Page 65 of Margo and the Faux Good Luck Beau
I shake my head with a shiver. “To be clear, I appreciate my grandfather leaving the bulk of his fortune to me, but if I get married, my mother gets hers which means complete closure. There’s nothing more she can try to bleed out of me or demand from me.”
Still seated behind me, Margo rests her chin on my shoulder. It’s intimate but different from the kiss. “I’m sorry, Beau. Sorry, that happened to you.”
“Thank you, but had it not, I wouldn’t be here with you telling this story right now.”
“Maybe things have a roundabout way of working out.”
I nod. “I’ve never experienced love. Never said it. Never heard it.”
Eyes bright, Margo looks at me for a long moment, and something unspoken passes between us. Her head dips slightly almost like she’s nodding, committing to something.
After a beat, she asks, “Will meeting your parents be better than mine?”
“I haven’t met your dad.”
“He has two settings: work—but he’s retired now—and golf. There’s not much more to him than that.”
“We have similar family backgrounds but turned out so different.”
“I’ve been running from my family while you’ve been guarding something. Is this why you’re quiet? To not give away your location so to speak?”
“Yes and no. Sometimes it feels like I’ve used up my voice from singing for all those years. Doctors even warned that if I didn’t stop, I’d get vocal chord damage. Sukie ignored them.”
“How did you get out of it?”
“Turned eighteen. Started to rebel a bit.”
“What did that look like?”
“Playing hockey all night. The league in Concordia is rough. Kind of the opposite of boy band life with weekly manicures and stage makeup. Rolled in with a few bruises, stitches. Not the optimal 5PRNZS look.”
She laughs. “It’s hard to believe you’re the same person here as in the video you showed me.”
“Hockey helped. I got teased a lot at first. But I was big, capable. Held my own.”
“You started skipping band rehearsals and playing hockey instead?” Margo tickles my neck. “Such a bad boy.”
“Sukie certainly didn’t think it was good. She threatened me with everything, especially withholding money.”
“But you didn’t care.”
“Nope. I was done being paraded around, working crazy long hours, traveling all the time.”
“Yet you do that now.”
“But it’s on my terms, doing something I enjoy.”
“Was there a final show, uh, showdown?”
My lips quirk. “There was, and it was somewhat spectacular. We were all burned out, but some of the guys had really lost it, so the team proposed we start lip-syncing. I wasn’t cool with that. so during a concert, I just walked off the stage. It was over.”
Margo’s mouth forms a perfectO. “Whoa.”
“I didn’t mean to upset the fans, but they had to understand that it was all fabricated—theater. Meanwhile, they were led to believe it was all real. But before you think I’m some kind of spoiled rich kid, I know there are loads of people who wishthey could sing like I did. To have the opportunities that I had. But that’s the difference. They want it. Are hungry for it. I was forced to, and every cent went to Sukie and my stepfather as they pushed me harder. All the while, there were shady characters who tried to appeal to?—”
Margo squishes up her face. “So what we ordinary people hear about celebrities is true?”
“There’s nothing ordinary about you, Margo.”
