Page 18 of The Heiress
“What do you drive?” Addison asked.
“Uh, I don’t have my drivers licence yet,” I said.
She sniggered, but I’d come to expect that of Addison now. She was the type of girl who would put anyone down. I wouldn’t put it past her to backstab her best friend Bianca.
And sure enough, in the next instance, she smoothed down her hair and said, “Gah, Bee, you think you could put the top up?”
“Maybe Elisha hasn’t ridden in a convertible before?” Bianca eyed me in the rear view mirror. I pressed my lips together with the barest shake of my head—I didn’t want to tell an outright lie, but yeah, I loved zipping around with Mom in her two-seater V6 Jaguar, the top taking a mere twelve seconds to lift—or lower if it was too breezy. And though I didn’t have my licence yet, would it have been too pretentious to say I could have my choice of luxury vehicle waiting for me when I did?
No one seemed to mind when I held my phone up for a picture, Siri squeezing close to me for a selfie, and Bianca leaning back to get in the shot. It couldn’t have been more perfect—I could send the photos to Mom and she’d rest easy. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. It seemed I’d approached the boarding school issue all wrong. Instead of telling them how much I hated the place, I needed Mom and Dad to think I was having a ball.
Because that was how I was going to make it through Thanksgiving weekend on my own.
Chapter 7
Phoenix
“Now, are you sure you’llbe all right?” Mom said, stowing a gift hamper in the trunk of the car.
“Yes.”
“Text me as soon as you get there. If you need a break, stop in Penridge.”
“I won’t need a break.”
“Well, if you do,” she said. “And give my regards to Courtney.” That was said in a bit of a mumble, out of obligation, because Mom and Courtney were not on hospitable terms.
“Sure.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to pack your walker? Just in case. “
“No.” I was driving up to my father’s for Thanksgiving. I was staying one night but Mom was fussing as if I was setting out on an expedition to the Arctic Circle. She’d packed enough for a week and for every contingency possible. My snow jacket was in the backseat along with hiking boots and swimming shorts.
Likely I wouldn’t even leave Dad’s house, the agenda being eating and watching football and playing video games with my two step-sisters, Katy and Willow.
My parents had separated at the start of freshman year, right after we’d come back from a Caribbean cruise. I had this belief that the cruise was a reward for winning the Breckin Hill tennis tournament that summer, one of the more prestigious titles on the junior circuit, but I later realized it had been a last attempt to work out their marriage problems. That summer, Dad had stopped coming to watch every tournament. He had to work longer hours, which left Mom to drive me everywhere. I took Dad at his word, that his dental practice was busier than ever and there was no way he could take a full day off to watch me play. He’d come on the weekends, but sometimes emergency dental work took precedence.
