Crushed (39 page)

“What did I ever do to make you hate me so much?”
she
asked Landon. She was
surprised at
her
own nerve.

“I don’t hate you. I simply dislike you,” he paused. “Possibly not you as a person
but I do dislike what you have done to my son.”

She
shook
her
head
,
dumbfounded. “What have I done to Reece?”

It was then that he explained to
her
, in full detail, how
she
was about to singlehandedly ruin Reece’s life. Or if not his life, at least, his
entire future. He believed it was because of
Cleo
, and
her
need to stay close to Luci, that Reece had refused to go away to school. He thought
it was because of
her
that he didn’t want a business degree. And therefore, had thrown his father’s offer
of taking over the
family business
one day
,
back in his
dad’s
face.

She
sat in stunned silence.
She
listened to him describe to
her
how hard he had worked to build the business into the thriving business it had become.
He had done it for the sake of his family. He had every intention of handing over
the business to Reece. But Reece had begun to show less and less interest until finally,
he had told his father it just wasn’t happening. Neither running the business nor
attending the college his father had hand-picked.

She
tried to explain to him that Reece had felt th
at way long before they were together.
Reece had told
her
this. He’d told
her
that he’d tried, repeatedly, to tell his father this. His father refused to listen.
Just as he refused to listen to
Cleo
now.

He firmly believed that if
she
was cut from Reece’s life, Reece would get his life back on track. Meaning the track
his father wanted him to follow. A track where he would walk right into a well
-
honed career and a very established business.

She
knew none of what he was saying was
her
fault. Reece had always felt that way.
But he hadn’t told his dad. Not until Landon started gearing up
,
prepping Reece for Northwestern. Then Reece had started to protest. Not only telling
him that he had no intention of going to Northwestern but that he had no interest
in the business at all.

Cleo
k
new it had nothing to do with her
. Even if the timing of it all implied otherwise.

Landon was wrong.

“To simplify things for you Cleo, I am poised to hand over a multi-million dollar
business to my son in a few years. He could be set for life. But because of your involvement
with him, he will not be prepared to accept it. Right now, he has this crazy notion
that he doesn’t even
want
it. I have worked too hard for this to let you ruin it.”

She
opened
her
mouth to protest but
she
didn’t get a single word out.

“I’m sure you didn’t mean to, but you have. This is a
crucial
time in his life. I’m not going to let some ridiculous infatuation ruin everything
I’ve worked so hard for. I want this relationship to be over.”

She
glanced at Paul. He slammed the rest of the liquid in his glass. Then he slammed
the glass onto the coffee table. He leaned forward and his eyes and voice drilled
a hole straight through to
her
heart. “Luci or Reece. Who will it be?”

If
she
was kicked out of this house would
she
ever get to see
Luci
? He
’d
said no. But even if
she
got to visit her, it would never be enough. Luci was the only family
she
had.
She
owed it to
her to take care of her.
Luci
counted on
her
.
She
would never, ever allow anything to separate
them
.
Her
breath caught in
her
throat and Paul smirked. He knew he was going to come out of this with a pocket full
of easy cash.

 
She
thought of Luci in her room.
She
wondered if she was sitting with her ear pressed to the door trying to listen. Or
maybe she had lost herself in a book.
Cleo
was hoping desperately it was the book.

“What will it be, Cleo?” Paul asked. “Don’t keep Mr.
Hildenbrandt
waiting.”

“Luci,”
she
said in a choked voice. “I choose Luci.”

Mr. Hilde
n
brandt gave
her
a look that said he did not entirely understand what
she
was saying.

“She’ll
end it. No problem
,” Paul boasted. It was clear that he’d never had any doubt. “I’ll see to it that
she doesn’t take him back. Not that he’d even want her after this. I
’ll be
keep
ing
my job. And I’ll get the rest of the payment in one year.”

“This will never work,”
Cleo
pointed out, feeling frantic. “I was just with Reece. He’s never going to believe
that my feelings for him have changed by tomorrow. There’s no way!”

“
Make him believe it
,” Landon said. “I want
any hope he has of a relationship with you to be crushed. He has to
be convinced
it’s over.”

“She’ll pull it off,” Paul said confidently. “Because if
I
lose my job because of her, there’s nothing keeping me here. I’d have to look for
work elsewhere. I’d have to pack up Luci, take her away.” He shrugged
as he looked at Cleo
. “
And if I had to do that? You can count on not knowing where we’re going.”

She stared at him but didn’t respond. She got it. She understood. He was threatening
to take Luci away. And he had no intention of letting her follow. Or letting her know
where Luci had gone.

Details were worked out between Paul and Landon.
She
was beyond listening. The moment Landon was out the door,
she
grabbed the phone out of the kitchen and went to
her
room.
She
was barely holding it together.
She
was sure the only reason
she
was holding it together at all was because
she
was in shock. Emma’s phone went straight to voice mail.
She
called her home phone, thinking maybe she had her cell phone off to charge it. It
was Ethan who answered, explaining Emma had gone to a movie with Melanie. He instantly
knew something was wrong. The moment he pressed
her
on the issue,
she
broke into tears. Gut wrenching, hysterical tears.

He insisted on coming to get
her
, saying Emma would be home soon and then
she
could talk to her.

Cleo
slipped out of the house. Paul didn’t care or notice. Ethan picked
her
up on the corner and even though he continuously asked
her
what was wrong,
she
couldn’t answer.

When
they
got to the Donavon’s, he pulled
her
into his room.
She
explained everything to him.
She
’d known him as long as
she
’d known Emma.
She
’d slept over at their house more times than
she
could count. After
their
mom died,
the Donovans
had let Luci and
Cleo
stay with them for the first week. With an open offer to come back whenever
they
needed to.
They
’d
been invited over for dinner
s
o many times
that they felt more like
Cleo’s
family than Paul ever could.

So because of this,
she
considered Ethan a friend too. He knew all about
her
mixed up, messed up home life.

By the time Emma came home, not much later,
she
had calmed down.

“I don’t get this,”
Emma fumed as she sat next to Cleo
on the edge of Ethan’s bed. “Is this because his family is loaded and yours isn’t?
Because that’s completely archaic!”

Cleo shook her
head. “I don’t think it’s about that. It’s about Reece’s future.”

“What are you supposed to tell him?” Emma demanded. “Feeling
s
like yours don’t just change overnight. He’s not going to just accept it if you don’t
have a damn good reason.”

“I know,”
Cleo
said as another tear leaked out. Emma handed
her
another Kleenex. “But I don’t
want to be kicked out of my house
.”
She
had a hard time even saying the words.

Emma put an arm around
her
. She knew this had been a fear of
hers
for a long, long while. Just when
Cleo had
started to think it was no longer a concern, it was there, rearing its ugly head,
waiting to take
her
out.

“And I can’t
not
see Luci. Who’s going to take care of her? She’ll be left alone all the time!”

“Maybe you could live with us,” Emma said. “You’re practically like family. My mom
loves you. You could have Ethan’s room.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Ethan told her.

Cleo
shook
her
head. “There’s still Luci. He’ll keep her from me. I know he will.”

“I think you need to tell Reece,” Emma said. “He needs to know what’s going on. Maybe
he can talk to his dad.
Because this? This is just ridiculous! I mean, who does this?!
”

“At this point, that won’t even help. If Paul doesn’t get his money, he’s going to
make sure my life is miserable. It won’t matter if Landon changes his mind,”
Cleo said. She
hadn’t realized it until that moment, when
she
said it out loud. But the moment
she
did,
she
knew it was true. “The deal has been made. Even if Landon did back down, Paul will
be furious if he’s out his money.
He’ll take Luci and go.
”

“Cleo,” Emma said softly, “maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe you and Reece can take
a break for a year. Then see where things go after graduation.”

“After graduation?” That seemed like a lifetime away. A lot could happen. He could
fall in love with someone else. Or worse, he could simply decide he hated
her
.
She
shook
her
head. “And then what? Landon will still be furious and Paul will lose his job. He’ll
be sure I never see my sister again. It all keeps coming back to Luci.”

“Do you want to hear what I think?” Ethan asked.

He’d been sitting on the floor, his back against the door while Emma and
Cleo
sat on his bed.

Cleo
nodded.

He ran a hand through his short,
auburn
hair
. He appeared
to
be
think
ing
things over one final time. “Okay,” he finally said, “I think you’re stuck right
now. I think you’re going to have to do what those slimy bastards say. For now. But
you turn eighteen next September, Cleo. That won’t solve everything but it’ll knock
down one huge obstacle. He can’t threaten you with
throwing you into the system. If you want my room then, you can have it. I’ll be gone,”
he tried to joke. “It’ll also buy you some time.”

“That’s true,” Emma said. “Maybe we can come up with a way around it by then.”