“We both do,” I stress, holding his angry gaze. “The more normal our day is, the better we’re equipped to handle this disruption.”
“Exactly.” My mother seems proud. “That is exactly how a lady handles such affairs.”
Is that why she remains so steadfast in the face of upheaval?
“And what will be the outcome of the plea bargain?” Colt asks quietly, his back to the room. “What are they offering? It can’t be insider information because they have that, don’t they?”
“Assets.” Mum’s nostrils flare. “Derek is bartering our assets against a reduced sentence.”
“Our money?” Colt snaps. “We’re paying everyone’s debts?”
“At this stage.” Her answer is but a mere whisper.
I stare at the woman before me, a war of emotion pulling me every direction on the inside.
I’m shocked, upset, betrayed, and ultimately angry.
My father’s arrest didn’t shake her. Having him led from our house and kept in a holding cell didn’t pull a tear from her eye. But at the news our money might be taken away? She falls apart.
What kind of loyalty is that?
“What happens to Dad until the trial?”
“He comes home on house arrest.” The contempt in her tone shakes me. “As though the ladies don’t have enough to gossip about already, now my husband will have an anklet issued by corrections.” She sighs. “We’ll figure out what needs to change together.”
“Nothing changes,” Colt states. “This is where we belong: in our house, with our things. This is our life.”
“It’s not our life anymore!”
Neither Colt nor I say a word, equally as shocked by our mother’s outburst. She visibly shakes, chest heaving while she struggles with her composure.
“What we knew is no more,” she elaborates calmly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out how on earth I’m supposed to feed us without a working account.”
Her dress billows behind her; blonde waves bounce on her back as she strides from the parlour.
Colt slowly turns to face me, shaking his head. “I can’t believe this.”
“Dad’s doing what he thinks is right.”
“For who?” Colt hollers.
I keep my tears at bay with the thinnest of tethers. “I’m not the one you should be angry with, so please do not yell at me.”
“I’m sorry.” He drops before me, falling to a knee before taking one of my hands in both of his. “It’ll be okay, Lacey. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”
I nod, although I get the feeling his definition of okay and mine are vastly different.
Yes, I love my privileged life, but what I want more than anything else in this world is the comforting smell of my father when he holds me tight. I want his calm words and logical mind, his rational processes, and the security he provides.
Everything being okay for me is Dad coming home, and our family whole once again.
For Colt, though, I get the impression he’s as jaded as our mother—money is his idealisation of a perfect outcome.
Whether that includes our father, or not.
I know as siblings we’re different, but until now, I naively believed he held the same principle as me: family comes first.
How wrong I was.
“Do you think we can visit Dad?” I ask. “I’m sure he’d appreciate being able to see us.”
“You’d need to ask Mum.” Colt stands, stepping away as he runs a hand through his blond hair. “I don’t want to see him.”
“Why not?” I wriggle my toes inside my boots to shake the nervous energy coursing through me.
“He put us in this position, Lacey. How can that not make you mad?”
“I’m hurt more than mad.” I rise to my feet, matching his stance. “I know he’d never willingly do this to us.”
“He should have known better than to be so stupid as to become a scapegoat.”
Open hearts are always the first to break. My father trusts easily, just like me. He chooses to see people in the best light possible until they prove him wrong.
Unfortunately, just like me, that leaves him the most vulnerable to betrayal.
“Shouldn’t you ask why his colleagues were cruel enough to use him in this way?” I snap.
How is our father at fault more so than the heartless men on his board?
“It’s business, Lacey.” Colt’s eyes narrow as he leans in. “There are always lions ready to eat sheep.”
“Our father is not a sheep.”
“Isn’t he?” Colt chuckles. “You know what he was before he met Mum?”
I shake my head, expecting Colt to explain.
“Exactly. How could you know what Dad is like if you don’t truly know him?”
Instead, my brother treats me the same as everyone else in this family—like a stupid little girl who needs to be treated with kid gloves.
“Then tell me the truth.”
“You’ll learn it in due time.” He lifts a hand to caress my cheek adoringly. “How about you plan something with girls for Monday? Get away for the day to a spa. Take some time out of the city. You don’t need to be around all this.”
I jerk away from his touch. “I’m not fragile, Colt. I can handle what goes on in our house.”
“It’s not the drama in our house that’s the problem.”
I tilt my head, unsure where he heads with this.
“It’s what they’ll do to you at school when they find out one of their precious Chosen is no longer worthy of her title.”
“Money doesn’t define my worth,” I argue. “I earned that spot through who I am, not what I am.”
The darkness in his eyes is reminiscent of our mother’s. “Did you, though?”
“Ignore them.” Greer loops her arm through mine, tugging me toward the central courtyard. “The masses like to think you’re human like them, and cutting you down with gossip does that.”
“Aren’t I, though?” I glance at a group of girls and boys, all mingling as they openly fall quiet while I pass. “Human, I mean.”
“You’re a step above, remember?” She busts the timber exit door open with a firm palm, pulling me through behind her.
The first gaze I fall upon belongs to a boy who’d quite clearly like to eat me alive.
And
