Page 36 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

I put the phone down, but ten minutes later, it was ringing again. The Freetown Post, the major paper for the area, had gotten wind of it and were trying to get in contact.

But I wasn’t really thinking about the donation, or the money. I was thinking about Laura. Where was she? She was late.

I went to the front door and peered through the peephole. There was no one around (though I was annoyed to see another bunch of flowers had been deposited next to the first).

Finally, I turned around. I was busy sorting the letters into piles so I could try and open them in an organized fashion. I’d resisted my first instinct to throw them all into the fireplace, thinking that it might look bad if anyone found out.

There was only a small pile remaining, but as I flicked through them, I stopped. There was one addressed from Laura.

I paused, tossing the other letters back to the ground. My living room floor looked like a mailroom. But when I opened up the letter, my heart seemed to drop in my stomach, and I read its contents.

So Laura was trying to run away. Again.

“Not this time,” I growled, crumpling the letter in my hands.

Chapter 13

Laura

I checked the clock and saw that it would be another hour before Kyle was home. I sighed and took another look at the paper in front of me.

It had been many years since I’d held a copy of the Caluga Collector in my hands. It was the town’s local newspaper, and had been run by Erwin Marshall out of the office on Main Street since I was in my teens. As a kid, I’d played at being an investigative journalist for Erwin, running around and writing unnecessarily long articles to fill the paper’s spaces. But I hadn’t just picked up the local issue of the Collector for old times’ sake. It still had a space in the back for local jobs, and I was scanning the margins for anything that might help me get back on my feet.

Anything would be better than working for Lucien. That was the way I figured it.

Lucien. He was a mystery to me, now more than ever. I wondered where he was now, and how he was reacting to the headline written on the front of the paper: Local Mogul Makes the Surprise Donation to Local Library. I’d circled the ‘the’ in the title in pen.

“Maybe I should see if Erwin wants me to do some editing for them,” I said to myself. But before I could return to the back page, there was a knock at the door and I stood up.

David and Kyle would have just come straight in. So who was it? None of the possibilities seemed to be good. Was it Mom?

Could it be Conor?

The thought was ridiculous. There was no reason for it to be him. But something about the knock—three short, sharp taps followed by a big bang reminded me of him. It was the way Conor used to knock on my window when he snuck in as a kid. I smirked. Kyle now occupied the bedroom in question.

If only you knew, I said to Kyle in my imagination as I made for the door. Whoever this was, I wanted them gone as soon as possible. Kyle’s day at school yesterday had been a disaster. He’d come home furious about how everyone was writing letters to Lucien, to thank him for his donation. Still, I’d told him that I wasn’t going to work for Lucien anymore and Kyle had seemed happy about it (as had David). I opened the door, hoping that it was a delivery guy.

But it was Lucien.

I was tall for a woman, but Lucien was taller. He blocked out the sunlight, standing impassively in the doorway. The afternoon sun coming up the valley cast a long shadow stretching into my home. His green eyes shone at me as I stuttered.

“What…what are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you,” he barked. “About this?”

Lucien held up a piece of paper. It was my resignation letter.

“Do you think you can quit just like that?” he growled. I began to feel the menace in his voice, and stepped back from the doorway.

“Y-Yes,” I mustered up my courage.

“You resign just because I don’t want to forget that night?” Lucien stepped closer, and planted his feet wide apart.

“Lucien…” I sighed. I didn’t know how to explain. That I couldn’t bear it, being in that strange house, full of secrets. Weathering his scorn, day after day. And that deep down, I knew that it was the right thing to do. For me and for Kyle. He needed a Mom who could be solid and dependable. Not a whore who sleeps with her boss.

“I’m coming in!” Lucien stormed past me.

He sat on the couch and signaled for me to sit next to him. I ignored him and sat on the chair opposite, giving him a Look.