Page 6 of Break Me Beautifully
"Exactly. I knew you were smart, it's one of your few strengths." She leans away, adjusting her shawl and tucking her arms around her chest. Closing herself off to me was her default setting. “Pack your bags. He wants to leave tonight.”
I deflate on my bed.Of course. I'm just another tool.
Why had I dared to think, even for a second, that I could be more?
Chapter 3.
Packing doesn't takelong.
In school, people expected me to have access to unlimited credit cards. Like I could simply waltz into any store, buy anything or everything, without breaking a sweat. I did have more clothes than I needed. Plenty of expensive makeup. Over-priced electronics. Most were gifts from people trying to get favors from my parents. It's much cheaper to throw thousand-dollar laptops at a few kids in exchange for my father’s investment in a new wing of a college somewhere than to go to a bank for a loan.
Unlike my siblings, I never cared for money. I'd tried to turn the gifts down for years, but my mother scolded me so many times, and the gifts always appeared in my bedroom whether I denied them or not.
But the things that matter to me are not so fancy. And, bonus, they fit easily in a single suitcase. I'd just finished putting my sketchbook, art supplies, and the one pair of nice boots that I loved (winter was on the horizon) into the case when someone knocked.
“Come in,” I say, looking up.
Katy peeks at me through the gap. “Hey,” she says gently. “Your ride is outside.”
“Okay.”
We stand there awkwardly. She bolts across the room suddenly, wrapping me in a tight hug. I have a terrible feeling it's the last one we'll ever share. “Be careful,” she whispers in my ear.
I clutch her so she can't move away. I want to tell her what Mom said, but honestly, I'm still caught up on whatshetold me. “Katy ... the stuff about Klintock being involved in the mafia ...”
“I'm probably just paranoid,” she says quickly.
“And Willbur?”
“Since when did you care what he says?”
“I care about it when it means I could be locking myself in a room with a killer.”
Katy's face screws into a knot. “You're a grown-ass woman, Leona. You're also the most unambitious member of the Hark family to ever exist. It's possible this man has seedy connections. Maybe that's good.”
“How is thatgood?”
