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“Which is what?” he asked.
“That I don’t have a choice.”
He huffed a laugh. “Man, you always have a choice. Some choices are just easier than others. But you don’t have to sell a thing to Sinclair. He’s just a bully.”
Rex was right—and wrong. I didn’t have to go through with the deal. No one was holding a gun to my head, but I wanted so badly to right my grandmother’s wrongs. To heal my mother’s pain, pain that I’d watched her suffer through for years. It wasn’t the easy choice, but it was the right one.
I wished there were another way. “Even if that were the case, all of these properties would just keep me tied to New Elwood.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“I don’t belong here.”
“You sure about that?” he asked.
I had to be. The clock was ticking. The papers had all been drawn up. The contractors were starting in a matter of hours. There wasn’t any turning back now.
THIRTY-EIGHT
SEBASTIAN
I woke up before the sun. Blanketed in darkness, I swung my legs off the side of my hotel bed and dragged in a breath, wondering if my aching muscles were a sign that I had started down the wrong path.
But I’d chosen this path, and I couldn’t see an alternative. Rex might’ve said I had a choice, but what kind of choice was it? Either way, Charlie hated me. I might as well get something out of my time in New Elwood.
After a shower and a coffee, I slipped on my work boots and prepared myself for the day. My thoughts were quiet, which was a relief after a turbulent few weeks. After today, it would all be over. I’d be able to move on and put New Elwood in my rearview mirror.
But when I headed downstairs, I saw a familiar face in the hotel lobby. I stopped. Frowned. “Mom?”
Wrapped in a multicolored shawl, my mother glanced up from her book, fatigue dragging down the bags under her eyes. She wore jeans and a long-sleeved tee, her dyed honey blond hair clipped at the back of her head. “Sebastian,” she said, standing. She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. Her arms were the same comfort they’d always been, a safe harbor that would always be there for me.
I hugged her back, voice muffled in her shoulder when I asked, “What are you doing here?”
She pulled away with a sad look, keeping her hands on my shoulders. “I thought I should be here to see that place come down.” Her hand lifted to my cheek, and she stroked it with her thumb. “One last time.”
“You’re upset about it.”
Eyes flicking between my own, my mother sighed. “That place is so old now, I’m surprised it’s still standing. Probably time for something new.”
I pulled back. “But?”
“No buts,” she said. “I just didn’t like the sound of your voice yesterday.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“He’s at home,” she said. “This was something I had to do for myself.”
I nodded.
My mother’s hand slipped around my elbow, and she towed me to one of the lobby couches. She sat beside me and patted my forearm. “I want you to tell me the truth about why you’re doing this, honey.”
“I already told you. Grandma doesn’t deserve to have her name on any building, even in a podunk town like this.”
“You’re angry.”
“You’re not?”
Her chest rose and fell with a deep sigh, and then she shrugged. “I let go of my anger a long time ago.”
