“Wait a minute. Does that mean your father is super-rich as well?”
I nod hesitantly.
“And all these years, you’ve been driving that beat-up piece of crap and hustling me for gas money?”
Before Meghan can get angry, I explain, “I don’t have any money. My mom and I have nothing. We left him because he was abusive. We were running for our lives. He was the one who put my mom in a wheelchair.”
“Oh geez, Am. That’s terrible.” Meghan grows quiet, and she stares at her now finished milkshake. She plays with the empty cup in her hands. I wonder if I have hurt her because I have kept such an important part of myself from my friend for so long. I wonder if Meghan is angry with me. I wonder if I have now lost my friend as well.
“Does that mean you grew up rich?” Meghan looks up and smiles at me.
I fight back a smile and nod.
“Private cars? Fancy penthouses?” Her eyes light up. I’m relieved that she isn’t mad at me. “Did you have to wear one of those little plaid skirts at a fancy prep school?” she jokes.
“Yes, yes, and yes.” I nod my head several times emphatically.
“Man, you must have a lot of guts to walk away from all that.” She whistles. I know that all is forgiven. I haven’t lost my friend.
I draw a deep breath. A lot of guts? I’m not sure, but I was sure as hell scared. After he pushed Mom down a flight of stairs in our fancy penthouse, she was in the hospital for months and had to undergo several excruciating surgeries in desperate attempts to help her walk again. It was my junior year of high school and as I sat in the chair by her hospital bed, listening to the soft beeps of the machines that are keeping her alive, I swore I would do everything I could to keep her safe.
He told everyone that it was an accident. That she fell down the stairs on her own wearing high stiletto heels, because she was drunk. People listened to him. They listened to him because he was rich and mean. People also knew that Mom had a drinking problem. But it was only because she was trying to forget about all the pain he had inflicted on her.
For a rich girl with a wealthy father, I had a pitiful amount of money of my own. He had made sure that if we wanted to keep the same fancy lifestyle we had, we would depend on him for the rest of our lives. As soon as I could, I started saving up every bit of my allowance money. I saved up enough money to buy my truck with a bit of cash left over. That’s when we left and never looked back.
“I can’t believe Fletcher dumped you because your old man is a jackass. That’s so unfair.” Meghan clicks her tongue. “But I understand why he’s mad at you.”
“Really? Why?”
“Am, we’ve been friends for years and you never told me about your family.” Meghan plays with a rumpled napkin on the table.
I sputter but no excuse comes out. I know that I have hurt my friend. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She shrugs. “I understand why you didn’t tell me, but it still hurts, you know? It’s like you don’t even trust me.”
“But I do! I just don’t know how to tell you. Things are so complicated.”
“I know, but when you hide things like that, well, it makes the other people feel like they aren’t worth your honesty. It hurts, you know? I’m hurt but I’m not even the one sleeping with you.”
Meghan’s words ring true. Fletcher has treated me unfairly but I have also hurt him. Tears well up again.
“It doesn’t erase the fact that he’s still an idiot.” Meghan pats me on the shoulder and squeezes. “He missed out on the best girl in the world. Now I have even more reason to hate him. And if I ever see him again—” she leans back and shakes her fist in the air.
“I’ll punch out that smug face of his.”
Chapter 16
Fletcher
“You need to eat something.” Valentina drops off a plate of sandwiches at my elbow. The ceramic plate clanks loudly against the polished glass desk.
I sign off on my last video call with bleary eyes. I can’t remember the last time I ate or drank. I nod mutely and reluctantly grab a stale sandwich. I fight back a yawn and reach for another cup of coffee, which Val takes away from me with a frown.
I have been working furiously since I got back to New York. I failed to find another investor or source of cash. It seems so hopeless. I am going to lose everything.
Besides desperately trying to save my life’s work, I’m also desperately trying to forget about a pair of beautiful green eyes. Or rather, the owner of those green eyes. I wonder what she is up to now, where she is, and what she is thinking. I wonder if Amelia thinks about me as much as I think about her.
No, it’s over between us. She lied to me, and her father is the reason that I am in this mess. The two of them have ruined me. Yet, I miss her intoxicating smell, the touch of her smooth skin, and the lovely sound of her voice. I am hopeless. I should hate her, but I just can’t muster it. I feel like such an idiot, but I just want to see her again only to have her back in my arms.
I wonder, maybe, I have been too hasty to judge her. Maybe there is some truth in what she said, that she has nothing to do with her father and nothing to do with the current mess that I am in. Maybe I
