Page 130 of Take It Offline

But I’m not interested in being the arbitrator of their comeuppance.

“It’s fine.” It’s not, but it’ll pass.

“No, Emma,” Dad says. “I’ll call Harvey and sort this out like we should have in the first place. Christ, we’re your parents. We should be taking care of your crises, not the other way around.”

“We’re family. We look out for each other.”

He clasps his hands on the table. “It seems to me that we need to balance that scale.”

“Dad, I’m not keeping score.” I give him a small smile. “I love you. I want to make sure you’re both okay.”

“And I adore you for that, but we’re old enough to take responsibility, and we’ve been doing a poor job of that so far.” Shifting in his chair, he regards me with misty eyes. “I’m sorry that we didn’t hear you before. I know it’s coming too late.”

My chest aches at the sincerity in his voice. “It’s not.”

“Come here.” He stands and holds out his arms, and I rush into them, transported back to the young girl whose father conjured magic to make her smile. So much time has passed, but I still want to believe. “You mean everything to us. I hope you know that. None of this comes close to being as important asyou.” He kisses my forehead. “It’s going to require some work on our part, but it’s about time for us to learn some new skills, don’t you think, love?” he asks my mother.

“Absolutely.” She smiles and stands too, and we pull her in.

“It’s time we got Harvey on the phone. With any luck, we can have the house on the market by the end of the week.”

They sort the money stuff out. Dad makes the call to Harvey to sell the house, and Mom calls Violet to tell her they’re stepping down, insisting that as a parting gift, the foundation will throw them a farewell party. “And you’re going to pay for it,” she states.

I’m so proud.

It’s only made better when my father holds up a hand to high-five her. The worst isn’t over. In fact, we’re far from it. Now that they won’t have the foundation, they’ll be more bored than ever, and we’ll have to have several more conversations in order for them to really curb their spending habits. But finally, it feels like they’ve heard me.

CHAPTER 44

MISTAKES WERE MADE (HONESTLY I BROUGHT THIS ON MYSELF)

CHARLIE

Imiss her. Every breath, every blink. Every damn day. There’s not a thought I don’t want to share with her, a second I don’t want to touch her, taste her, hold her.

But it’s done. Over. Finished.

I thought I knew heartbreak when Lucy left, but that was a pleasure cruise next to this.

I just need time.

There’s no scrubbing away the memory of her or the time we had together. She can erase me from her life in every other way, would be right to, but nothing will take her from me. I’ll die clasping on to it.

Because that’s all we have now. The memories. The past. Our friendship—what’s left of it—sputtering along on fumes, barely a shadow of what it was. A greeting here, a smile there.

It helps that Ops agreed to have me back at my old desk on twelve. Not seeing her every day, having the temptation in front of me, is necessary.

I’ve lost count of the number of families I was sent to before I landed with the Walkers. I’m not as close to them as I am with Reese, but I’m grateful for them all the same.

They might have taken me in, but Reese was the first family I ever had.

Some ties are stronger than blood.

Like me, she was moved around a lot, but she’s much stronger than I am. Where I fought back, Reese lifted her head high and kept walking. I don’t know how she does it.

My whole life, I’ve been biding my time, preparing for the worst. Waiting to be disappointed.

“What the hell happened?” Reese asks after I let her in.

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