Page 53 of The Obvious Check

“How long have you been living in your car?”

“Just a few months.”

“Howlong, Savannah?”

“A year,” she answers simply, her head tucking down, ashamed. She’s got nothing to be ashamed of. The only thing I see sitting in front of me is a strong woman, determined to keep fighting no matter what the world throws at her.

“Let me guess. Has Luke offered you his place to stay to keep up with the interest on hisloan?”

She bites her bottom lip, nodding.

“And you’re refusing to take it?”

She nods again.

“Smart move. That guy will take advantage the second night you agree to stay there.”

Savannah lets that last comment cling in the air for a beat. She knows it’s the truth, but I’m guessing this is the first time someone has outright said it to her.

“I wasn’t always like this, you know,” she says meekly.

“Like what?”

“Broke and pathetic. I mean, I was never wealthy, but I got by. I made a few bad decisions that have led me to a place that’s been a little harder to manage, but I’m not going to give up. Onmyself or my sister, Adley. My parents raised me to be a fighter, so that’s what I’m going to do. Keep fighting.”

Fuck me. I think I’m in love. The strength of character this woman is showing is unreal.

“Who’s paying for Covey U?”

“I’ve got a partial scholarship because of my… status.”

“Status?”

“Orphan.” Her voice wobbles and yet again she shifts her gaze from mine before shaking her head. “That sounds so dramatic. My parents died when I was twelve and because of that, the state and college fund my tuition and books. I can also get a percentage off on the dorms.”

My brows furrow. “Then why aren’t you living there? Surely, you would have made enough at the diner to pay for that instead of going into an impossible debt with Luke?”

“My sister, Adley. She was only eight when our parents died. She’s living with a foster family in Connecticut. She’s told me she wants to be with me, and I want that too, but they won’t even let me apply for custody unless I have a home and plan for her.”

Home.

Then it all starts to come together and it feels way more tragic now. “And without a room of her own, they won’t even look at you.”

“Exactly.” She gives a short, defeated laugh, the kind that sounds more like she’s choking on her own hopelessness than actually finding humor in any of this. “And I get it. What do I have to offer her? Adley needs a room. A place she can study, a school that’s better than the prep school she’s gotten into.” Her voice wavers, barely holding together, but she keeps going, like she has to get it all out. “I don’t have any of that. I don’t even have enough space for her to sleep in the car with me.”

Her breath shudders as she finally stops, shoulders curling inward, like she’s shrinking under the weight of it all.

That’s it.

I’m done watching her drown.

Done sitting back, pretending I don’t see the way she’s suffocating under circumstances she shouldn’t have to bear alone.

She thinks she has no one to fight for her.

She’s wrong.

“Come home with me.”

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