Ari's POV:
I held my phone tight in my hands, staring at the dark screen like it could give me the right words to say.
How was I supposed to tell my sister that I just married a stranger to save our mother? That I was moving into some billionaire's penthouse and changing my name for forty-five days?
The phone buzzed unexpectedly and rang in my hands. I flinched so hard I dropped it.
It hit the ground with a loud crack.
"Fuck." I muttered a curse as I bent down to grab it, praying the screen wasn't broken. When I flipped it over, Lena's name was staring back at me.
I swiped to answer immediately. "Lena? What's wrong? Is it Mom?"
Her voice came through the line, shaky and wet with tears. She was still crying.
My heart immediately stopped.
If she tells me they took Mom off the machines, I swear I'll kill both that bastard Thorne and his stupid secretary. I don't care how much money they have or if I land in prison.
"Ari," Lena sniffled. "They put her back on the machine. They're running again. The nurse said someone paid the full treatment cost." She let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "I don't know how, I don't know who, but she's stable. Mom's stable. She's going to be okay."
I leaned against the wall and let the air leave my lungs.
"Ari? Are you there? Did you hear me? Mom's going to be okay."
"I heard." My voice came out rough. "I heard, Lena."
"She's going to live. She's going to get better." Lena was crying hard now, like she had been holding it in for a long time. "I was so scared. I thought she was going to leave us. I thought I was going to lose her and I didn't know what I was going to do without her and without you I just..."
"Hey." I cut her off gently. 'Listen to me. She's not going anywhere. Not today. Not anytime soon. Okay?"
Lena kept crying, the only thing I could do was listen to her as I leaned my head back against the wall, letting her pour out all the fear she'd been holding in while I was off selling myself to a man with cold eyes.
"She's going to be okay," Lena whispered after a while.
"Yeah." I closed my eyes. "She is."
Lena let out a laugh through her sniffles. "Look at me crying like an idiot. I'm so silly."
I smiled even though she couldn't see it. "You've always been a crybaby. Remember when you scraped your knee in second grade and cried for three hours?"
She laughed harder, it sounded like she was choking. "That was not three hours. That was maybe thirty minutes."
"It felt like three hours." I teased her.
We both laughed for a moment, then the line went quiet. I heard her take a breath, and I knew what was coming next.
"So," Lena said, clearing her throat. "How was the interview?"
I hesitated. The word stuck in my throat. I could tell her the truth, lay it all out about the contract and the marriage deal. But then what? She'd worry and blame herself or even stop me.
My hesitation must have stretched too long because Lena's voice changed, softer and more careful. "Ari? Did you not get it? Because if you didn't, it's okay. We'll figure something else out. We always do. You don't have to be sad about it, I mean obviously you can be sad but you don't have to worry because I can pick up more hours at the library and maybe..."
"Lena." I cut her off. "I got it."
Silence., then. "Wait, what?"
"I got the job. I was the only one who passed."
The scream that came through the phone made me yank it away from my ear. I held it at arm's length, wincing, until the noise died down.
"Oh my God, Ari!" She was practically bouncing through the phone. "Do you know what this means? Like do you actually understand? You're going to have a real income. A real job with real money. We can actually breathe for once. We can pay for Mom's stuff without counting pennies. We can..." She stopped to take a breath. "This is it. This is our saving grace. I knew it. I knew something good was going to happen."
I listened to her ramble and couldn't bring myself to say anything. How could I tell her that the job came with a ring? How could I ruin this moment for her?
"Ari?" Lena's voice pulled me back. "Hey, speaking of money. Was it you? The payment for Mom's treatment?"
I opened my mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "It's... complicated. I might have paid for it. Or maybe someone else did. I'm not really sure yet."
The silence on her end told me she was frowning. I could feel her gearing up for more questions, the way she always did when something didn't add up. And I wasn't ready to explain any of this.
"Ari, that doesn't make any sense. How can you not know if you..."
"Miss Ari? Are you through with your phone call?"
I turned to the voice behind me. Martin stood in the doorway of the meeting room, his face in a polite expression. I held up one finger, asking for a minute. He nodded once and walked back out.
"Ari?" Lena's voice came through the phone, confused now. "Who was that? Is everything okay?"
I took a breath. "That was my new boss. He needs me for something. I have to go."
"Oh. Okay. Yeah, of course. Go, go. Don't keep him waiting."
"I will. Tell Mom I love her, okay? Tell her I'll come see her soon."
"I will. Ari?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm really proud of you."
I squeezed my eyes shut. "Thanks, Lena. I'll call you later."
I hung up before she could say anything else.
I stood there for a moment, phone in my hand, breathing in and out slowly and steadily. All the fog in my head, all the mess and confusion, I tried to push it down and out with each breath.
Then I looked at my phone. My stupid, beat-up phone with the cracked corner and the slow battery. Mr. Thorne was going to take this away, get me a new one. New number, new identity, new everything.
Without thinking, I opened my gallery.
Pictures flooded the screen. Nathan and I were at that little diner we used to go to, his arm around my shoulder, both of us grinning like idiots. Nathan and I were at the park, him kissing my cheek while I laughed. Nathan and I were on our two-year anniversary, holding up cheap champagne like it was the finest wine in the world. My eyes in those photos were bright, full of love and trust, but it was just me being plain stupid.
I wondered how he did it. How he faked all those moments. How he looked at me like I was the only person in the world while he was already with someone else.
I swiped to the next photo. It was Mary and me at a coffee shop, our heads tilted together, both of us laughing at something I couldn't remember. I had already picked out her dress for my wedding. She was going to be my maid of honor. We were going to have that stupid party the night before, with junk food and cheap wine and too much laughing.
My throat tightened. I tried to swallow but it hurt.
My thumb moved before I thought about it. I selected all the photos. All of them. Every picture with Nathan, every picture with Mary. The button came up on the screen, asking if I wanted to delete.
My finger hovered over it but I couldn't press it.
My eyes burned as I called myself every name I could think of. Weak, stupid, pathetic. Still holding onto people who threw me away like garbage.
Instead of deleting, I pressed the power button. The screen went black. I slipped the phone into my pocket and stood there in the quiet meeting room, trying to remember how to breathe like a normal person.
Should I not let any bad thoughts about them spoil a good day like this right?
