Chapter Three

The rest of the dinner passed by in a blur. I barely touch my meal, my appetite totally ruined. Every time I looked up, Lael was watching me like a predator tracking its prey, casually cutting his food or sipping his drink while our parents happily chatted away about wedding venues.

By the time Richard ordered dessert, I couldn’t take the suffocating tension anymore. I checked my phone and faked a sudden, terrible headache, and told them I needed to go home early.

“Drive safely, sweetie,” my mom said kissing my cheeks.

“Get some rest, Avery,” Richard added warmly.

Lael didn’t say anything. He just offered me one last lazy, wicked smirk that practically promised he would see me soon.

The drive back to my apartment was long and quiet. My hands gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. My brain was spinning. I could’ve wrap my head around it. Out of all the men in the city, how on earth did my mom land Richard De La Fontaine? He was a literal legend. His face had been on sport channel for years before he built his massive business empire. My mom was just a normal, sweet woman. It felt completely surreal that she was marrying into one of the wealthiest, most elite families in the country.

An hour later, I was pacing around our living room, still dressed in my dinner clothes, when the front door finally clicked open. My mom walked in, hummed a happy little tune, and kicked off her heels.

“Mom!” I practically yelled, dropping into the couch staring at her. “We need to talk right now!”

She startled, looking at me with wide eyes, “Oh, Avery! You scared me. Is your headache better?”

“I didn’t have a headache, Mom. I was having a literal panic attack at the table,” I snapped, throwing my hands in the air. “What the hell was that? Since when are we moving in with Richard next Wednesday? The plan was always for you to move into his place after the wedding while I finished out the semester at our apartment! You never said a single word about forcing me to move into to!”

My mom sighed, putting her purse down on the kitchen counter, her expression changing from happy to completely defensive.

“Avery Marie, please don’t scream at me,” she said, walking over to the living room and rubbing her head. “It was completely impromptu. Richard and I were talking last night, and he insisted that there was no point in paying rent on this apartment for another three months when his estate has an entire wing just sitting empty. He wanted us to be a real family right away, and—“

“A real family?” I cut her off sharply, jumping back up from the couch because I couldn’t sit still. “Mom, you’ve been dating him for less than a year! And you didn’t even bother to ask me how I felt about packing up my entire life in less than a week!”

“I didn’t think it would be a problem!” She argued, her voice rising a little too. “Richard is a wonderful man, and his house is beautiful. You will have your own private space, your own bathroom, everything. Plus, you won’t have to deal with that awful forty-minutes drive to campus every morning. It’s a hug upgrade, Avery. Why are you being so dramatic about this?”

I opened my mouth to shout the truth, the words practically begging to burst out of my chest. “Because his son is a monster! Because I threw ice water at him! Because he is going to make my life a living hell!”

But looking at the bright, hopeful look in my mom’s eyes, the words died right in my throat. She was genuinely happy. After years of struggling and being lonely, she finally found the guy who treated her like a queen. If I told her what happened between Lael and I, it would ruin everything for her. It might even make Richard call off the wedding if he thought I was going to cause drama.

I couldn’t do that to her. I couldn’t be the reason she lost her happy ending.

“I am not being dramatic,” I muttered crossing my arms and looking away so she wouldn’t see the sheer panic in my eyes. “I just….I like our apartment, Mom. It’s our home. It’s sudden.”

Her expression softened instantly. She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around me in tight, warm hug. “I know it’s sudden, sweetie. Change is scary. But I promise you, this is going to be good for us. Richard truly cares about us, Lael is a good kid. You two are close in age, so I am sure you will become great friends once you get to know him.”

A shudder ran through my body at the word friends. If only she knew.

“Just promise me you will give it a chance,” she whispered, pulling back to look at me, her eyes practically begging. “For me?”

I looked at her, swallowed the massive lump of dread in my throat and forced my self to nod. “Fine, I’ll give it a chance.”

“Thank you, Avery,” she beamed, kissing my forehead before heading down the hall to her bedroom. “Get some sleep. We have a lot of packing to do tomorrow!”

The second her door clicked shut, I dropped my head in my hands and let out a long, shaky breath.

Next Wednesday. I had exactly five days before I was officially trapped in a mansion with the most dangerous, arrogant guy on campus.

The next four days went by too fast. Mom and I spent every single spare second stuffing our lives into cardboard boxes. By Tuesday night, our apartment was completely empty, filled with nothing but stacks and taped boxes and the echoing sound of our footsteps.

I hadn’t seen or head from Leon and Chloe at all, mostly because I had blocked both of their numbers. But tomorrow, I was going back to campus for my afternoon lectures. I couldn’t avoid the real world forever, even if the real world currently felt like a giant train wreck waiting to happen.