“Rory, honey, you need to eat…” Grammy wrung her hands together.
“I need to get ready for my exam,” I lied again. In order to explain all the time I spent locked in my room on my computer, I’d invented a summer school program to keep Grammy from asking too many questions. “I’ll come out when I’m finished and help with chores.”
I kissed the tops of both Josie and Bo’s heads, squeezed my grandmother’s shoulder, and made a hasty exit to my room. Ilocked the door behind me. If anyone came in and saw what I was up to, they’d freak out.
I turned on my ring light, reapplied my lip gloss, and logged into the app. I already had three men queued in my waiting room. I took off my sweatshirt and checked my reflection. I looked just like my mother, a fact that never failed to irritate me. I selected a background I’d been using lately, which made it look like I was broadcasting from a high-end, sunny, luxury apartment.
Ah, the internet. It was filled with lies.
There weren’t a lot of ways to earn money in our remote town in upstate New York, but at least there was wifi.
I clicked on the avatar for the first guy waiting in line.Payment up front through the app,I texted. I waited until the funds hit to let him into the room. It wasn’t enough money to save my grandmother’s farm, but it would help buy groceries this week.
I told myself this was temporary, that Grammy would never know, that it didn’t make me a bad person. But lately, I was beginning to worry that on top of all the lies I was telling in this chatroom, I was also lying to myself.
“Hi there,” I purred. “I’m Rory. I’m twenty-two. Legal, human—and full of bad decisions.” I blew the camera a kiss, relieved that I couldn’t see the stranger’s face.
“This is your fifteen minutes to get anything you want from me.”
HEIR APPARENT
RHODES
“Sir!”My assistant, Alicia, burst into my office. In ten years, she’d never done that.
I was immediately on alert. “What’s wrong?”
“I just got a call from your stepmother. She said she’s trying to reach you—it’s urgent.”
I checked my phone, which I’d muted.
Miranda Barrington -13 missed calls
A funny sensation settled over me, a heaviness, and I had to sit down. Black spots danced in front of my eyes. “What happened?” But somehow, I already knew.
Alicia’s face was white. “There’s been an accident. It’s your father and your brother—I’m so sorry, Sir.”
“I’ll call Miranda back.”
She closed the door behind her. Once I was alone again, I felt like I was underwater, sinking. My palms tingled, chills running up my arms.
Be a man. Pick up the phone.I didn’t want to know what happened. But did I have a choice?
I called my stepmother.
“Rhodes?” Her voice was raspy, choked.
“What happened?”
“There was an accident. They were driving back from Boston…. There was a tractor-trailer…” She took a deep, shuddery breath.
Heaviness settled over my heart, cloaking it in darkness.My father. My brother.I’d already lost my mother. And now, the rest of my family was… gone? How was that even possible?
“Where’s Luke?” I asked. Luke was my brother’s four-year-old son.
“With his mother,” Miranda said.
My mind started racing. “That’s not good.”
