Coming here was a huge mistake. Accepting Elon’s help was a blessing and a curse mixed up in a dream.
Elon tilted his head. “He’s mine, and the money is his birthright.”
I closed the bag and clutched it to me. I needed time to think. My heart raced. “Maybe this will all make sense after I eat something. But you and I need to talk once Sam goes to sleep.”
“Okay,” Elon said.
I headed to one of the bedrooms as Elon said, “Order whatever you want.”
Sam immediately said, “I want a cheeseburger, French fries, and a soda.”
So much for eating healthy, though Sam hadn't eaten much of anything today. I shrugged and called “He’ll also have an apple that he needs to eat first.”
I closed the door. I hoped to God that I'd made the right choice tonight. Hunter was a threat that could end my life or Sam’s. Going on the run without money wasn’t smart, but I wondered whether Elon would try to take my son. If he did, I needed to ensure at least that my parents would have nothing to do with Sam. He didn’t deserve to be treated as though he were invisible.
3
Elon
The moon was high in the sky. Clarissa hadn't come out of the bedroom, and I hadn’t wanted to move Sam, who passed out on the couch after his room-service meal.
Some man out there had hurt my son. And I wasn’t sure where he was or how to fix any of this.
So I rocked on my feet, enjoyed how the rain had finally ended, and just watched the moon.
The bedroom door opened, and Clarissa came out wearing a white T-shirt and blue-striped sleep shorts. She’d liked the color blue when we were kids, so I'd mentioned that to my assistant. I waved for her to join me at the window.
As she came closer, she seemed to glow and looked as innocent as she had years ago. My pulse zipped. “I thought for sure you were going to stay in there for hours.”
She glanced at Sam on the couch. “Sam’s asleep. He’s usually a night owl.”
He was like me then. I never could sleep when I'd been a kid or even now. I shrugged and said, “The burger filled him, and I went to the bathroom. When I came out, he was snoring.”
She sucked on her bottom lip. I wasn’t sure what she’d do, but then she nodded. “Can you carry him into the bedroom?”
I went to his side. “The suite has three, so he can have his own room.”
She nodded. “He’d like that.”
I lifted him, and she followed me.
We tucked him under the sheets, and she kissed his cheeks.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Sam and I needed time to get to know each other. I’d ask Maman how she'd gotten Joshua to open up as he'd been quieter more than the rest of us when he was adopted. Out of my twelve brothers, five had been born to Maman and Pedar, but our parents treated and loved all of us equally.
Clarissa walked out of the bedroom with me, and I closed the door. She smiled. “Thank you for the clothes and the bedrooms to sleep in.”
If I offered her alcohol, she might get the wrong idea. However, I lifted a bottle of wine. “We were all soaked through. I can have whatever you want moved so you don’t have to lift a finger.”
She came beside me in the kitchen, took out two glasses, and rinsed them in the sink. “I don’t know. Money doesn’t solve everything.”
“It solves most things.” I poured for both of us, and we walked to the couch and sat. “Clarissa, it’s clear you’re in trouble. Please know you can trust me.”
She snorted and picked up her wine. She sipped and met my gaze. “That’s absolutely not true. In the end, you saw me as a burden.”
The opposite was true. I sipped from my glass and held it between my knees. For years, I’d imagined seeing her again. Now that I'd made it happen, I only wished I’d found her sooner. My muscles felt jumpy as I prepared to tell her how wrong I'd been. “I… was so afraid of losing my parents that I ended the only relationship I ever had that mattered to me.”
“You’re joking.”
