Page 56 of Blind Luck

Was?

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

Another shrug. “I’m ambivalent.”

“Then I’m sorry you didn’t have a father you could love.”

“Love wasn’t a priority to him. Money came first. And like his father and his father before him, he set up a trust fund to pass down to his sons after his death, but there was a clause that said at least one member of our generation had to serve their country for a minimum of three years in order for everyone to inherit.”

Damn, that was harsh.

“I hope you got a good amount of money.”

“Oh, I didn’t get a bean.”

“You didn’t serve the three years before you got headhunted?”

“I fulfilled the service requirement, but as I said, only sons could inherit.”

“Then why did you…?”

“I had two brothers. Booker served almost two years before he died in the car crash with Dad, and Huck… Huck’s autistic. He hates loud noises, and he doesn’t do well in crowds. Dad would never accept it. No formal diagnosis, no accommodations, no allowances. He said the Army would make a man out of him.”

Wow. Dusk’s family made mine look functional, and my mom dumped me with my grandma when I was six years old.

“So you volunteered as tribute?”

“Exactly. Only boys got a share of the money, but the ‘serve your country’ clause didn’t specify a gender. So I served, and Huck inherited. Our stepmother is a real sweetheart who my father absolutely didn’t deserve, and she looks after Huck.”

“That was pretty selfless of you.”

“It was an easy decision. I’ve had to make far harder ones. How could I sit by and watch two of the three people I loved suffer while Daddy’s millions got donated to his favourite political party?”

She crinkled her nose in disgust.

“A political party? Not even a charity?”

“If it was an animal shelter, maybe it would have been easier to stomach, but politicians are assholes.”

“We can agree on that.”

Before I could ask about the third person she’d loved—her mom?—Erin appeared. She’d gotten up late today. Usually, she sprang out of bed at half past five, scattering perkiness in her wake like Legos.

“What happened? Didn’t your body clock go off?”

“I couldn’t sleep again. Somebody stopped outside my room.”

“What do you mean, stopped?”

“I heard footsteps approaching, and then they stopped for, like, a minute before whoever it was walked away.”

“Did they try the handle again?”

“No, but it still freaked me out.”

Our rooms were next to each other and close to the elevator, but mine was farther from the vestibule. A high-traffic area. Honestly, I didn’t think anyone was out to get Erin, but when someone had rattled the handle, that had rattled her too. Now she was sensitive to any noise, and the doors at the Galaxy were hellishly thin.

“Do you want to change rooms?”

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