“I know.” She stares at the counter. “Peter still hasn’t called me, you know. Of everyone, I thought he’d call.”
“Why not try calling him?” I ask a little hesitantly.
“And say what? ‘Oh hello Peter, it’s me, your disgraced sister Sadie. How’s it going?’ I don’t think so.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad to me.” I give her a little grin.
She just shakes her head. “I can’t do it. They’ve basically thrown me out already, haven’t they? Now they just want to make it official.”
“Sadie.” I walk around the counter and sit down next to her. “I support whatever decision you make. But don’t you just… don’t you want to make the fuckers bleed, just a little bit?”
She shakes her head. “No. They’re still my family.”
“Fuck,” I say, sighing. “After all this, you still want to hold back? Let me hire a lawyer. Let me go after them, drag them through the fucking mud. Who knows? Maybe they’re afraid of a fight, and we’ll win.”
“I don’t want to win,” she says. “I don’t want to fight them. I just want to be done with them. I want to get away from them. They want to suck me back in, but I can’t do it.”
I nod slowly. I guess I understand that. If it were me, I’d fight them just out of spite, just to make them squirm. I’m not entirely convinced that I’m not going to do just that. I think I could make Tillman’s fucking life miserable in court. I may be hurting right now, but I’m still fucking rich, and I can still wield considerable funds against him. And I know he won’t like that shit.
But Sadie doesn’t want it. I wish it were different, but she’s special. She’s a better person than I’ll ever be, that’s for sure.
“So what now?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess we go to this meeting.”
“They want to hold it at your father’s apartment,” I say, pointedly not calling it her home.
She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter where.”
“Okay then.” I pause, then take her hand and look deep into her eyes. “Listen to me, Sadie. I need you to know something.”
She looks at me, and I can see the sadness deep inside of her. She’s losing everything for this, for our baby and for me. Everything she’s known and loved is being torn away by her spiteful and angry parents. What’s she left with?
Hopefully, freedom. And happiness.
“What?” she asks softly.
“I know you feel like you’re losing your family. But I’m your family now. Me, you, and our baby. We’ll be a family.”
She smiles slightly. “Really?”
“Really,” I say. “I’ll take care of both of you. Always. We won’t be Tillmans, but we’ll be our own thing. We can be happy.”
“Yeah,” she says.
“You can do whatever you want. Go to school, paint, start a charity, I don’t care. I’ll support whatever you want.” I kiss her softly on the lips. “You can be free with me.”
“Yeah,” she says again, and this time she seems more sure of herself. “I was never going to be free back home. I was going to be Milo’s wife.” She laughs a little ruefully.
“You dodged a bullet.” I can’t help but grin.
“Come here,” she says, pulling me in for another kiss.
I return her kiss, although inwardly I don’t know how this is going to shape out. We have one more meeting with her family. Last time, it went pretty fucking awful, but this time might be different.
Or it’ll be terrible again, but we’ll survive it. We’ll survive this and be together, because I wasn’t lying when I said that we’re a family now. I’ll take care of her always, and I’ll try to make damn sure that she’s happy, no matter what.
23
Sadie
Even after a month has passed, I can still remember that afternoon in my old apartment when we told my parents that I’m pregnant.
I keep reliving that moment. My mother’s scorn was palpable, and I could feel my father’s disappointment in my bones. I wish I could go back and say something, anything, that would make them understand that this isn’t just some stupid childish fling. I wish I could make them really see how I feel about Gavin.
But I can’t and I won’t. Not after what they said to me. And not after that letter.
I look over at Gavin and force myself to smile. We’re on the elevator up to the apartment again, though this time we’re only meeting with my father. I doubt my mother even knows we’re coming, Gavin smiles back and squeezes my hand, just like before.