Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)
J. S. Scott
PROLOGUE
NOAH
Seventeen years ago . . .
“You’ll have to forget about being a brother to your siblings, Noah. From now on, you’ll have to be a parent figure. You’re all they have.”
My mother’s voice was little more than a whisper, but I still heard her clearly. I’d scooted my chair up next to her hospital bed because she’d wanted to have a talk.
“They still have you, Mom.” My voice was hoarse and more than a little bit panicked. She wasn’t gone. She was still here. She was just . . . sick.
Even as I looked at the fragile form of my only parent buried beneath a ton of white clinical bedding, I wasn’t willing to let her go.
Not now.
Not ever.
My family needed her.
Hell, I still needed her, even though I’d just turned eighteen and had graduated from high school a few weeks earlier.
Her voice was gentle as she said, “I’m dying, Noah. You know what the doctors told you. You have to accept it now.”
I clenched my fists until my knuckles were as white as the sheet they were resting on. “No,” I said firmly.
I wasn’t going to let her go. I couldn’t. She’d get better. She just needed time.
“Yes,” she answered. “Listen to me, Noah. I need you to be the strong one right now. You have to take care of your sisters and brothers. I don’t want to leave any of you, but I’m afraid I don’t have much choice.”
“You have to fight,” I said insistently.
“My fight is over,” she said, sounding resigned as she laid her hand on top of mine. “Yours is just beginning. I’m so sorry, Noah. I never wanted you or your sisters and brothers to suffer the way you have. We’ve never had much. And now, things are going to get even more difficult.”
“We’ve always had each other,” I told her adamantly. “Maybe we haven’t had a lot of money, but that’s never mattered.”
Yeah, we’d grown up poor, and my siblings were still being raised in near poverty, but they’d sure as hell never suffered. My mom had worked her ass off to provide the basic necessities, and now that I had a full-time job, things were bound to get easier.
If she’d just . . . get well.
Better times were ahead.
They had to be.
“I can’t do this without you,” I said roughly.
I couldn’t ever fathom trying to be everything to my siblings. I could never replace my mother.
I felt a small pressure on my hand as she squeezed it weakly and whispered, “You have to, son. There isn’t anyone else.”
She was right. Our father had never really been in the picture, and I hadn’t seen him at all for years now. And there was no other family who would claim any of us.
“Work hard, Noah. As long as you keep your head down and work, your siblings will survive. It won’t be easy, but Seth and Aiden are old enough to help.”
I nodded jerkily. My brothers Seth and Aiden were in high school, and they each had a part-time job to help us get by. But my twin sisters were barely into middle school, and the youngest, Owen, was just coming out of elementary.
My gut sank as I replied, “I can get another job. I can try to make more money.”
I watched as she shook her head. “No matter what it costs, get your college education, Noah. Please. For me. I know it’s almost an impossible task to raise your siblings, get your schooling, and still have to work full-time, but education is the only thing that’s going to carry you all out of poverty. Get yourself through school, and help your siblings rise higher in life. I want you all to do better than I did.”
I heard the pain in her voice, and I cringed. My entire life, I’d watched her work herself into the ground with low-paying jobs that had barely kept us fed, but she’d done it without a single complaint. “You did a good job,” I told her, my voice cracking with emotion as I said it.
My siblings and I fought and gave each other a hard time, as brothers and sisters always did, but I wouldn’t trade my family for anything, even if I had the option to be a spoiled rich kid.
Squabbling sibling stuff aside, I knew my family always had my back. And I’d always have theirs. There was no monetary value I could put on that. I’d rather have my family than money.
Problem was, I’d need cash to make sure they had everything they needed while they were growing up.
My spine stiffened, and I sat up straighter.
Time for me to man up. Mom’s right. There isn’t anyone else.
Like it or not, my mother was dying, and I was going to be the head of my family.
I’d been in denial for weeks, even though my mother had made it perfectly clear that there was no cure for her cancer, and that it was breaking down her body quickly. The disease was extremely aggressive, and if I had to be honest with myself, I didn’t think my parent could hold on much longer.
She wasn’t going to get better.
Our only parent was leaving us.
If I was all my siblings had, then I’d have to be realistic.
Owen, Jade, and Brooke were still just kids, and they were going to need me when Mom was gone. So I had to deal with the truth.
I wasn’t sure if my younger siblings even really understood that their mother was probably going to be gone in a matter of days. How in the hell was I going to explain all of this to them? Hell, I hadn’t come to terms with it myself until . . . today.