Wrecked (Crystal Book Billionaires) Read Free

that things would get better, that I would be able to pull the company through.” He continued to gaze at the grass. “But that’s not going to happen.”
    I opened my mouth to speak, but only a croak came out. I took a deep breath and tried again. “What are you going to do?”
    Finally, he looked up at me. “I’m going to New York to see if I can work something out with some shareholders there.”
    “Oh,” I said, relieved. “That doesn’t sound so bad. How long will you be gone?”
    All I need is one weekend to throw a kickass house party and make all these worries float away.
    He shook his head bitterly. “I don’t know. As long as it takes. I don’t know what will happen, Grace.”
    My fingers were twisting together and I forced myself to stop. “It’s okay.”
    He studied my face. “Grace, the company isn’t just filing for bankruptcy. I am too.”
    “Okay.” I got the sense there was more to what he was saying, so I stood there, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
    “Everything will change. We have to sell this house… and the one in Massachusetts.”
    My vision blurred. “Wait. What?”
    “We have to sell the houses. And the cars… the boat. Everything.”
    A strange noise escaped my throat, making me sound like a cross between a rabid fox and a crazy clown. “Not my car. That’s mine.”
    He pursed his lips. “Yes, the Hummer too. I’m sorry.”
    The tears welled up in my eyes, and the anger surged forward, spilling out of my heart and escaping from between my lips. “How could you do this?” I demanded. “How could you let this happen?”
    An expression I’d never seen on anyone settled on his face. I didn’t know exactly what he was feeling, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. I tensed, thinking he was about to blow up at me.
    Finally, he just ran his hand over his eyes and sighed. “I did wrong by you. I’m sorry… I brought you up, giving you everything you wanted, and now look.” He gestured pathetically at me. “Your mother would be disappointed in me.”
    Pain pricked at my chest. I didn’t know what to say. He hardly ever talked about my mom, and to have him finally mention her in such a shitty moment sucked balls.
    A quick realization hit me like a truck, and I gasped. “If you’re selling the houses, where will I go?”
    I expected him to say Hotel Bel-Air, Rainy’s, or New York.
    “I’ve been thinking about that too,” he said. “And you need to get away for a while.”
    I guffawed, slapping my thigh. “I hardly think this is the time to plan a vacation, Dad.”
    His face became stony, and I shut up. “You stay out late partying. You don’t have a job. You never finished school.”
    I crossed my arms. “You make me sound like an awful person. That’s not all I do.”
    “You tan and go shopping.” He held his palm up to silence my objection. “Like I said, it’s my fault for letting it get this way. I should have put my foot down when you got kicked out of NYU, but I didn’t. I was too busy working all of the time to be a father, and I’m sorry.”
    Some of the tension left my shoulders. The apology was straight out of left field, and I had no clue how to respond to it. How ashamed he seemed of me.
    “You won’t want to be in Los Angeles much longer anyway,” he said, his voice ominous.
    “What does that mean?”
    “North Carolina,” he said, ignoring my question. “I spoke to my brother this morning, and he’s agreed to let you stay with him for a while.”
    My head spun, going a thousand miles per hour, a new question popping up with every mile the tornado of my mind gained. North Carolina, where? And what made my Uncle Joe — who I hadn’t seen since high school — so gung ho to take me in? And what was I to even do in such a hick state?
    “I’m not going,” I gasped. “You can’t make me.”
    He looked at me with sadness. Or was it pity?
    “I think you’ll soon find that going there will be preferable to any other