Maverick breaks the silence. "On a scale of one to five. How mad are you at us?"
I watch Rory narrow her eyes through the mirror. "The scale's fucking broken."
I haven't heard her swear since she's been with us. If she wasn't furious, I'd think it was sexy.
She stares pointedly out the window.
We're nearing the house when she finally says something.
"You want me to lean on you. You want me to trust you. How am I supposed to trust you when you took a very important decision away from me?" Her voice cracks.
"Rory, it happened really quickly. We just wanted to get you away from him," Dominic pleads with her. I know it kills everyone to see her upset with us.
"We were going to tell you," I say to her, softly.
"When? When was this communication going to happen? No, actually. When did all this happen in the first place?" She says pointedly. Her voice is stone cold but her eyes are…sad.
I hesitate before giving in. "Luc called me and said he needed someone emancipated quickly. It was…right after Luc brought you home," I tell her. “I didn’t know it was you when I did it.”
"How did you do this without knowing it was me?" She asks, confused.
"The name Luc gave us was Aurora Winters. You told us your name was Laney—we didn't make the connection." Mason begs her to understand. "We didn't know it was you."
"Does that make it better?" She says quietly, like she's too tired to fight anymore.
"No, Rory," Maverick says, almost softly. His icy eyes reveal nothing. "It doesn't."
"I'm thrilled to know I never have to go back," she tells us. "But now I don't know if I can trust the people who have done so much for me."
. . .
J ~
I drop the box on Luc's desk and turn around to face him. "So, in the time I've been gone, this is what happened. You brought home some random girl who we know nothingabout, got her emancipated and now I'm her guardian?" I ask, incredulously.
Luc is laying on his bed, his hands linked behind his head. He’s simply nodded through everything I’ve said.
"Yeah, that's pretty much it. Oh, and we bought a coffee machine," Luc adds as an afterthought.
I sigh and pinch my nose between my fingers. "Really, Luc?"
“Well, yeah. I mean, let’s be honest, that plunger coffee fucking sucks, dude,” Luc says innocently.
I shoot him a deadpanned look, crossing my arms.
Luc relents. "Her father was beating her, J. She has a broken rib, several bruised and probably a concussion. Don't you have any sympathy for her?" He asks me, a knowing look on his face.
"Of course I do.” I push away my annoyance. “I just would have liked to be kept in the loop. How did I become a guardian of someone without signing anything? The twins came with a shit load of paperwork." I remember all the time I spent on the phone and signing documents. It makes me shudder to remember.
Luc shrugs. "Alec forged your signature."
"Of course he did," I mutter. "How the fuck did this happen so quickly? Isn’t Allen tied up with your case?"
Allen, Alec’s lawyer, took Luc’s case to keep the ACIC from coming after him.
Luc winces and I know what he's about to say will be bad. "Alec called his father."
"What?" I roar. "Are you fucking serious?"
