Page 27 of Love Conquers All

“Dad?” Sylvie got out of bed and tried to stand her ground, but her legs were shaking. She tried to find a path past him, but he took up too much space. It would have been easy for him to reach out and grab her.

“I heard you,” James growled. “I know what you’re up to.”

Sylvie glared at him. Last summer, she’d asked for a separate phone line in her bedroom, but he’d denied her. She thought she was good at detecting when someone was listening in, but sometimes she got carried away with James.

“If you heard anything, you know I have no plans,” Sylvie shot back.

James took another dramatic step forward. “Your mother would be ashamed of you.”

It felt like a smack. Her father never spoke of her mother.

“That’s a lie,” Sylvie said. “Mom believed in me. She believed I was capable of so much. She believed in more than that stupid inn and money and whatever else you stand for.”

James’s hands were in fists the size of massive rocks. Sylvie was suddenly terrified. Her father had never been violent with her, but the look in his eyes was red-hot and murderous.

“I think it’s about time we did something about this,” James said under his breath. “It’s about time I stop letting you destroy what I’ve built.”

Sylvie’s eyes widened. She told herself it was an empty threat.

She decided on another tactic. “I need to go to bed, Dad. Please, let me sleep.”

“I don’t think so,” he shot. He turned on the overhead lights and stomped out into the hallway. “Come with me.”

Sylvie remained in her bedroom. Terror spiked in her heart.

“If you don’t get out here, Sylvie, you won’t like what happens next,” James said.

Sylvie couldn’t fathom what that meant. But she scurried after him, feeling like a frightened rabbit, and followed her father to the living room downstairs. He pointed at the sofa, using his eyes to demand that she sit, then disappeared into his study. He returned with a thick folder, which he smacked on the coffee table. “Open it.”

Sylvie’s hands shook as she reached for the folder. Her nails were painted bright pink in a vegan nail polish she’d recently discovered at a little earth-friendly shop in the Nantucket Historic District, but she’d bitten them to the quick, maybe due to anxiety, perhaps due to youth.

Inside the folder was an application to a boarding school in Maine.

Sylvie’s jaw dropped. “What is this?”

“That’s where you’re going for senior year,” he growled.

“No. I’m not.” Sylvie closed the folder and stood. “I’m seventeen years old. I only have one year left of school.”

“You’re seventeen, and I’m your father,” James shot back.

“This is my home,” Sylvie said.

“It’s only your home because I’m paying for it,” James said. “It’s only your home because I’ve agreed to let you live here. Now, that agreement is ending. We’re filling out that application tonight.”

“What if I don’t get in? I have a record, remember?”

James’s smile was strange. “There are other schools. Other applications. We can spend all summer long filling them out.”

Sylvie sat back down. She couldn’t stop shaking. Graham’s face came to her mind, that wonderful smile, the glint in his eyes when he was about to kiss her. She couldn’t leave Graham. She couldn’t leave her home.

“I won’t do it,” Sylvie snarled.

“Won’t do what? I thought you weren’t planning anything?” James mocked her.

“You know we were.” Sylvie shrugged. “I’m telling you, I’ll end it. I’ll stop everything.”

James chuckled. “I’ll believe it when I see it. You’re a menace. You don’t understand how the world works.”

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