Her lip quivers. “You shouldn’t have to do this for me.”
“Trust me, it isn’t that hard of a task,” I mutter.
Layla leans over. “He’s really attractive, Bella’s type to a T, but she’s in denial.”
That makes my mother pause. “You don’t mind pretending?”
Rolling my eyes, I slump back into the couch, just grateful she isn’t yelling about me beingsoldanymore. “Of course I do. It’s strange to pretend to like someone, but he’s sweet and very considerate about boundaries”—tell that to the half-naked picture burning a hole in my phone—“and a gentleman.”
My mom’s lips purse. “I still don’t like this. No gentlemen would do this.”
“Actually, lots of?—”
“Books don’t count, Layla,” my mom cuts in.
“They should,” she mutters.
Lifting my chin with defiance, my mother does the same, and I quickly jump in before she can. “I love you and I respect you and it’s because I do that I’m putting my foot down. You are getting the treatment, and you will accept the money.” I lower my voice to a whisper. “I don’t care what I have to do to save your life. Why can’t you understand that?”
She’s quiet for a moment.
“I do understand that, and it worries me that you will lose yourself in the process of trying to save me. You have your whole life ahead of?—”
“So do you if you get the treatment,” I say, cutting her off.
She huffs. “You’re not going to back down, are you?”
“No,” I say as Layla snorts.
“No offense, Trisha, but she is your daughter. Look at the both of you, ready to go to battle to save one another.”
My brow quirks at the same time my mom’s does. The mirrored movement only further proves Layla’s point, making the three of us burst into a fit of laughter.
It’s the first real belly laugh I’ve heard from my mom inweeks, and I don’t care that it started out as her screaming. I’m doing the right thing if my mother laughs at the end of it.
Taking a seat next to me, my mom wraps me in a hug, and I make it my mission to ignore her protruding bones that stick into me as she kisses the top of my head.
“I’ll do it, love. I’ll do it.”
The sigh that leaves me is accentuated by a tear of relief trickling down my cheek.
My mom has a chance to live after all.
Chapter 24
Grayson
GRAYSON
are you coming back tomorrow?
BELLA
yes, why?
GRAYSON
I just miss your cooking is all
