Chapter Fourteen
Amanda
Today
Amanda was exhausted. After she’d dropped Max off at school, she’d gone to every listing of apartments, condos, and houses to rent, and each one was worse than the last. She had less than a month to move out of Craig’s house, and she had no idea where to go.
She had to be close enough to the office for work and wanted Max to continue attending his current school. But everything around the area was expensive, and there wasn’t much to rent. Since the fires in Malibu and Pacific Palisades, the price of rent had gone up and there were fewer places left. She’d been lucky that her home had been spared from the fire. In fact, most of her neighborhood had been spared by some miracle. During the fires, she’d evacuated to her mother’s house in Torrance until she was able to return to the house. Aside from the smell of smoke, the house was fine.
But now she had to leave the only house Max had ever known.
She couldn’t blame Craig’s wife. Not at all. She knew Marsha had misinterpreted her and Craig’s relationship, but would it matter to her if she knew the truth? She’d still kick her out of the house. And since the house still had a mortgage on it, she couldn’t blame her for wanting to sell it.
She and Craig had spoken many times throughout the years about the cost of the house and how it was affecting his financial situation. Craig never complained, but Amanda suspected he’d overextended himself. First, he sold the Monterey office to his employees, then he sold the Malibu office. He’d offered to pay her share of the buyout so she could be an owner, too, but she’d declined. Amanda had taken so much from Craig already. She couldn’t let him give her a piece of the business he’d built from the ground up.
Amanda wished she’d been stronger and had flatly refused to live in the Malibu house. She’d be in a better situation now if she had. But he’d worn her down—always saying it was for Max. And while she also wanted to give Max the best life possible, she should have made sure it was affordable for her if anything happened to Craig.
Tears filled her eyes as she sat in traffic on Highway One. She had adored Craig. She was never in love with him, and they didn’t have a physical relationship, but he was so kind and generous to both her and Max. Sometimes, when he came to Malibu, he’d stay at the house, and they’d take Max to the beach, or he’d play games with the young boy. He’d spent as much time as possible with Max, and for that, Amanda would be forever grateful. Unfortunately, Craig hadn’t made a plan for her and Max in the event that he should die.
But then again, why would she have expected him to? He’d paid for her house and all she had to pay for were the utilities. Because of that, she’d been able to put aside a nice nest egg for herself and Max. She earned a nice living, too, all thanks to Craig’s encouragement. But California, and especially places like Malibu, were so expensive. And she didn’t want to spend all her savings and have nothing left.
The day Amanda saw Marsha at the cemetery had been difficult. While she’d love to be able to explain her relationship with Craig, she could tell immediately that Marsha wasn’t ready to listen. Again, she couldn’t blame her for that. But that conversation was ingrained in her mind and wouldn’t go away.
The necklace. The pretty gold heart with the diamonds on it. Craig had given that to her five years ago, too, on Mother’s Day. He’d thanked her for giving him the greatest gift of all—Max. It hadn’t been a gift given out of love for her but out of his love for his son. Until that day at the cemetery, Amanda hadn’t known that Marsha had the same necklace. Amanda could see how she’d misinterpret it, seeing it on her. Amanda had cherished the lovely necklace, but now, she felt bad wearing it.
All of this was tearing her up inside.
Amanda pointed her car towards Max’s elementary school. She’d take another day off work tomorrow and continue to search for a place to live. She was starting all over again. Even the furniture wasn’t hers. But she told herself it didn’t matter. Max had a father for the first nine years of his life, and it was worth all the trouble it caused her now. Because Max wouldn’t remember where they lived as much as he’d remember the man he’d called Dad. And that was all that mattered.