Page 34 of Take Her

I said, flipping through screens to do so.

Conversing with Sable—and the hope of future violence—had distracted me enough to calm down and when I looked up next Lia was staring at me. “Making dinner plans with a friend,” I lied.

She swallowed at that, frowned, and then regrouped, finding steel inside herself somewhere. “So you’ll teach me things tomorrow?”

How tomorrow went strongly depended on what the fuck this guy told me tonight. “Que será será, Ms. Ferreo,” I said, and didn’t look back till I’d left the building.

16

LIA

I’d always wanted for something to bring us closer—and now I feel like I cursed Mason with my wish.

—Caleb, from One of a Thousand Wishes by A. R. McGeorge

Ishould’ve been glad that my dad wanted to see me for dinner—it’d stop me from obsessing over whoever it was that Rhaim was going out with—but my anxiety rose with every passing block.

Because I wasn’t just nervous about Rhaim—it was having so much uninterrupted time with my father. We’d already seen each other more in a month than we’d visited in the entire prior ten years. Neither one of us were good at it.

And it didn’t help that his townhouse was completely unfamiliar territory for me. I’d never come home after I’d left for boarding school, not even once. My mother’s death had been during one of my episodes—more factually, my mother dying had brought one of my episodes on, realizing that I’d never escape anything, ever—and my father and my therapists had decided to have her funeral without me.

After that there was nothing really to come home for.

The first time I’d seen the place was when I’d gotten back into town. Almost everything in it was a pristine white, so much so that I imagined if I’d woken up there after a concussion I’d assume I was somewhere in heaven.

Which maybe was the point—that my father’s mansion was diametrically opposed to the blackness of his soul.

I’d spent a few awkward nights in a luxuriously appointed guest room before he’d quickly set me up with my own apartment, by silent mutual agreement.

My driver dropped me off, and I stood outside his townhouse’s solemn wrought-iron gate, waiting to be buzzed in by the evening’s fading light, rocking from foot to foot, frightened his bodyguard wouldn’t let me in in time.

Before I could truly panic, there was a clanging sound, and the gate opened. I waved for whoever was operating the camera, and quickly ran up to the front door inside a small courtyard and the safety of its outside light.

My father’s burly butler Rio was waiting for me when I got off the elevator. “He’s in the dining room already,” he said, gesturing me the right way. I would’ve barely remembered otherwise, my father’s mansion was so large, but the scent of food helped me get my bearings.

“Lia!” my father said, already sitting down. There were several courses of food on the table already—his people had cooked like they were feeding an army.

“Expecting company?” I asked, coming around to kiss both his cheeks quickly, before joining him.

“No, you’re too skinny,” he said, giving me a look.

I wasn’t—I was perfectly healthy for me, and I didn’t have a problem. I’d only had to go to the eating disorder clinic because of Uncle Freddie. But there was no way I could tell him that, so double helpings of mashed potatoes under his watchful eye, it was.

He’d even had his maids put mints on my pillows while I was here.

I knew he was trying, in his own awkward way. I just hoped he understood that I was trying, too.

“So how is your internship going?” he asked, after I took my first few bites.

“Is that what it is? Now that I’m not getting paid?” I asked.

“Yes. Tell Rhaim that—and if he laughs, tell him he’ll have to sing at my birthday party.”

I gave him a tense smile. “I will, but?—”

“But what do you really need money for?” he asked, abruptly cutting into my statement the same way he was cutting into his steak.

“Because I’m doing a job, father.” Or trying to, if Rhaim will let me. I took a half-hearted bite. I couldn’t work my way up the ladder if I wasn’t even on payroll. “I know I haven’t been around, but I need to make up for lost time.”