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“Where are you going?”
    Vi shrugs. “I don’t know. It appears that I’ve been evicted.”
    “No shit,” Andrés replies, sitting next to her. He moves aside her laptop and props himself onto a few pillows.
    “Want to talk about it?”
    “No. I just want to pretend this isn’t happening.”
    “Spoken like a strong and independent woman.”
    Vi gives him a dirty look.
    “What? It’s true. You like to come off all tough and independent. I am woman and that sort of thing. But look at you. You’re all talk. Deep down you’re a daddy’s girl who needs to be taken care of.”
    “Far from it. I hate my father. He tries to control me with his money, treats me like some pet.”
    Andrés shakes his head. “You’re not displaying the kind of strength I know you have. I’m disappointed, Violet.”
    Vi sits up and faces him. “It caught me off guard. First he tells me I have to work for him after graduation. If I don’t, I won’t be able to access my trust until I’m thirty.”
    “That doesn’t sound too terrible. You’re intelligent and capable. I’m sure you can support yourself.”
    “If it was about that, I could manage. But it’s the arranged marriage thing I can’t cope with.”
    Andrés’s expression turns serious. “When is that supposed happen?”
    “Two years. My father has it all planned out. I move to Dubai and work for him. Then my future husband, Yasir, a doctor of internal medicine, will join me. It will be a blissful marriage and happy life.”
    Vi covers her face. For two days, she’s been an emotional wreck, feeling equally sad, angry, depressed and frustrated. How she could lose a sense of control over her life in a blink of an eye is beyond her. Of course she can live without her trust, she thinks. Life isn’t just about money. But her father’s threat to cut her off has forced her to question the entire purpose of her life. She doesn’t want to admit it, but he’s right. Her comfortable life hasn’t allowed her to confront how she will support herself and ensure her own future. She’s equally angry with herself for not preparing for this possibility.
    “I did this to myself,” she whispers. “I should’ve known this could happen.”
    Andrés puts his arm around Vi’s shoulder. “Don’t be hard on yourself. Your father is trying to scare you a bit. Wake you up. You can turn this around and see that it’s a gift.”
    Vi snorts. “How?”
    “It’s a kick in the ass to strike out on your own. First things first,” he says encouragingly, “You find yourself an apartment. That will take a miracle. It’s mid-August so pretty much anything decent near campus is probably already gone.”

Chapter 15
    Andrés wasn’t kidding. He dragged Vi around the Lower East Side to look at several listings they found on Craigslist. One was already taken, the other one looked far too sketchy to even consider, and the other had a dead rat on the stoop.
    “My father said he’d cover my rent. I should just call a broker,” Vi says, feeling defeated, unwilling to see anymore. She still can’t get the image of the dead rat surrounded by flies out of her head. The smell alone was gut-wrenching.
    “You can, but maybe you can take this as an opportunity to show him that you don’t need his money, at least not a lot of it anyway. What better way to say ‘fuck you’?”
    Vi laughs. “That’s been playing in a loop in my head.”
    “Look, there’s one more place I can show you. I know a guy who manages a building over on Eighth and First. Close enough to campus.”
    “Is it sketchy? Because I’m going to lose it if I see another rat.”
    Andrés shakes his head. “It’s alright. A walk-up, not updated, but it’s clean.”
     
    Vi takes in the 400 square foot studio, with a walk-in closet the size of her soon-to-be former shower.
    Andrés opens a set of doors on the far wall. “This used to be where the Murphy bed was. It makes for a good workspace.”
    Vi nods and makes her way