Page 53 of Til Death
One of my brows rose. “Must have been one hell of a meeting for you to go off the rails like you did.”
She huffed a deep breath. “Meeting with my dad wasn’t the problem. It’s what he said that fucked me up.”
Silently, I waited for her to continue. By the look on her face, it was clear she didn’t want to talk about it, but she had no choice. The reason I’d brought her out to eat instead of discussing things at the house was so she couldn’t run away and avoid the problems at hand.
CHAPTER 11
Xylina
Embarrassed was an understatement.
Yesterday after meeting with my dad, I’d just wanted to forget. I hardly even remembered buying the bottle of liquor and drinking. The shock of the cold water hitting me caused me to snapback into reality.
This morning when I woke up, I was shocked to see Yosiah in my bed and me tucked into his side. Thinking of what transpired the day before had me wanting to bury my head in the sand. I hated showing any weakness. I hated not being on my A game. I was a Fox turned Bedford, but here I was acting like a low-level peasant.
Slowly lifting my eyes from the random spot on the table, I settled them on Yosiah. The intensity in his gaze caused my heart to stumble uncomfortably in my chest. My skin prickled to the point where it felt itchy.
Yosiah must have picked up that I was having a hard time because his face relaxed some and he sighed. “Just start from the beginning.”
Swallowing hard, I circled the straw in my glass and began explaining the past month. It was the first time I’d spoken aboutall of my woes out loud to someone else. The more I spoke, the more the knot in my stomach grew.
“So yeah, to sum it up, I’m broke.” Heat rose to my cheeks.
Megan approached the table, checking on us and delivering the pickles Yosiah had ordered.
“Are you going to say something?” I asked once it was just us again. The smell of the breaded pickle chips filled my nose, causing my stomach to grumble. I reached for one and popped it in my mouth.
“So your trust funds are gone?”
Slowly, I nodded.
“And you can’t access any of your accounts?”
Again I nodded. “I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but according to my dad it’s all a misunderstanding that’s being handled. But that doesn’t matter; how am I supposed to survive without money?! I mean, yeah, I have money from my modeling and influencing, but that won’t last through the end of the month. I’m not meant to have a nine to five either; so what the hell am I supposed to do!” My breathing spiked as panic rushed through me. Just the thought of living like everyone else made me cringe.
“Xylina!” Yosiah’s deep baritone was stern, causing me to jump. “You need to relax before you have a panic attack.”
“How am I supposed to relax when my life is falling apart! Did you not hear everything I just said!”
My heart slammed rapidly against my breasts. It was as if a band wrapped around my ribcage and grew tighter the more I tried to breathe through it.
“Take a deep breath and get a hold of yourself.”
Doing as he said, I closed my eyes, inhaling sharply and slowly pushing it out. The sounds of the ships in the distance filled my ears. My pulse still raced through my body like a shot of adrenaline.
“Now tell me about meeting with your dad. What happened?”
Fluttering my eyes open slowly, my stomach twisted as I replayed the conversation with my dad in my head. My teeth scraped over my bottom lip and my hands balled into fist, causing my nails to dig into my palms.
Yosiah already hated my dad. I didn’t know how he would react to what my dad had demanded of me. He might honestly think everything happening to me was funny and well deserved. As I stared at him, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“He uh, well… he reached out to me, wanting to meet. I thought he was going to explain what was happening and clear up that he never stole my trust fund, but that was far from the truth. I left not knowing what was going on or why everything was happening. Him and my mom apparently are separated, and well…” My words trailed off.
I reached for more pickles and tossed them in my mouth, giving myself time. It was hard to admit out loud that your dad didn’t give a fuck about you. That he wanted to use you and couldn’t care less that your life was going in a downward spiral.
“Well what, Xylina?” Yosiah’s stare drilled into me. His voice was so calm it shot a shiver up my spine but somehow eased my rattled nerves at the time.
“He asked me for money; a loan he called it.” One of his brows lifted.
