncle Parker didn’t let her find an apartment with the girls and me. He thinks that I’m a disgrace to the family ever since he found out that I’m waiting for the official letter to get kicked out of college. In his weird mindset, he thinks that you need to have a degree to be successful. Which isn’t true at all.
Everyone’s journeys are different. Some people are successful by going to college, like doctors and lawyers, and others who don’t go or are dropouts, like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Everything is relative, and I don’t need to be compared to my cousins or him. I’m my own person, and I will do with my life what I feel is right for me.
He also believes that I’m a bad influence for his daughter and thinks that I’m going to screw her up if she’s living with me. The truth is that Luanna is more capable of fucking up things than I am. She has done it in the past. Not that I blame her for that.
Plus, allowing her to have her apartment alone will give her freedom to do whatever she wants.
“Bree, are you going to help me, or are you planning on staying there the whole day?” Luanna asks, putting a hand on her hip as she points to the unpacked boxes that she and Stanley are opening.
I roll my eyes.
“I was taking a break,” I assure them and drop my gaze to my phone where I was scrolling through Instagram.
“Right,” she murmurs. “Do you know if Ash is coming by later?”
I nod.
“After she’s done with a team meeting,” I respond.
“How is she? We haven’t spoken since before Thanksgiving’s day.”
Stanley and I exchange a look.
“She’s… fine. I honestly don’t know. I think something’s up with her,” I let her know, and she frowns. “Ash has been neglectful to talk about it with us, so I can’t tell you details about it.”
“But what about Ryder?”
I shrug.
“I have no idea what’s going on there.”
“What’s going on where?”
I jump at the sound of a fourth voice in the room. Turning around, I spot Ryder in the doorframe, holding a bottle of wine in his right hand.
“My situation with Moss,” I lie quickly. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Yeah, well, I heard that ginger was moving, and I couldn’t help coming by to bring a welcoming gift.”
My phone buzzes, and my heart drops when I see the unread email from the Harpy. Leaning against the boxes, I prepare myself to read it. I need to take a deep breath before I press on it, and I begin to read.
Miss Pierce,
I’ve been trying to figure out how to start this email for the past week. You would’ve thought that my wall of diplomas would help me to write this, but it hasn’t done anything other than confirm what you said about me. As I’ve been debating on whether I should do what’s right or the questionable choice, I realized that I do need to be more human, even if it’s not ethical.
You brought to my attention parts of myself that I knew were there, but that no one dared to tell me they were. You did that. I have to admit that I know my students don’t do well in my class. I’ve had an infinity of nicknames—the Harpy, Witch, Voldemort, among others—that have made me uncomfortable, if I’m honest with you. My work as a professor is not the best. Somewhere between getting my diplomas and awards, my brain consumed my heart. I’ve spent so much time with my nose in books and investigations that I’ve lost the sense of what it was to be a student or a real educator.
Although I want to punish you for cheating on my class and helping mister McKinley do it too—I’m not naïve, and I can see through a lie—, I haven’t been able to expose you either. What you did, as reckless as it was, is honorable. I genuinely don’t understand your reasons for taking the fall for your classmate. I’ve always frowned upon women giving up their dreams for men, but you didn’t do it with that purpose. There was something meaningful in your act, something so human and selfless that I could never understand.
Do you want the truth?
