Chapter 3

"Claire, what the hell was that today?"

When Claire came home, I expected her to feel at least some guilt over what she had done. I even thought she might apologize.

Instead, she turned it all around on me.

"I should ask you that. What the hell, Josh? You let a construction worker shout my name in front of everyone. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was?"

I didn't back down. "So that gave you the right to lie to me, deliberately leave my dad without a lawyer, and make him lose his case and end up owing 100 grand?"

I let out a quiet laugh, even as tears stung my eyes.

Claire's expression faltered, but she quickly regained her composure.

"I assigned Mark to the case," she said, "but I didn't know Spencer agreed to represent Nicholas. People at the firm already have doubts about him. If he'd lost this case, he might not have been offered a permanent position."

I already knew how important Spencer was to her, but hearing her say it still brought tears to my eyes.

"So that made it okay to twist the facts, fabricate evidence, and frame my dad?"

"My job is to win cases." Claire stood and looked at me condescendingly. "Whatever kind of person Nicholas is, he's still a client who pays our firm millions in legal fees every year. What can your dad offer me?"

With a sneer, she kicked over the trash can. Inside were the grapes I still hadn't gotten around to eating.

"This garbage?"

Garbage? She was calling the grapes my father had worked so hard to grow garbage?

So people really could change beyond recognition.

When Claire and I first came to Clearwyn with nothing, my parents harvested crate after crate of grapes and hauled more bricks than I could count back home.

They sent us every dollar they could scrape together through sweat and backbreaking labor. That money was the only reason Claire and I had been able to afford our first home in Clearwyn.

And yet, the woman standing in front of me was no longer the person I had once loved.

She felt like a complete stranger.

"Stop looking at me like that." Irritated, she took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "If you want, I'll contact the bank and help your father arrange payment. A hundred grand isn't that much. I can have someone set up an installment plan…"

Smack!

I couldn't take another word. I slapped her across the face.

The living room fell silent for three full seconds.

Claire covered her cheek and stared at me in disbelief.

"You hit me?"

My entire body shook with rage. I glared at her through burning eyes and forced out, "Leave! I can't stand to look at you right now."

"Fine. Stay here and think about what you've done."

Her cheek already beginning to swell, Claire stormed out and slammed the door behind her.

I collapsed onto the living room floor and stayed there all night without sleeping.

Early the next morning, Mom called in a panic, her voice hoarse from crying.

"Josh, something terrible happened! Nicholas sent people to collect the money, and they pushed your dad so hard that he had a heart attack. He's in the ICU!"

Something inside my head snapped. With trembling hands, I called Claire.

"My dad had a heart attack. He's in critical condition, and they can't transfer him. Could you ask your cardiac surgeon friend to come back home with me and operate on him?"

"Hold on," she said calmly.

"Did you hear me? This is the last thing I'll ever ask of you," I pleaded.

"I heard you, but Dr. Simmons isn't available right now."

"Not available? What does that mean?" I was on the verge of breaking down.

"He's busy with something else."

"What could possibly be more important than my dad's life? How can you even say that?"

The other end went silent for several seconds, then I heard Spencer's voice in the background. "Ms. Doyle, come help me with the tamales!"

"I'll ask Dr. Simmons tomorrow. I have something to take care of. Bye."

Sitting in a cab on the way home, I stared at the words "Call Ended" on my screen, numb from head to toe.

How could she be this cruel?

Half an hour later, Spencer posted an update.

[I ate so many tamales I gave myself a stomachache, and Ms. Doyle immediately called her doctor friend over with medicine. He even gave my parents free checkups. She's seriously the best mentor anyone could ask for!]

So when she said Dr. Simmons was busy, she meant he was spending the holiday with Spencer's family.

I gripped my phone and laughed as tears streamed down my face.

With no other choice, I opened my contacts and called someone else.

"Mrs. Meyer, could I ask you for a favor?"