Chapter One
Anderson
If life were truly fair, I wouldn’t have found myself sitting at my dining room table, surrounded by university pamphlets, while my daughter chatted incessantly about all her options.
My baby girl.
Well, technically my niece. From the day she’d been placed in my arms, though, I’d known I’d be responsible for taking care of her for the rest of our lives.
I’d loved my sister, and had also known caring for Adele was beyond her. Then she died in a single-car crash just three months after Adele’s birth.
“I think I want to go to theater school like you did. I’ve done all those plays—even more than you did in high school.”
“You’re amazing.” Easy enough to say. My daughter had talent in spades. She’d embraced every role and given it her all—even if she was merely an extra. “Still—” I bit my lip. “I want you to take something practical.”
“Like business school.” She rolled her eyes. “Boring.” Somehow, she made the word sound as boring as the word.
“Accountants make good money.”
“Dad.” Again with the tone that bordered on whining.
“Adele.” I could dish it back as good as she gave.
Finally, she broke. “I love theater school, but I’m going to be more practical.”
Which relieved and amused me to no end. “And?”
She pulled a brochure out of the pile and handed it to me.
I blinked. “Optometry?”
She grinned. “Yep.”
Completely baffled, I started to read what she’d provided me. “Three years of undergraduate science?”
“At a minimum. Even though I don’tloveschool, I’d probably do four to earn my honors bachelor of science. Then, if things don’t work out, I can try something else. You know, like med school or teacher’s college.”
My head swam. “Teacher’s college is only an extra year, right?”
“Closer to two with the practicum.” She snatched the brochure. “The optometry school says they don’t give preference to one university over another, but I think it would be cool to go to Aunt Yvonne’s alma mater. That’s the University of Waterloo. And they offer the only English-language optometry school in Canada. My French isn’t good enough to go to the Université de Montréal.”
Her French was excellent. She had straight A-pluses in all her classes. Pretty much, she could go anywhere she wanted.
Within reason.
She handed me the brochure for an undergraduate science program at the University of Waterloo.
I did my best not to faint.You priced out universities closer to home, and they’re not much cheaper.The university in Abbotsford was the closest and the most logical. Except it didn’t rival the University of British Columbia or, apparently, the University of Waterloo.
“Aunt Yvonne said if I get in, she’ll pay the tuition, books, and residence costs.”
“What?” I tried to wrap my mind around what a gift that would be. I’d been saving for Adele’s university fund as soon as I’d been able. Thinking about all the times I’d gone out for drinks with friends, or on hookups that required hotel rooms, or… I slammed the door shut. I was not going to feel guilty about trying to have a life beyond my beloved child. I cleared my throat. “I’ll have to talk to Yvonne. That would mean—” I gulped.
Adele placed her hand over mine. “I know.”
I blinked. “Yvonne isn’t—”
“Blood? Yeah, I know. But she says she wants me to have the same opportunities as Paget and Sedona—even though they’re her real family.”
