“Well, before Mia was one phase. I was driven…focused on my career. I felt like I had to prove I was successful, I guess.”
His head tilts. “Prove it to who?”
“That’s not a quick answer.” And I’m not sure I want to tell you, I add silently.
“I’ve got nowhere to be, and you’re off work for the next four days. We’ve got time Evie.”
I rub my eyebrow, wondering how far back to start. “I grew up with money. Not as much as you guys have, obviously, but it was old money. My parents had expectations of me that I had a hard time with.”
“Like…?”
“Like; be skinny. Be quiet. Be refined. They wanted me to be the perfect debutant.”
“And you didn’t want to be?”
“I wanted to be, at first. I tried. Kids want to please their parents, so I did everything they asked me to.” I frown when I think of the girl I was. “I did the diets and wore the dresses, and I was still bigger than anyone else.”
“No kid should be shamed for their weight.”
“No. But I actually don’t think my weight would have bothered them as much if that was the only thing wrong with me. But I thought the balls and dresses were stupid. I thought most of the stuff the other girls talked about was so fucking boring. It’s the last place I wanted to be. So finally, I threw a fit and stopped going.”
“Good for you. Then what? They just accepted it?”
“They didn’t have a choice. They tried to bribe me with a car, but we lived in New York City. No one needs a car there. So that didn’t work. Mostly, they just made their disapproval of me known to everyone. They’d go on and on about how I was such a disappointment and how ungrateful I am.”
“Fuck them.” The snarl on Colt’s face is sexy. Maybe because he’s angry on my behalf. It’s nice having someone on my side.
“Yeah. That’s how I felt. By the time I graduated, I’d applied to nursing school. My parents were horrified. A doctor? Fine. But a nurse? Not a chance. My brother was in Law School and that was deemed an acceptable choice too.”
“Jesus. Fuckers.”
“I didn’t want to be a doctor. I was a candy striper throughout high school, and I loved it. I loved interacting with patients, and I paid attention. The nurses were the ones working one on one with people. Most of them were so smart, so on the ball. And I really liked how much they cared. A lot of the doctors seemed rushed. Like they were too important to actually talk to people. Sometimes, that’s true. I just didn’t see all the other demands on a doctor’s time when I was a kid. Nurses and nursing seemed better somehow. So that’s what I applied to do. And my parents threatened to cut me off and not pay for school.”
“And did they?”
“They tried. But I basically told them I’d ‘out’ them to all their friends. Spread rumors they were having money trouble, and that’s why they wouldn’t pay for my schooling. They caved, mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Yeah. They paid for tuition and books, but that’s it. I went to school in Ohio since the cost of living was better, and I got a job to pay for food and housing.”
I shrug, trying to shake off the hurt of their actions. “I know I’m lucky that I didn’t end up with a bunch of student loans. A lot of the people in my class had a ton of debt at graduation.”
Colt leans forward, eyes burning. “Don’t do that. Don’t act like they did you some big favor. They had the resources, they could have paid for everything. They were just being dicks.”
“Yeah, they were.” I can’t imagine treating Mia the same way. If I have the resources to support her dreams when she’s older, I absolutely will.
“So, is that why you didn’t go to them when Brent fucking framed you?”
My eyes drift to the windows and the blue skies outside them. “I actually did go to them…well to my brother. But I cut my parents out of my life a few months before that.”
“Why? What did they do?”
“I guess it’s more what I did…I adopted Mia.”
16
COLTON
