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my head. “Yeah, she told me that. Sounds like an amazing opportunity for both of you.”
    “It is,” Rose agrees, but her voice is flat and lifeless. “I told my parents about it earlier this evening when my father demanded I move back home now that I’m finished with school.”
    “And how did that go?” I prompt when she doesn’t continue.
    Glancing up, I see her pull a shaky hand through her hair before a bitter laugh escapes her. She looks down the length of her body and then back at me before raising a brow and saying, “Not too well, I’d say. At first, we argued, and then my father abruptly backed down. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong. But foolish me thought that he actually respected me for being independent and was proud. That warm, fuzzy feeling lasted until I got to my apartment and the manager told me that my father had terminated my lease since it was in his name. He’d literally moved me out in an hour. Then I left the building only to find that my car was no longer where I parked it. I couldn’t fathom that it had been taken so I circled the area, thinking I’d forgotten what space it was in.”
    By this point, I’ve given up all pretense of doing anything other than staring at her in horror. Surely, there must be some mistake. What kind of man would do that to his daughter? “Honey, have you spoken with him? Maybe—”
    She holds up her hand, stopping my flow of words. “He sent me a text while I was looking for my car and told me that he’d done it all. Said since I was now self-supporting that he’d taken the liberty of removing all of the things from my life that were a burden. He also mentioned that my cell phone would be shut off within the hour and my checking account had been closed. So essentially, he took everything from me in just an evening. The sad thing about it is that I sat under his roof and played fucking bridge with my mother and her friends while he was pulling the strings that would make his daughter homeless.” She stops, closes her eyes briefly, and then inhales a deep breath. It’s as if the utter cruelty of her father’s actions are truly hitting her. She shakes a little and I so desperately want to hold her. Before I can, she continues. “He kissed me on the head like he was proud of me, all the while he was sticking a knife in my back and laughing his ass off.”
    “Oh baby,” I choke out, “I’m so sorry that he did something like that to you.” I hear my words and know they’re completely inadequate. Hell, I’m in too much shock to formulate flowery speeches at this point. I point at her knee and ask, “How did this happen?”
    In a small voice, sounding so very much like a child, she says, “I didn’t know where to go. I was going to call Lia but remembered she is out of town with Lucian. I was wet and cold, so I just started walking. The rain was really coming down, and I saw a store with an awning, so I ran for it. I wasn’t looking where I was going, though, and tripped on the sidewalk. I went down pretty hard.”
    I swallow around the huge lump in my throat and quickly finish patching her up. I see a shiver go through her small frame and extend a hand to her. “Let’s go find you something to wear and get you into bed. Um—the spare bed,” I add quickly, wondering why I can’t keep my foot out of my mouth tonight. Her unexpected presence has me so rattled I’m making a fool out of myself.
    She takes my hand and stands beside me before giving me a look filled with sadness. “Trust me, I know you don’t want me anywhere near YOUR bed. You’ve made that more than clear in the past.”
    Congratulations, Max, you’re an asshole. Even though I hadn’t meant my words the way she’d taken them, I still feel like shit. I’d simply been attempting to reassure her that she was safe with me. I hadn’t wanted her to think she had to sleep with me. In my rush to tell her exactly that, I’d made a mess once again and