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lie,” Casey said quickly.
“We were going to tell you—”
    “We’re getting married,” Theo stated, his
hand gripping Casey’s tightly.
    “You do, and you’ll lose your trust fund,”
his father threatened. He turned to Casey. “You have enough to
worry about on your own, missy. Your parents were the first ones I
called when I found out Theo had been lying to us. They’re waiting
for you at your room right now.”
    Casey’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve done nothing
wrong—”
    “Your brother’s in the hospital. He was in a
car accident,” Theo’s father said, his tone gentler. “They came
here to tell you and found you missing. They called us first,
hoping you were at our house—”
    Casey’s face went white, then her desperate
eyes sought Theo’s. “I’ll be right back.” She dashed from the
room.
    Theo’s mother finished packing the last
drawer. Without a word, Theo’s father grabbed the two full duffel
bags and strode from the room.
    “How can you let him do this to me?” Theo
said brokenly to his mother. “Don’t you know how happy I’ve been
here? And I love Casey.”
    His mother patted his shoulder. “It’s for the
best. Now please, grab the two boxes. I’ll get the last bag.”
    * * * *
    Theo didn’t speak to his father for weeks. He
tried several times to call Casey, but her parents refused to let
him talk to her. His letters were returned, unopened. Finally, he
went to the airport, determined to buy a plane ticket to see her.
But his card was declined at the terminal, and he was detained by
security. An hour later, his father arrived to take him home.
    “You can’t keep me a prisoner here,” Theo
said angrily. “I have every right to see Casey—”
    “I agree,” his father said, then gestured to
the road in front of the house. “But you aren’t using my money to
do it. You want to go, start walking.”
    Theo cast his father a hateful look, then
stalked inside.
    * * * *
    Before long, it was mid-August. Theo,
desperate to see Casey, gave in.
    “I’ll enroll in the chemistry courses,” he
said grudgingly, forcing the bitter words out. “I’ll take any
courses you want me to. Be anything you want me to be. But I have
to be near her. I love her, Dad.”
    His father looked up at him, his cold gaze
suddenly softening. “I know you do. I just hope she loves you
enough.” He gestured to the chair. “Sit.”
    Theo sat, his heart relieved even as he
steeled himself to doing his father’s will.
    “I loved art when I was young, too,” his
father said. “My parents encouraged me, and I got an art degree.
Your mom worked down the street, at a bakery. She got pregnant
right after we got married that following spring, after I
graduated.”
    Theo blinked. His father had loved art?
    “I was good,” his father continued. “Very
good. But no one would hire me. Sure, I got some small jobs for
signs here and there, but that was all. That wasn’t enough to
support a family, much less you. We ended up moving back in with
your mom’s parents—your grandparents—right after you were born. I
went to work for your grandfather. Over the years, I moved up the
ranks in his company. I took over that company when he died a
decade ago.”
    “I know all that—about the company,” Theo
said. “Why are you telling me like I’m a stranger?”
    “Because I don’t want you to have to learn
the hard way like I did,” his father said. “You can do art. I’ve
seen your work, and it’s very good. But if you want a life for you
and Casey free of handouts, then you need a reliable job. You can’t
be a dreamer. You have to be a doer.”
    “Casey isn’t like Mom,” Theo said, hoping his
mother wouldn’t be offended, if she was eavesdropping outside the
door. “She has a good degree—”
    “Do you want her to support you?” his father
said bluntly. “How long do you think it will take Casey to decide
that working full time while you indulge your love for art isn’t
her version of