Stepbrother Billionaire(48)
Author: Colleen Masters

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know,” she replies, sounding panicked. “Where the hell are you, Abby?”

“I’m at work,” I tell her, “Or…The place that was work for a second, at least. What’s going on, Riley? Are you OK?”

“I’ve been trying to call you all night,” she hurries on, “Abby, there were some papers delivered to the apartment last night from your grandparents’ lawyer. They’re kicking us out of the apartment, effective immediately.”

“What?” I ask, nearly voiceless with shock. This can’t be happening. Not right now.

“Apparently they weren’t kidding when they said you had to choose between them and Emerson,” she goes on, “They hadn’t heard from you, so they’re kicking us out. Unless you assure them that Emerson won’t be a part of your life, that is.”

I’m silent for a long moment, just watching as the other people on the sidewalk pass me by. Then, for lack of a rational response, I start to laugh. Wildly. Emerson looks at me as if I’ve sprouted a second head, but his confusion only sets me off further. This can’t all be happening to me. And yet, here it all is, landing in my lap in a heap.

“Have you totally lost it?” Riley asks me over the phone.

“It’s possible,” I cackle, gripping my sides, “It’s very possible.”

I should have known better than to feel sunny about my twenty-sixth year. In a matter of hours, I’ve managed to lose my new job, my apartment, and the only family I have left. Every stable thing I’ve muscled into place has disappeared.

“Abby?” Emerson says, as I let the phone drop from my ear. “Why don’t we head home now and talk all this out?”

“Home,” I repeat, my voice going hollow on me, “I don’t think I have one of those anymore, Emerson.”

“What?” he asks, his brow furrowing.

“I’ve been evicted. By my grandparents,” I tell him, wondering at the statement even as it leaves my lips.

“I don’t understand. Why would they do something like that?” he asks, outraged on my behalf. “You’re their granddaughter.”

“Cooper isn’t the only one who disapproves of us being together,” I reply, “My grandparents forbid me from seeing you after the other night. They said I could either be a part of their lives, or a part of yours.”

I watch the news sink into Emerson’s mind. His outrage softens as he understands what I’ve sacrificed for him. And why losing my job now is such a huge deal.

“Well. You can borrow my home, then,” he says, the hardness draining from his voice as he drapes an arm over my shoulder. “Everything’s going to be OK.”

I let him guide me back through the Lower East Side. I feel shell-shocked, blindsided. Like every bit of context organizing my life has fallen away all at once. Or at least, every bit of context besides Emerson himself. For now, just having him by my side is enough. We can figure out the rest along the way.

Chapter Seventeen

After I’ve made sure that Riley isn’t going to be left out in the cold tonight, I settle in for a long, befuddled evening at Emerson’s place. The hours creep past as I try to process everything that’s happened, and what I’m supposed to do now. Emerson and I are both out of a job, I’m out of a home, and he’s bound for Europe at the end of the week. So much for that bright, shiny future I’d been so optimistic about.

Emerson spends about an hour on the phone with Cooper and the other Bastian partners when we get back to his loft. They argue incessantly, trying to hammer out a truce. No one at that company wants to see Emerson leave, least of all Emerson. But with everything that went down between him and Cooper this afternoon, I don’t see what other choice there is.

For my part, I spend the better part of the afternoon absentmindedly patting Roxie’s head and trying to work up the nerve to call my grandparents. Surely, they’re just bluffing. They don’t actually expect me to bend to their will and never see Emerson again.

Or do they?

“Well,” Emerson sighs, emerging from his bedroom having hung up on the hour long conference call. “They’ve backed off the whole firing-me front. Now it’s just a matter of whether or not I want to back off the I-quit front.”

“So?” I ask, as he sits down beside me, “What do you think you’re going to do?”

“For starters,” he says, brushing a lock of hair out of my face, “I’m going to open another bottle of wine. Helps me think.”

He offers me his hand and pulls me off the couch, towing me back to the kitchen island.

“Have you talked to your grandparents yet?” he asks me, selecting a bottle of Merlot to start with.

“No,” I say faintly, burying my face in my hands. “I don’t know what the hell I’d even say to them.”

“Say they’re a couple of assholes who should fuck right off,” Emerson shrugs, fetching a wine opener.

“I don’t want them to fuck off,” I exclaim, “They’re my family, Emerson. Why can’t you understand that that’s important to me?”

“Maybe because I know just how badly family can mess you up,” he replies, popping out the cork.

“You think I don’t know that?” I ask.

“If you do, you seem to have forgotten,” he remarks, taking two wine glasses down from the cupboard.

“Maybe I’m just not ready to give up on my family so easily,” I say without thinking.

Emerson pauses with his back to me, his shoulders going stiff. “What is that supposed to mean, Abby?” he asks, his voice deathly quiet.

“Just that I’ve never been the type of person who cuts and runs on the people who care about her,” I say, wavering in my stance.

“And I am?” he asks, irate as he turns to face me. “I was my mother’s nurse for years while my father was away. I’d probably still be taking care of her if she’d ever gotten well enough for outpatient treatment again.”

“I know, Emerson,” I say, edging away from his rage. After the flare of anger I saw go through him at the office today, I don’t want to provoke him any further.

“For fuck’s sake, I had to raise my mother, rather than have her raise me,” Emerson fumes, clutching the edge of the counter. His knuckles go white with the force of his grip.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” I tell him, trying to keep my voice calm, “I know how much you sacrificed for your mom. But you know better than anyone how painful it is, having your family not be there for you. Cutting my grandparents out of my life should be easy, but it’s not for me.”