When Cami moves in with the 2 most popular guys in school in a new foster home placement, she realizes that her tragic past just might make it so that she will stay lonely forever.
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Cami has...
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They didn't question the sound at the door.
They didn't know that I'd been coming to Cami's room to apologize—that I'd wanted to say that I was sorry for whatever it was that Colton had done to her, that I was sorry for the scene I'd caused in front of her.
To ask her if she was alright...
Instead I found her in bed with my brother.
The flashbacks came in full force, then. The reminders of finding Leah in bed with him flashed across my mind and I saw red.
I was halfway down the stairs trying to scrub the image out of my eyes when I heard the raised voices.
"She's...from the prison and...doesn't know..."
"Keep your voice down, Richard."
My parent's voices got more clear as I descended the stairs but kept to the shadows just in case.
"Cami does not need to be staying here. I never agreed with it and you still went ahead and did it anyway."
"That girl needs our help, and you know that as much as anyone else."
"You're only doing this because of the money, right? The Power of Attorney if she chooses to let us adopt her? How are you going to convince her, by being mother of the year, Maria?"
"This is not about the money! Maybe for you it would be, but I could care less. I want Cami to come into her full inheritance the day she turns eighteen and I want nothing to do with it."
"Sure. Because Maria Hartingrove never cared about the money, the pro-bono lawyer fighting for the under dogs."
"Don't you mock me. This girl is suffering and needed a home; what was I supposed to do—let her go to the Maynard's with the father who'd a known predator? Over my dead body. She got hurt on the previous family's watch and I refuse to let that happen to her, too. The boys are protective of her; they'll watch over her at school."
My father snorted. I could see him in my mind shaking his head and pacing like he always did when he got angry.
"Who cares? She's like a stray that we shouldn't have brought into our home, you know why?"
He didn't give her a chance to respond before he answered his own question.
"Because they bring back fleas. You want our house infested with her issues, her problems? Grey and Parker are barely keeping it together as it is, we almost got sued by the Wright's because of what Parker did, and your son was the one who instigated it!"
"He's your son, too, Richard."
"No. He's not. Not anymore. You know that. You know why."
