Where She Belongs (The Forever Collection Book 1) Read Free Page B

behind me cover her face with both hands and shake her head, snorting.
    “I’ll be fine. It’s like less than a mile from here. I mean, where else can I work and Simon won’t know? They never come around up here at night. It’s just been the two of us up here for months. I can sneak out at eleven, be back by four-thirty, and hopefully get some money in my pocket. We are not living here forever, Leah. I’m telling you.” I spin around as I throw my auburn hair into a ponytail on top of my head. “We are leaving here and getting our own place at least for a while. I want to be out in the world, see things. I want to do things.”
    “I told you, just go, leave me here. I have no life anyway.” She drops her eyes to look down at her legs. When she’s not in the chair, she has to use her forearm crutches. Both her legs were crushed in the accident and she’s lucky they were able to save them at all.
    She eyes me with hope and it hurts to look at her as she continues. “It’ll be so much easier for you to just go get a place on your own. You can get the money together for that if you don’t have me around. Taking care of me is not your obligation. I want you to be happy, May. That’s what I want more than anything.”
    “I will never leave you,” I snap. “And I want us to be happy more than anything. I’ll figure this out. You just have to trust me.”
    “How do you even know about this Monarch place? What do you even know? It could be dangerous.”
    “I’ve been reading about it. Simon lets me read the business section of the newspaper and I’ve been following it for a year. The city council tried to block the entire project, but finally they got their zoning approvals and it’s been the big talk around, because who would have ever expected there to be a nightclub–let alone a strippy type club–around here? Everyone was just all gaspy and not-in-my-neighborhood about it.” I smile because it made me oddly satisfied when they won the battle and were able to build the club. This stuffy neighborhood needs some shaking up.
    “What about Victor?” She screws up her face as she says his name.
    “What about him?”
    “You’re supposed to marry him. If your plan is to go out and make money so we can move out, are you not doing that? Because, you know what that means.” She shakes some hair out of her eyes. “Do you love him? Like Mom and Dad kind of love?”
    I don’t want to have this conversation right now and we both know the answer anyway. I play with my ponytail then try to loosen the waistband of my skirt so not so much muffin top is hanging over. It doesn’t work so I just pull my sweater down farther, which also does no good.
    I swallow hard and do my best to stay focused. I’m doing this, and yes, it may be silly but I don’t care. I lean into the dresser and play with a sterling silver hand mirror that used to be Mom’s.
    “That’s not what everybody gets. Mom and Dad were lucky. I just want some freedom before I get married. I won’t lose this place either. I’ll marry Victor. But this place is our home even if it doesn’t feel like it right now with them here.” The last time we saw our mother, in the hospital before she passed away, she made us promise to keep this house in the family.
    Dad built it for her and everywhere we look, we are reminded of the love they’d had for each other. “I just want Simon to see we can do things on our own. That he can’t control us forever. I mean, we don’t even have any friends. We have never been to a nightclub. We haven’t even been to the stupid mall. I want to go to school and be a real chef but they won’t listen to me; they’ve got all the power right now and I want to shake things up. We need money of our own. We’re like two princesses shut up in the tower. I want to live a little before I’m Mrs. Victor Galetti.”
    “Oh, I don’t know.” She lets out a long breath. “You’ve always had the craziest ideas. Lord knows