Chapter 13
KAYLEIGH
“You seem distracted,” Alida says from across the booth of a cozy new restaurant that just recently opened in Evergreen Pass. One she insisted I just had to try the second she picked me up from the airport.
I was excited.
Until I logged in to pay my student loans and discovered they were already paid in full.
I don’t know how to feel about that. Is this what Elliot meant about owning me? Maybe he’s no better than his son. Maybe he uses money to control his world, which, by extension, would now include me.
He ensured my plane ticket home was upgraded to first class, after all.
“I’m just jet lagged,” I lie.
“It was one two-hour flight,” Alida points out. “Has that internship been running you a little ragged?”
I could keep lying to my sister, but in truth, it’s getting exhausting.
Besides, Alida has always been there for me.
She’s sacrificed so much to make sure I had all the opportunities that led me on my desired path.
She was once willing to sell herself off to the highest bidder so I could keep going to college on her dime because she refused to let me get student loans.
If not for her, I wouldn’t be this close to becoming a veterinarian.
I owe her more than another lie.
“There was never an internship. At least, not one right now.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
I’m relieved it’s just the two of us right now, because if I had to make this confession with the entire Hansen clan hovering around me, I don’t think I could push through the fear. I suck in a deep breath to summon the courage to just spit it out.
“You remember Adam?”
“Yeah. Not exactly his biggest fan.”
“Well, that makes two of us.” I take a sip of my cappuccino and then I tell her everything.
I confess how Adam pulled the wool over my eyes until he’d managed to slowly—without my noticing—drain my savings until the entire sum I had set aside for my tuition was just suddenly gone.
Because of the number of ATM withdrawals that went unreported for so long, my bank refused to do anything about it.
I tell her about going to see Elliot, about him slamming the door in my face, and then saving me when I was stupid enough to sign up for the same auction she once did.
“Oh, Kayleigh. Please tell me you didn’t.”
“Just like you, I got lucky,” I tell her, hoping that’ll brighten her distraught expression. It doesn’t. “I also fell in love with the man who saved me.”
“We Kingstons don’t need saving,” Alida says firmly.
“No, not normally. But this one time, I really did. If Elliot hadn’t shown up—”
“Why was he even there?”
I tell her about Max, and her hardened expression seems to soften the slightest. She’s a sucker for a good love story, just like I am.
“You’re in love then?” Alida asks, her tone cautious. “With your ex-boyfriend’s dad?”
“It sounds pretty scandalous when you put it like that.”
“How else would you like me to put it?” Her tone is flat, and I can’t tell if she’s lecturing me or teasing me.
“He’s pretty grumpy on the outside, but inside…” I sigh, taking another sip of cappuccino. “You should see the way he is with his animals. The way he is with Meatloaf.”
“Wait, Meatloaf likes him?”
“Didn’t I tell you that part?”
“No.”
“That traitor warmed up to Elliot immediately.”
“So, this is happening then?” Alida asks, as though processing.
“Well, I thought it was.” I show her my screen with my tuition paid in full, and she returns a raised eyebrow.
“What am I missing?”
“I didn’t pay this.”
“We didn’t pay it either. I don’t have that kind of access.” She and Fox both declined the login information when I offered it to them. They trusted me with the money. They trusted I would be responsible enough and not let some conman figure out my ATM pin.
That doesn’t explain how Elliot managed to access my account, but I suspect he didn’t need a pin to do it.
“Then it had to be Elliot,” I say.
“That bothers you?”
I can’t decide if I’m bothered or touched.
On one hand, he might be trying to make up for what Adam did.
He might still feel bad about slamming the door in my face which forced me to sign up for the Naughty List Christmas Auction.
But on the other hand, he might consider me a possession now.
He might be using the money to control me.
“I’ll tell you what,” Alida says before I answer her. “Since you don’t have a real internship right now, why don’t you stay a few days longer? It’ll give you some time away to think clearly. Then you can decide what to do about this whole ex-boyfriend’s dad thing.”
“Ugh. Can you please just call him Elliot?” I complain.
Alida flashes me a mischievous smile. “Not a chance.”