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“So Seth to the rescue.”
He gave her a wry smile. “You haven’t seen it yet, but his sleepwalking can get really bad. He sticks to a very strict routine, or …”
“He stayed up and drank with us that night we put up the tree.”
“And I had to wake him up and help cuff him to the bed after that.”
Her eyes widened. “Cuff, as in …”
Seth ran his tongue under his teeth. “I made it for him. We measured it out so that he’d have space to move around, but not enough to reach the window or door. His bed frame is made of wrought iron, screwed down to the floor.”
Clary nodded once, her gaze determined. “Let me give Mr. E a call.”
“You mean …” Seth trailed off. Everything. She meant everything to him. “But my brothers …”
“Hey.” She tipped her head to the side to catch his eye. “I understand.”
“I can’t make you choose, either.”
“I won’t have to.”
He sighed heavily, and Clary frowned.
After a moment of silence, she pulled her hands back. “Are you saying you’re choosing your brothers and I should choose Grandma Moretti?”
How could he ask her to do otherwise? She was right. It wasn’t fair.
But he couldn’t answer her either, because … he couldn’t.
Clary’s face dropped forward, and she laughed once without humor. She rubbed her hand against her face and stood. “Do you want me to leave now?”
“No.” He never wanted her to leave.
She bit down on her lips. “I don’t mind that you can’t give up your bid to buy the robotics arm because of Oliver, but …” She laughed once without humor. “But it’s disappointing that you don’t even want to fight for me.”
That wasn’t true.
He opened his mouth to tell her that, but she was already walking away.
Seth ran his hand through his hair. He should say something. But what? What could he possibly say to make things right for her when Grandma Moretti had put him in an impossible situation?
* * *
Clary wrapped a towel around herself as she stepped out of the hot shower. She swiped her hand across the fogged-up mirror and stared at her reflection.
She’d thought a long, hot shower would dissolve her anger.
It did not.
At first, she wasn’t sure who she should be angry with. Seth? But Grandma Moretti started it.
So she decided she’d be angry with both of them.
Clary couldn’t imagine where she’d be without Grandma Moretti stepping up to take care of her. She was grateful for all that her nonna had done for her. But forcing her to make a choice like this?
Then there was Mr. E. He hadn’t actually played any part in creating this situation, but she wasn’t an Eolenfeld. Why did her life have to be so linked to him?
And above all else, Seth.
