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There is a long silence before Joy breaks it. “Is that why you asked for more money? You recognized him? Wasn’t it enough that you already got twenty thousand dollars while I did all the work? That is way more than I owed you!”
“Duh. That guy is worth more money than you and I can even fathom. We need as much as we can get. I’ll share the extra with you like I promised—"
“I don’t want it,” my angel cries, breaking my heart to bits. “I don’t want the freaking money. You can keep it and buy yourself a new soul to replace your rotten one.”
“You can’t speak to me like that! Not if you want to continue living here and get your share of the money.”
“I don’t want it!” Joy screams, repeating the same words she said to me, and that sends cold shame pooling in my belly. I feel like I might be sick as the pieces finally start to fall into place. “Now leave me alone,” Joy demands, gesturing toward the door.
I can tell her yell is so out of character with the way it shocks her roommate into silence, but not for long. “W-wait, Joy. What are you doing?”
“Packing! I don’t want to live with you anymore. I want nothing to do with you . . . or him.”
Her words crush me more than anything, but I am determined to make this right. And to think I said all those cruel things to her, adding insult to injury by throwing my money at her and making it clear I didn’t trust her.
I drop my head against the wall, cursing myself for being such an idiot and possibly ruining the best thing that will ever happen to me.
“You can’t leave,” the roommate says venomously, and I realize that this is whom Eric must have spoken to. She sounds just like he described. “Joy, you are only twenty, and your uncle and his family hate you. Your parents died when you were sixteen. You have no one! I am the closest thing to family you have!”
Not anymore.
I kick open the door, startling the two women in the room with my entrance.
“Nick,” Joy says alarmed. “What are you doing here? I told you—”
“Leave us alone,” I say to the vile, unwanted person in the room.
Kim sputters, glaring at me even as she rakes her eyes over my body. “This is my house; you can’t kick me out.”
“I can buy this whole building, hell, the entire neighborhood in less than a day and get you kicked out with all your things. Don’t fucking tempt me!”
She swallows, and she must read the truth in my eyes because she flashes me a glare and exits the room. I kick the door closed and turn to the woman I came for. I close the distance between us, my heart aching with the need to touch her and assure her that I am here to take care of her.
That I will be her family!
“Nick, look . . .”
“Forgive me, angel,” I say gently, cupping her jaw and dropping my forehead against hers. “I was a fool not to trust you.”
“Nick . . .”
“You are the best fucking Christmas gift I’ve ever received.” My voice is raspy even to my own ears. “You can’t blame me for wanting to give you the world the only way I know how.”
“Nick, wait—”
“I’m done waiting,” I say, brushing my lips needily against hers. “I need you. I should have trusted you. I’m sorry, angel . . . I love you.”
She stills against me, forcing me to look down and meet her gaze. “Y-you love me?”
“More than anything in the world,” I say, combing my fingers into her hair and tugging her close to me. “I have never felt so helpless in my life as I did when you ran away, and I had no idea how I’d fucked up. I thought giving you money would keep you with me. Why else would you want someone as horrible as me?”
“Y-you’re not a horrible person.”
“I make my employees work through Christmas and New Year’s.”
“You are a monster!” she scolds, slapping my chest, but I spy the smile on her lips.
“The worst kind,” I agree. “Now let this monster apologize properly and make it up to you.”
