London looks over at her father. “I’ve sent you a bunch of messages, and I called…”
Pat draws back to look at her. “None of that is important, sweetheart. What matters is that you’re here.”
London pries herself away, and some of the color drains from her face. “You shouldn’t be here. What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
London shakes her head. “Neither of you can be here. You don’t understand what you’re signing up for. I’m fine. I don’t need your help.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course, you need our help. You poor baby.” Pat tucks her hair behind her ears and pats her hands. “Don’t you worry. Your father and I will make things right. We’ve already offered our services to Mr. Payne.”
London looks at me and frowns. “Please tell me you didn’t.”
“Not yet,” I tell her. “But I might be tempted to consider it.”
London wrenches her arm away and crosses over to me. “They’re my parents. You can’t.”
I give her a pointed look. “They showed up here hoping to cause enough of a ruckus to get me to talk to them. They’ve seen too much, London. You know what happens to people who can’t keep secrets.”
London swallows and glances back at her parents. “They won’t say anything. I’ll make sure of it.”
“And the diner?”
London glances back sharply. “What about it?”
“Your dad was going to offer it,” Pat adds hastily. “Mr. Payne was kind enough to wait while we sorted out some details.”
“This is ridiculous,” London says. “You two won’t even take my calls, and now you show up and do this?”
“We were upset,” Pat replies. “We couldn’t understand, but when I asked your father to tell me about the men he made a deal with… we had to come.”
“You still shouldn’t have come,” London says. “I told you not to. Do you have any idea how much danger you’re in? Coming here just made it worse.”
“London—” Pat reaches for her, but London steps out of her reach. “You’re not even going to let us try?”
London looks at me and then back at them. “Did you tell her what happened when you found out?”
Berrett remains silent.
London looks back at her mother, and the look on her face makes me regret my earlier decision not to give her dad a special welcome. “I told Dad that I was working abroad to spare his feelings, and I had to tell Noah the same lie because I knew neither of them could handle it. One of Noah’s friends found outI was working here, and the first thing they did was rip me a new one for lying.”
Berrett winces. “I didn’t handle that well, but under the circumstances, there wasn’t much else I could do.”
“Not much else you could do? You could’ve listened. You could’ve believed me when I said I didn’t have a choice!”
“London, sweetheart, there’s always a choice,” her mother begins. “This… I don’t know why you think there was no other way—”
“Since when do you take his side? All you’ve done since you left him is point out all the ways he’s failed and how he’d drag me down with him.”
“This is different.”
“It’s not,” London argues. “You wouldn’t hear me out, either. I tried to tell you, but all you cared about was the fact that I wasn’t following the plan.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is.” The words pour from London in a rush. “You cared more about Noah’s feelings than you did about how any of this was affecting me. Do you have any idea what it was like for me? Do you even care?”
“Of course we care, but you don’t have to do any of this anymore.”
