"Good morning. Looks like everyone's ready to go," Xavier said. He stepped out of his car and strolled across the driveway to join us. "Here, Corsica. Let me open the door for you."
Penn rolled his eyes at his father, winked at me, and then climbed into the car.
When the door was shut behind him, I turned on his father. "You can stop pretending now. I know that Penn's your son."
Xavier's dark eyes were inscrutable. "I was just going to tell you the same thing. I did a background check on you, Corsica."
I stopped, and the driveway spun around me. I put a steadying hand on the car door, but Xavier stopped me from opening it. "I'm not a criminal," I said.
He shook his head. "Not a criminal, but a teenage runaway. I've known people like you. So desperate to get away from the small town and family you thought was a lower-class cage. You've been clawing your way up social ladders ever since, and I'm not going to let you use my son as another step up."
"I didn't run away from a family. I didn't have any family left. Just a drunken father who was so determined to see the bottom of a bottle, he wouldn't let anything get in his way. Once I got knocked around enough to get the message, I took off and never looked back."
I straightened up and Xavier took a step back. "Not everyone's as lucky as Penn. My father drank himself to death just a few months after I got out. Didn't your little background check tell you that?"
I could see Xavier running over the report in his head, struggling to remember the dates he had probably jumped over before. "Your mother passed away that same year?" he asked in a hollow voice.
I crossed my arms hard over my chest. "I didn't run away. I left because I needed to find a job. I needed to support myself."
The hard gleam jumped back into his eyes. "And now you think you've finally hit the jackpot?"
"He's not going to accept your money," I snapped.
Xavier blinked. "Penn?"
"I know he denounced you and his inheritance. And no matter what plans you have to entangle your only son in your empire, it's not going to work. He doesn't want your money. So, no, I don't think I've hit the jackpot."
I stepped forward and jabbed a finger into his impeccable tie. "And even if I did, I wouldn't want your money either. I've earned everything I've gotten since the age of fifteen. And the only illegal thing I ever did to get it was drive out of state on a learner's permit."
"Fifteen?"
"Didn't see that on the background check either?" I snapped. "If I were you, I'd get my money back."
I yanked open the car door and dropped inside. Penn and his mother stopped their own argument at my appearance. The way they both went mute because of me would have made me uncomfortable if only I wasn't so relieved to know they did not overhear what was said outside the car.
The drive to the treatment center was tense.
When the car pulled up to the front doors of the modern facility, Alice frowned. "I'd like to go in alone. I've already let all of you influence me too much."
Penn insisted on walking her inside and left his father and me in a tight silence. I hoped it would continue until he returned, but Xavier cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. I didn't think about the reasons you might have had for running away."
"The neighbors kept talking about calling child services. I'd already been working to pay our bills for over a year. I wasn't a child."
"Your mother?" Xavier asked, but Penn's return to the car stopped him.
"What? What'd I miss?" Penn asked.
I stuck out my chin. "Your father got a background check on me and just accused me of being a gold-digger. After all, what else does a teenage runaway become besides a scheming social climber?"
Penn gaped at me and then at his father. Finally, he focused and glared at his father. "You did a background check on her?"
"For you. I wanted to make sure you hadn't invested too much time in a relationship that wasn't worth it," Xavier said.
Penn squirmed, caught between remembering the long-term romance we were portraying and the fact that he'd just found out I was a runaway. He let out an exasperated breath. "You never told me you ran away."
I ground my teeth. "It's not important. You've left out plenty of important details yourself. No wonder you never wanted me to meet your family."
"I should leave you two alone," Xavier said.