The Knight (Endgame #2)(22)

On the opposite side of the fire an animated Harper tells a story with her hands. I don’t even have the energy to get mad at her for being reckless. It’s so quintessentially Harper to make friends with anyone and everyone. And besides, the circle looks inviting to me now, when my heart feels heavy as a stone, eyes burning from the tears I shed on the way home.

Will spots me first. “You look like hell.”

Harper takes one look at me and envelops me in a hug, her slender arms surprisingly strong. “Oh no,” she murmurs. “That asshole. That fucker. I’ll kick his ass.”

I give her a watery laugh. “Thank you, but it wasn’t Gabriel. At least I don’t think so.”

“Sit down,” she says, guiding me to an upturned blue cooler. “We have cheap beer and all night long. What the hell happened?”

“I went early, before the auction. In the attic I found a diary that belonged to my mother. I never even knew she kept one.”

And the men she talked about, vying for her hand. Her reluctance to agree to my father’s proposal. She should have been going to concerts with friends, thinking about a career, but Tanglewood high society had very strict rules for women.

Even twenty years later, for me, there hadn’t been much give.

My throat tightens. “There’s so much about her I didn’t know.”

“That’s amazing,” Harper says.

“It would be, except I don’t have it.” There are some things too personal to share, and what Gabriel Miller did to me against the fireplace is one of them. “The diary was part of the house, so it went to whoever won the auction.”

Will makes a rough sound. “Rich people out to make a buck.”

I’m not sure if he knows that Harper is richer than God—at least, when her stepbrother gives her permission to use her trust. “I don’t know if it was a real estate person. Gabriel hadn’t seen him before. He didn’t talk to anyone else. But he seemed intent on buying the house. As if he would have spent anything.”

Harper looks thoughtful. “Like he wanted to live there?”

“No, he didn’t seem interested in the house itself. He kept looking at his phone, like he wanted to get out of there. It was strange.”

They’re silent a moment, digesting this. Then Will holds something out. It takes me a second to realize that it’s a joint, rolled up thick and short. Justin did some partying with his frat brothers. I went with him when he asked, but he knew I preferred to stay in. Movie nights. Study sessions. That’s more my speed. And I knew it would crush my father if I was caught with something.

I don’t have to worry about his opinion now. He’s not aware enough to ask questions, but I’ve already failed at everything. Dropped out of college, my fund depleted to pay his court-ordered restitution. Lost my mother’s house. And that’s nothing compared to his horror if he learned I had auctioned my virginity. I never plan to tell him the worst part, but any claim to fatherly pride is long gone.

Why shouldn’t I have fun now? What else is there to lose?

I take the joint and put it to my lips. A deep breath.

And a cough. “Oh my God.”

“My little innocent,” Harper says, taking the joint from me. “That was your first hit, wasn’t it? You took too much.”

Will eyes me with suspicion, as if I just revealed that I’m armed and dangerous. “How old are you exactly? You aren’t jailbait, are you?”

“Of course not,” I say, grabbing a sweat-slicked can of beer from the stash. “I’m going to turn twenty-one in two weeks.”

“That’s not actually old enough to drink,” Will says, not appeased.

“She’s eighteen,” I say, pointing at Harper. “The genius skipped a few grades.”

“Tattletale,” Harper says before taking a drag.

Will shakes his head. “Kids these days.”

“I can’t believe Gabriel didn’t buy the house for you,” Harper says, studying the smoke from the fire as if it contains the answers.

“He couldn’t. Something about Miller Industries being the court-appointed holding company, so if he bid on the auction, it would be a conflict of interest.”

She shrugs as if unimpressed. “He knows other rich people. A couple mil is nothing to them. Surely he could have gotten it if he wanted to.”

“I don’t see why he would. He already gave me a million dollars.”

“Still think he’s an asshole,” Harper says, passing the joint to Will.

“I agree,” Will says.

“What do you even know about it?” I say, uncomfortable with their assessment. I know that Gabriel Miller is an asshole, but somehow it feels weird for other people to point it out. I have a strange impulse to defend him that I force down.

“I know that anyone who lets you live in this shit hole isn’t a good guy,” Will says.

I put my head in my hands, defeat washing over me in waves. “I can’t believe I lost the house.”

“It’s Gabriel Miller’s fault,” Harper says in a pragmatic tone. “He’s behind everything—your father’s trials, losing the money. Even the auction for your virginity.”

He’s always been the man behind the curtain, making everyone dance, tearing down my family brick by brick. And I let him touch me. I almost came for him against the fireplace.