Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) Read Free Page A

sure how long she remained frozen beneath the desk in the library, but it was too long. She sat there in a daze, unable to move and unwilling to go to the dining room to sit down and eat with the people she had just discovered wanted to get rid of her and everyone she cared about.
    The sound of Joe’s voice calling her name finally snapped her out of it. She jumped up, wincing at the pain in her knee but forcing herself to quickly make her way out of the room despite the awful throbbing. She hobbled down the hallway quickly, trying to put as much space between herself and the library as possible. Just as she reached the end of the long hallway and stepped into the now-abandoned formal living room, Joe came whipping around the corner. He ran into Silver, which caused her to yelp in pain as she put too much pressure on her knee.
    “Silver! Sorry, I didn’t see you there. Where did you go? You’re late for dinner and my mom is like an angry hornet,” Joe said, then paused and put a hand up to Silver’s forehead. “Are you feeling okay? You look really pale. Do you have a fever?”
    “I…I think I’m coming down with something,” Silver lied. It wasn’t exactly the truth. But she was in a lot of pain from her leg, and she did feel sick to her stomach after the conversation she’d just overheard in the library.
    “Do you think you can make it through dinner?” Joe asked, concern filling his voice.
    Silver shook her head no. “I’m really sorry. I think I just need to get home. I know your mom will be upset, but I don’t think I can sit and eat right now.”
    Joe nodded and brushed a loose strand of hair back from Silver’s face. “Okay. Here, let me help you sit down on the couch. I’ll go tell my mom and she’ll just have to get over it. You don’t look well at all. Let me go talk to her and then I’ll come help you get home.”
    Silver nodded and sank weakly onto the couch while Joe left to go speak to his mother. Silver knew that the conversation wasn’t going to be an easy one to have, and she half-expected Mrs. Astor to come storming into the living room, demanding that Silver tough it out.
    But Joe somehow must have convinced his mother to understand that the situation was dire, because he reappeared in the living room ten minutes later, alone.
    “Come on,” he said, offering his hand to Silver and gently pulling her up. “Let’s get you home.”
    Silver allowed herself to be led out of the condo and back to the elevator, which quickly zoomed down to the parking garage. On the way down, she entered the code into her personal tablet to call her hovercar, and it was waiting for her outside the elevator door when they arrived in the garage. Joe helped her in as the hovercar’s doors whizzed open, and then climbed in next to her.
    “You don’t have to come with me,” Silver said. “I’ll be okay, really.” Of course, she didn’t tell him that she really needed some time alone to process everything she’d overheard his father saying earlier.
    Joe shook his head. “No way. I’m at least going to make sure you get home okay. I’ll just send my hovercar ahead so it’s there waiting to take me home once you’re all settled in.”
    “Isn’t your mom going to be mad that you’re missing dinner, too?”
    Joe shrugged. “She’ll get over it. They’re too busy falling all over themselves trying to impress the guy running for senator to stay mad at me for long.”
    Silver sighed and nodded. She didn’t have the energy to argue with Joe, and it was nice of him to make sure she got home okay. As Joe started remotely programming his hovercar to fly ahead and meet them at her apartment, Silver placed her hand on the glowing screen of her own hovercar. The screen lit up and let out five beeps as it authenticated the fingerprints on each of her fingers.
    “User authenticated,” the computer chirped at her pleasantly. “Welcome back, Silver. Where can I take you this evening?”
    “Home,