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George huffs and turns his back to me, too angry to engage.
“We had a broken pipe. The room flooded. We lost everything,” she tells me, and I search her face, seeing reddened eyes. She has been crying.
“Em lost everything,” George reiterates as he picks up his broom and walks out the door, leaving us alone.
“Everything is gone?” I ask, my eyes sweeping across the room, and the small pile of damp rumble in the corner tells me the answer is yes. I spot a small book on the floor, and homing in on it, the cover looks familiar. I step toward it and bend to pick it up, water dripping from the pages. It is Rosie’s special copy of Cinderella, the one she read to me the first time I met her.
“Everything…” Em says, and I can hear her voice break.
“But you have insurance, right?” I ask tentatively, standing back up and walking over to her. The look on her face has me stopping short, though. Her big blue eyes are glassy, and she slowly shakes her head.
“What caused the water pipe to break?” I press, nausea building.
“What do you think?” Em smarts, as she straightens her back, rolling her shoulders, her eyes piercing mine.
“Beasley,” I breathe out, and her nostrils flare at his name.
“All Rosie’s books and supplies, all Michael’s signing books and charts, all the decodable books… everything is gone. Everything.” I grab her then. Pulling her body to me, she sinks into my chest as I wrap both arms around her. She doesn’t weep, but she holds me tight, and I can feel her taking deep breaths, trying not to let her tears fall.
“Em, I had no idea. I never would have advised him to do this. I don’t condone this, I don’t…” She steps back from me and puts her hand up in a silent request for me to stop.
“There are spare mops in the corridor. Might as well make yourself useful while you are here, Mr. Rothschild,” she says, exhaling heavily and grabbing her mop. I survey the room again. My shoulders tense as I take it all in.
“Give me a minute,” I say to her before I step out of the room into the corridor and pull out my phone. I call everyone I know and then more. I have Sandra calling a professional cleanup crew and paying them double to get here within twenty minutes. I have called Beth and asked about replacement school supplies and books. Eddie is getting a professional crew in tomorrow to assess and provide new furnishings, and I spoke with Tennyson about increased security.
I step back into the room just as the cleanup crew has arrived.
“I thought you had left?” Em says, her shoulders slumped, looking exhausted. I hate that she thinks I’d do that.
“Of course not. I made some calls.” As I pocket my phone, she looks up at me in confusion.
“Who did you call?” she asks, just as George walks into the room with the cleanup crew following.
“Ben?” he interrupts, coming to stand in front of me.
“I arranged for the crew here to clean up the school today. I have arranged a fit-out crew to be here tomorrow to assess and provide whatever you need to get the school furnished and ready to use. I called Harrison’s office, and they are going to arrange all new supplies, books, art, you name it. That will all be delivered once the school is ready to receive it. And my brother Tennyson is looking into security, so that this can’t happen again.” They’re both silent for a moment, mouths agape.
“Thank you. Thank you so much,” George says in a rush, taking my hand and shaking it, relief and disbelief in his face.
“Where do you want us?” the cleanup crew asks, and George goes to meet with them to discuss workload, while Em continues to stand still, staring at me with glassy eyes and trembling breaths.
“Why?” she whispers. “Why did you do that?”
“For you. For Rosie,” I say honestly. I really want to give this woman the world. “If I could grab every star, every planet, I would give them all to you. I mean it.”
“Ben… I…” she whispers, shaking her head as a lone tear rolls out from her eye. I walk to her then, crushing her to my chest. “Thank you,” she says as her hands wrap around my waist and I feel my shirt become wet. Her tears are silent, but they fall freely, and I have never felt more helpless in my life. I’ve done what I can to make this better, but I hate that she has to carry any of this burden in the first place.
Slowly, she pulls away from me, and I lean over and peck her lips. “We better get to work.”
This might not be the date I had in mind, but I need to be here. I need to help her with this so she can see me as someone she can lean on. Have the faith in me that I want to prove I deserve. So I shed my jacket and roll up my sleeves, getting to work cleaning up the mess my client made.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE - EMILY
I take a nervous breath as I sit in Ben’s car next to him, getting closer to his apartment. We had a great morning. As he promised, Ben turned up early again this morning with coffee for me, and a muffin for Rosie, and we all went swimming together. The school is closed, the cleanup all done, and now we just need to wait for the furniture and fit-out to start. We are continuing with our weekly swimming classes, as it is a great way for all the kids to see each other and play together, even if they are all at different educational institutions now.
George still hasn’t discussed what he is going to do with the school. Ben has taken some of the pain away with his generosity, but it will still take time to get it back on track and fully up and running. With all the kids now expected to spend a month or maybe two at different schools in the meantime, it may be in their best interest now to stay there rather than moving back. Especially because we can’t be assured that this won’t happen again, and Ben can’t come to the rescue every time.
My eyes flick to watch Ben in the driver's seat next to me. I know he is a good man, and he proves it more every day; otherwise, I wouldn’t have him around Rosie. Not for the first time, though, I wonder what I’m doing. Our engagement may be fake, but our feelings are starting to feel very, very real. But other than our feelings, nothing else has changed. The school is still being pursued, and Sasha is chasing him more than ever. I’m not sure where it leaves us.
