Why not you?
Is there something I should know?
I don’t see any contagious diseases listed in your file.
Jerkwad!
We’re going to have to work on your manners.
Why not Boyan or Lou? I only have three years left of this. They’ve got more than a decade. They shouldn’t stay at the Hayeses even more than I shouldn’t.
And that means they should be foisted on me?
Why not? You’re rich. You can manage. It’s not like you’d even have to do much. I’ll take care of them.
They’re good kids. They just need a goodhouse.
You owe me this. For my brother.
If you mean what you’re saying you’ll do, then adopt them too.
I don’t take well to orders, Ms. Burch.
I’m trying to appeal to your compassion. Or do mobsters not have any?
I have work to do, Ms. Burch.
Give me an answer, and I’ll leave you alone. It’s not like I enjoy talking to you either.
Of course.
Great! Thank you!
That wasn’t my answer.
Can’t take it back now! I swear you’ll love them. Congrats to the father of three.
Don’t push it.
Yeah, it sounded better in my head.
This doesn’t mean I like you.
Who said you weresupposed to?
Thank you for this. And the food. The clothes. Everything.
I hate that you, of all people, did it. And I hate that I feel grateful at all. But yeah, thanks.
I glanced back at that text exchange from a week ago, more confused than ever. I’d gone searching for it as a reminder to myself. I hated Renzo Iannelli. I had to, for Noah’s sake. It didn’t matter how much he helped us, how often Boyan and Lou now laughed like happy kids outside the Hayes house, or how our faces were filling out now that we ate properly. I’d sworn vengeance, and I needed it. I needed that to get any vindication whatsoever for what Renzo did to my brother.
And yet, the anger that had fueled me since his death was sizzling out, ember by ember, no matter how much I tried to hold onto it. With every trip to breakfast diners. With the new shoes for Boyan that Renzo delivered himself after the kid somehow made a hole in his other ones. With Lou’s new softball gear and Boyan’s brand-new piano lessons. How was it that a relative stranger took such good care of us when the people who should have barely noticed whether we were there or not?
“Where did you get that?” Marlene spat from the bedroom doorway. Crap, I forgot to close the door after Lou came back from the bathroom and climbed into bed, with Boyan next to her.
I jumped upright, trying to stuff my phone into my pants. My head smacked against the front rail of the bunk bed platformabove mine. A headache exploded, and I rubbed it. God, that hurt.
“You stole it, didn’t you? Unbelievable.”
