Blind Side(82)

And the fact that once again, I’d have to find a way to help her.

I was running out of ideas.

My heart was heavy, a sandpaper knot in my throat as I slid my thumb across the bottom of the screen and plugged my headphones in, setting my pace toward my dorm room.

“Hey, Mom,” I answered. “You okay?”

“Oh, sweetie,” she answered on a sniff, the words garbled by crying.

I braced myself.

“I’m more than okay.”

Something more like confusion, rather than relief, found my next exhale, especially as Mom continued to cry as I waited for her to explain.

“We’ve been blessed with a miracle,” she said. “The Lord has shined his almighty light upon us.”

I stopped walking. “Holy shit, did you win the lottery?”

“Language!” She chastised with a laugh. “And I guess you could say I did.”

“Mom, what’s going on?”

I continued walking, hiking my bag up over my shoulder.

“It’s Cory.”

I frowned, and though I had no reason to be anxious, something inside me was on high alert. “Cory? As in Maliyah’s dad?”

“The very one,” she confirmed. “I don’t know what happened. I mean, Maliyah called me last night to catch up — which was so nice, by the way. I haven’t really talked to her since you two split up, and it was just so lovely to hear from her.”

My lips flattened. “Mm-hmm.”

“Anyway, so we were talking, and you know how close we are. She’s always given me such great advice when it comes to men.” She paused. “Should be the other way around, ages considered.”

“Mom,” I said, dragging her back to the point.

“Well, I was telling her about the restaurant, and about… about Brandon.” Her voice cracked a little with his name. “And she was just so sweet, listening to me being all heartbroken.” She sniffed. “And I guess she must have told her dad about the whole thing, because he called me earlier today.”

I waited, heart picking up pace in my chest like it knew well before I did that something was wrong.

“He’s going to help us, baby,” she said, all joy through her tears. “He came by this afternoon with a check for ten-thousand dollars.”

“He what?!”

“I know! I know,” she said, like I was excited when the truth was I was fucking appalled. “He wanted us to have enough to get through the holidays, so I could focus on getting better instead of getting a job. Oh, I can’t tell you the relief it brought me. I feel… I feel… loved.”

She choked on the word, all while I tried to force a calming breath.

“He’s a good man. A good father,” she added. “Much better than your own. If I’d have been a smarter woman, I would have gone on a date with him when they all came into my diner that night.”

“Mom.”

“Oh, I’m only teasing,” she said, and I could picture her waving me off even as we both knew she wasn’t joking, not even a little bit.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “What… why did he do this?”

“Because he’s a good, Christian man,” she said, almost defensively. “And because he saw someone who needed help, and he happens to be in the position of helping.”

I swallowed.

Cory was a good man. Hadn’t I just argued that point to my father? Hadn’t I wished the very same thing Mom had, that it was Cory in our life instead of Dad?

So why was my stomach curdling like bad milk?

“This is a good thing, sweetheart. And I can pay you back for what you sent, so you can pay off that loan before it even has time to accrue interest. It’s all working out, don’t you see?”

But I couldn’t see anything but red.

Because I knew that while Cory had the means to help many people, he rarely ever did without wanting something in return.

“Mom, I need to go.”

“Okay, honey. I love you. It’s all good now. I’ll be sending you a check, okay?”

I couldn’t even manage to acknowledge her further before I was hanging up with shaking hands, and immediately thumbing through my contacts for Maliyah’s number. I typed out a text.

We need to talk. Now.

The bubbles bounced on the screen, then went away.

I gritted my teeth as I marched the rest of the way across campus, and I’d just swung through my dorm room door when my phone buzzed.

I have class until six. Meet after?

I only responded with a thumbs up emoji and my dorm number, although I was pretty sure she already knew it, and then I promptly threw my phone down, dragging my hands back through my hair as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on. It was only four now, and I was going to drive myself insane trying to piece this all together in the time I had until Maliyah could meet.

I was just about to hop in the shower — a cold one — when my phone rang.

Cory Vail was the name staring back at me.

My throat thickened, and I forced a breath before answering. “Hello?”

“Hello, son,” his deep voice echoed back. “How are you?”

The emotions that warred inside me then were too much to bear, a cross between familial pride and the wariness of a cornered animal.