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“After this, it’s the house.”
“No, we don’t have anywhere else to go,” Mum cries.
“But, Viv, it’s your engagement ring,” Dad says.
“I don’t care. This is our home.” She blinks back tears. “Besides, it’s not the ring you proposed with.”
Dad meets my eyes. The look in his makes my stomach bottom out. It’s killing him seeing this happen to her.
But Mum’s right. The giant custom-made ring stuck on her finger isn’t the small, humble one Dad proposed with. He had no money back then.
“Here.” I walk over to Mum and take her hand. I lead her to the sink where I hold her hand in mine and rub some soap over her finger. I gently work it around the ring and then slide it from her finger as she squeezes her eyes shut. I hand the ring to the suited man, and he takes it, covered in soap, without saying a word.
“You done now?” Dad scowls at him.
The man looks over his list a final time and nods. “We are. We’ll show ourselves out.”
Dad grunts as he leaves.
I wrap an arm around Mum as she sniffs.
“They’re just things.” Her voice trembles. “It’s having people here in our house that I find upsetting. Not that the things are gone. We’re all okay, that’s the main thing.”
I meet Dad’s eyes over her head, and I can see from one look at him that he’s thinking the same as me. They might only be things. But they’re their things. Things they’ve worked hard for. Things that took them years to build.
“We can’t lose the house too,” Dad says, looking at Mum. She’s holding back tears and scrubbing her hands vigorously like she can wash away the sick feeling that’s no doubt crashed over her like it has me. Like it has Dad. “Not the house,” he mumbles as he takes over from me and places his arm around her.
“You won’t have to,” I promise, swallowing down the razorblades in my throat as Mum scrubs harder until a thin line of red globules appear around her knuckle. “I’ll do whatever it takes, Dad. I’ll do whatever is necessary.”
His eyes water as he looks at me. It’s enough to tell me he understands.
This is my family, and the Riches always find a way. No matter whether they like what that way looks like or not.
I’ll do whatever I have to.
Chapter 29
Maddy
It’sbeenfivedayssince Chloe came to my door, and I cried in her arms. Five days since I discovered the truth that Dad forced Drew away years ago. Five days since I called Logan and he told me his family will lose everything if he doesn’t marry Gabrielle. And five days since I told him he should marry her. Because I don’t deserve him.
That’s the hard truth.
Five days feels like five decades when you don’t hear from the one person whose voice you so desperately need to hear. But I can’t call him. It’s not fair.
Drew said Logan’s been pulling all-nighters, desperately seeking a solution. Debt recovery agents turned up at his parents’ house and cleared it out. He’s been reeling ever since. My heart is breaking for him, wishing I could speak to him. But I’ll only confuse things if I call. Distract him when he needs to focus. I need to take comfort from knowing that Drew, Dax, and Tanner have been keeping an eye on him and helping with what they can. One positive is that it’s sped up Logan and Drew’s truce. Drew hasn’t mentioned me and Logan since.
All talk of it has been left in the past. Like it never happened.
“You sure he’s doing okay?” I ask Drew as he digs around inside his toolbox in my kitchen.
“No. But he’ll live.” Drew pulls out a screwdriver, then pulls his phone from his back jean pocket as it buzzes. “Great, they’re here.”
“Who are?” I ask as he presses the button on my camera system to buzz them in.
“The boys.”
I follow him to my front door.
