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“What is this? A charity case? I know you like to help in the community, but that is her parents’ job to worry about. Not yours.”
“They’re dead,” she says quietly.
My thoughts instantly go to the girl I have treated like shit since I first laid eyes on her and then the way the guys have treated her. The way Sarah threatened her. If provoked, Sarah and her little crew of friends could cause a lot of trouble for Aura.
Then the memory of Aura’s words come back. She said if she had a choice, she wouldn’t be here. It means there aren’t many options or none at all.
“I’m sorry to have thrown this on you at the last minute, but Aura has no other family. Her parents were all she had. Camila has known Aura since she was a child and knew her parents verywell. She will be eighteen in three months. After the bank sold off her home and their car, leaving her with nothing, the judge granted me temporary custody for ninety days until she is an adult. She can work only four hours a day until she graduates in three months. Then after she would be offered the position on our household staff. That was the agreement. She has nowhere to go, and I couldn’t say no. You know how that would make us look.”
I nod, feeling like a piece of shit. Here I am with both my parents, living the best life, with all the luxuries a person could want, when other people mourn the loss of not only one parent but two. I know my mother isn’t all that bad and means well. She is hiring Aura to clean. What is more irritating is that she is more worried about how people see us as a family for turning down a poor girl in need. In my mother’s mind, word would get around, and she would be ridiculed for being a snob. It’s not Aura she really cares about. It’s her image.
Taking a deep breath, I ask, “How did they die?”
My mother’s eyes soften. “A car accident. They died instantly. Aura was waiting for them to come home after making them dinner. According to Camila, she would always make them dinner when they worked late.”
I nod, feeling like a bigger dick than last night when I basically told her that her boyfriend didn’t care about her and is fucking some other chick because she was forgettable. She wasn’t crying because of what I said. She was crying because she misses her parents and hates it here. Which means she must hate me for how I treated her, and I can’t blame her. I would hate me too.
“I understand.”
She stands to walk me out the front door so I can head out to school. She looks around outside and frowns.
“Where’s Aura?” my mother asks.
Shit. I forgot that I told her to walk to school because I don’t give rides to the hired help. Cason’s words about her walking haunt me. Looking guilty, I gaze at my mother over the roof of my black Lamborghini, seeing her murderous expression. She knows something is up when I don’t answer.
“Kalum St. Claire, tell me where Aura is right now,” she demands.
Even if I’m six foot three and built like a house, my mother can still make me feel like a mouse with her hard tone.
Wincing, I tell her. “I-I kind of told her that I don’t give rides to the hired help and that she could walk to school.”
“Are you fucking crazy?”
My mother never curses. But what gets me is that she isn’t mad about her walking to school.
My eyes narrow. “It was only to school. I told Henry to pick her up after school after I realized how messed up it sounded.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, I know she’s upset. “If something happens to that girl because of you, you will be held responsible. You will go and explain to a judge why you were careless and let her get hurt. It will fall on you; now get in that thing you call a car and go find her. And make sure she makes it safe to and from school.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She notices I’m annoyed. She thinks it’s because she is reprimanding me because of my actions. I’m not annoyed that I messed up. I’m more pissed off that she is worried about what will happen to her because of the judge and not to Aura.
6
Kalum
Driving down the road to school, I don’t see Aura anywhere. Checking the time on my car, I see that school doesn’t start for another hour.Fuck. My stomach sinks, thinking the worst. Slamming my hand on my steering wheel, I drive through the gates and park in my designated spot in the school parking lot, noticing the cars parked in the same row. The guys are already here.
Getting out, I quickly make it inside to where the lockers are, scanning the hallway, but I don’t see any sign of Aura. She must be here already. I need to find her, even if I have to hunt every inch of this school until I do. Quickly getting my shit from my locker on the opposite side of the hall, Brian saunters up next to me.
“Hey, brother?”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing, just leaving Cason in the library.”
My brows furrow. Cason in the library? “What the fuck is he doing there?”
