She sighed. “How bad is it?”
“Bad, Hopey. It’s the worst kind of bad.” I threw my pillow just for good measure at the window. It plopped down on the ground. The experience missed what I needed from it—Hope rolling her eyes at me but listening.
She was quiet. “Just quit. Abandon Dad.”
I rolled my eyes. “Hope, you can still be there for him without running his charity. I’m talking about you not being a person who others are looking at for payback. I know you need to think about things and consider all your options all the time, because you always worry you’re making the wrong decisions. We’re all like that. We get that because Dad told us all that our decisions were wrong, all the time.” I had to get this out. “But I’ll tell you what I mean. I will always have your back, Hope. Always. You can’t go down with this ship.”
I didn’t expect the tears that came, but they fell anyway. Streamed, like an explosion. I was the Niagara Falls of crying. “Even if you left me here. Went with Dad because he threatened me.”
“You told me to go.” She spoke in a low voice. “You did.”
“That’s right, because I didn’t think I was worth asking you guys to stand against him. But what I know now is that you stand with the people you love when they need you, whether you ask them to or not. You’re always there, even if they push at you. That’s called loyalty. It’s what you do.” I sat up on the bed. “And I love you, Hope. I’ll always love you. I’m trying to save you. Do the right thing.”
“I’m sorry, Layla. I…I did the wrong thing. I knew it when we got on the plane. Bridget and I both did. I’m sorry. You seemed so okay, so happy in all the photos and the texts. I decided you were doing fine.”
I nodded. “I am, and that’s lucky. Just have my back next time I need you, please. You’re my sister. I need you.”
It was hard to admit that; one of the most troubling things for me to say in the world, actually. To be needy was to be wrong. I felt that with Zeke, I felt it my whole life. I was expected to have my shit together twenty-four seven. How could that be a reasonable thing to expect of a person?
“I need you, too. I will, Layla. You’ll never have to worry if you can count on me again. I promise.”
I believed her.
We said our goodbyes and hung up. That hadn’t gone at all the way I thought it was going to go.
I thought I might need a nap, but instead, I started drawing, finishing what I had for Zeke and moving on to the next one I hadn’t known I had inside of me to create.
After an hour, I rose to bring them to him, but nerves got the better of me. I didn’t want to hand them to him. I wanted to leave them for him to look at them when I wasn’t there to see it. Right or wrong, that was what I decided to do.
He was actually talking on his computer in his office when I entered his bedroom. I could hear him from the door. Dang it. He hadn’t been in there all week. What was he doing now?
“Layla? That you?” he called out. “Come here, princess.”
That nickname again. Good or bad, it was obviously now mine. I walked toward him, stopping in the doorway. “You okay?”
“Yep. Come meet my friend Kolby.”
He must be on the screen. I walked over and would have bent over to see him, but Zeke pulled me onto his lap. I sat instead, sort of delighted that he’d done that in front of his friend.
“Layla.” A happy looking brown-haired man with blue eyes smiled back at me. He had a toddler on his lap. Aha, so this was one of the ones with kids and not the one traveling the world. Or the one running the bar. This was the electrician. “So, you’re the one who is making this guy look happier than he has in years.”
Behind me, Zeke groaned. “Don’t embarrass me, man. Or I wouldn’t have called her in.”
I smiled at Kolby. “How are things where you are?”
The toddler grinned at me, and I grinned back. He clapped his hands, and I did the same. I’d always loved kids, even if that weren’t a fashionable thing to do. I did. I’d own it.
“Well, they’re going well. Mommy is napping. She’s pregnant. Yes, Zeke, again. Three is not that large a number, and she needs to rest. So, we are watching big brother build with Legos while we are distracted by talking to Uncle Zeke.”
Behind me, Zeke laughed. “Now I see why you contacted me. You’re distracting Simon. I get it. I see. Using me.”
“Totally.” Kolby laughed back. “So, Layla. How did you get him to take an afternoon off? This has to be your doing.”
I shook my head. “Not me at all. Zeke is his own man. He makes his own decisions. He wanted this afternoon off, he took it.”
“I see.” Kolby smiled again. “Well, it’s nice to see the two of you.”
I rose. I’d been introduced. Made faces at the toddler. I’d let them get back to talking to each other. I quickly left the sketches I’d done on the desk. “Look at these later. Okay? Without me here?”
He shot me a questioning look, his eyebrows slanted down, but nodded just the same. I winked at him. “See you later.”
It was time for me to get ready to be beautiful for wherever we were going tonight. It had to be possible for me to put on fancier clothes and not hate them. I just had to figure out how.
In the end, I wore a black pencil skirt and paired it with a white blouse that showed skin slightly before the end of the shirt and the top of the skirt. The really dramatic thing I did was put on red shoes and red lipstick. I pulled my hair back in a low ponytail and overdid it with the eyeshadow so that my eyes were really smoky. In the end, I was happy with the effect.
I came out to find Zeke waiting for me, which was when I realized I was five minutes late. “Sorry.”
His eyes widened. “Some things are well worth waiting for.”
I spun. “Good?”
“Stunning. I mean, you take my breath away.”
My cheeks burned, and I knew I had to be blushing, but I didn’t care. I took his outstretched hand. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
It turned out if you were Zeke Scott, you could get private tours of the Louvre when they were supposed to be closed. It looked like they were having some kind of event at the other end for someone important. I didn’t know them and I didn’t care, because getting to wander the Louvre with no one else in it was maybe the coolest thing, ever.
Everyone loved the Mona Lisa, and I certainly looked at her, but it was a different painting that stole my attention, not giving it back. I almost couldn’t move on from looking at it. It was called The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds by a painter named Georges de la Tour. It was fascinating to me. Four people were featured around a card table. A well-dressed man studying his cards was on the left. I was sure he was important, but it was the central figure, the woman who I couldn’t stop staring at.
Her gaze darted left to the server, who was perhaps helping her cheat. I loved the colors, the detail. It was like I was desperate to shout out, someone tell me what happens next. I rocked back on my feet. Okay. I loved art. It hadn’t been taken from me. Staying in Paris with Zeke had at least shown me that. What would my life have been like if my father hadn’t forbidden this?