Neil kept his gaze downcast, but the look of shame on his face was unmistakable. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, for once sounding sincere. “I don’t have any excuse for my actions back then, except that I was young and immature and incredibly selfish. You’re right. I could have - should have - done something rather than abandoning you that way. I knew what Nikki was like, how irresponsible and flighty, how she was the last person who ought to be raising a child. I should have at least insisted that she give you up for adoption, so that you could have had a better life.”
“Hmm.” Scarlett regarded her father warily. “Okay, apology accepted. But let me ask you something. If you had to do it all over again, do you think you would have made the same choice?”
Neil exhaled sharply, then scrubbed a hand over his face wearily. “Honestly? I probably would have, yeah. Obviously if I had known then what I know now I would have certainly handled things differently. But since I would have had no way of looking into the future…”
“You would have still acted like a prize winning dick and walked away without a second thought,” finished Scarlett flatly. “Yeah, that’s what I figured.”
“Look,” began Neil hesitantly, “I realize that just saying I’m sorry isn’t going to make it all go away, or make things right for you. That’s why I wish you’d reconsider taking the money, Scarlett. It can’t make up for all the bad years, but at least you’d be in a much better place now. You’d be a fool not to accept what we’re offering.”
Scarlett’s ears seemed to perk up immediately at Neil’s use of the word “we” and Jackson silently cursed him for his utter lack of discretion.
“We?” she asked quizzically, looking at Neil and then at Jackson. “What do you mean “we”? When Jackson first told me about this offer of accepting money in return for helping Hannah, I just assumed it was your money,” she clarified, pointing a finger at her father. “Please don’t tell me that you were actually going to expect the Gilmores to foot the bill for you. And just how would you have pulled that off anyway, considering the fact that I even exist is supposed to be kept a deep, dark secret and - oh, hell no!”
She turned on Jackson, her eyes narrowing dangerously as she poked him in the chest with her index finger, hard enough to make him wince. “It was going to be your money, wasn’t it?” she hissed accusingly. “Not a dime of that so-called compensation was going to come from dear old Dad’s bank account, was it?”
“No,” confirmed Jackson bluntly, refusing to back down from her ferocious stare. “Neil doesn’t have that sort of cash on hand. At least not in his own personal account. And withdrawing a large sum from his joint account with my sister would have set off all sorts of alarm bells.”
Scarlett shook her head. “Unbelievable. Once again, Dad, you find a way to wiggle out of your responsibilities. As for you.”
Jackson leaned back in his chair as she once again pointed that dangerous-looking index finger in his direction, half-afraid that she’d poke a hole in his chest.
“What makes you think I’d accept a dime from you?” she raged. “You and I are not related in any way. We are not family. Hannah is not your responsibility, and I sure as hell am not your responsibility. Stop trying to cover for my father’s failures. For once in his life, make him act like a man and take responsibility for his own obligations. Speaking of which.”
She dug through the backpack that was quite literally being held together with a dozen or more strips of duct tape before pulling out a rumpled sheet of notebook paper. She smoothed it out a bit before smacking it on the table in front of Neil.
“Look at the total,” she told him firmly. “Think you can scrape together that amount without having to ask the missus for permission?”
Neil glared at her but glanced over the sheet before giving a brief nod. “That should be doable,” he agreed. “But what exactly does this amount represent?”
Jackson picked up the sheet, quickly looking over the rows of figures Scarlett had hastily scribbled down. “It’s a budget,” he told Neil bluntly. “Tuition, other school fees, rent, utilities. Seems a little on the low side to me, though.”
Scarlett shrugged. “I’m a girl of simple needs. And while I won’t take a dime - from either of you - for helping Hannah, that doesn’t mean my father doesn’t owe me big time for twenty-one years of neglect. All I’m asking for, though, is one lousy year. One year of my entire life when you take care of me. You can pay my tuition for senior year so that some other student who doesn’t have a rich father can have my scholarship. I’m sick to death of living in the attic in that crappy old house with roommates who steal my food, make noise at all hours of the night, and whose names I don’t even bother to learn anymore. I want my own place, just for a year. Nothing big or fancy. In fact, I based the rent on what they’re charging for these micro apartments. The places are less than 200 square feet, with furniture that folds up, and every single inch of space is put to use.”
Jackson scowled. “Christ, Scarlett, you deserve something way better than living in a shoebox! And you’re hardly allowing any money at all for stuff like groceries, bus fare, clothes. You need to add a few thousand more to this total.”
“No.” She shook her curly head firmly. “Just what’s on the list and nothing more. I still plan to work, after all, though I’ll probably give up the catering gigs and just stick with the other two jobs. I’m not an opportunist, after all, and my needs are pretty basic. But this money has to come from my father, not from you, Jackson. It’s his responsibility, not yours. If I think for even one minute that you’re footing any of this bill, then I’ll refuse.”
“That won’t be necessary,” interjected Neil tersely. “I already said I could swing this. I don’t have my checkbook with me, but if you leave me your bank information I can have the funds wired to your account tomorrow.”
Scarlett jotted down the information on the same sheet of paper she’d written her budget on. “Here. And there’s no rush. I realize you need to get back to Hannah. And - thanks.”
Neil shrugged. “A relatively small price to pay to help my daughter.”
Once again Scarlett looked positively livid. “Guess I don’t need to ask which daughter you’re referring to, do I?” she replied snarkily. “You obviously don’t even think of me as a daughter, do you? And this - this money isn’t a condition for helping Hannah. I would have agreed to the bone marrow donation even if you had said no to the money.”
“Neil, for Christ’s sake. Scarlett is your daughter, too,” said Jackson angrily. “Like it or not, admit it or no. And you owe her a whole lot more than that pittance. I love Hannah like she’s my own, and she’s been through hell these past couple of years. But she’s lived like a princess all of her life, had everything she ever wanted - fancy house, nice clothes, private schools, great vacations - while Scarlett has had absolutely nothing. You need to make this right for her, Neil.”