Broken Empire (Boys of Oak Park Prep 3)

LEAH: Hey, I gotta go. We’re opening presents soon. Text you later. Merry Xmas!

ME: You too!

Tossing the phone down on the mattress beside me, I checked the time before the screen went black. It was just after nine a.m., and Philip had insisted that we all do our gift exchange by the tree in the massive living room. I was starting to really appreciate my grandpa—his careful way of speaking, his old-fashioned mannerisms, his sardonic humor—but sometimes I felt like he was trying so hard to make up for the mistakes he’d made with my mother that he forgot I wasn’t her.

I wasn’t the little girl who’d barreled down the stairs excitedly on Christmas morning. The one he’d spoiled and pampered and convinced Santa Claus was real.

But still, I could tell the holiday meant a lot to him, and I wanted to give him a little of that cheer.

It’d been a week since I’d left the hospital, and my bruises were slowly fading. The bandage on my head was gone, and the scrapes and marks on my temple looked less gruesome. My stitches itched sometimes, and my leg still pulsed with pain often, but I was feeling better.

Using my crutches, I hobbled out to the living room to find both of my grandparents already there, waiting for me. Jacqueline had been mostly civil to me since I’d come back to live under her roof, and she’d gone out of her way to make sure I received good care. But we still rarely talked or even looked at each other.

“Ah, Talia!”

Philip rose from the couch, meeting me when I was halfway across the room and escorting me to a large, plush chair before resuming his seat near Jacqueline. I’d ordered them both presents online—gift-wrap included—and I knew the gifts were lame as hell. But it hardly seemed to matter to Philip. He beamed like a little kid as he handed out presents for us each to open, and when he opened the set of fountain pens I’d gotten him, I thought he might strain a muscle in his face from smiling so hard.

He wanted this to be okay.

He wanted us all to be happy.

He wanted it so badly that his jovial voice filled in the gaps in the conversation that lingered between Jacqueline and me, and for a little while, I could almost pretend everything was okay.

I watched him hand her a small gift-wrapped box, his anxious gaze settling on her face as she opened it, and it struck me for the first time—he really does love her. Their relationship made no sense to me, and it was easy to assume that for a wealthy older couple, a marriage was more about preserving money and power than about love.

But I didn’t think that was the case here.

He loved her. And judging by the way I’d seen her treat him at the hospital, the tenderness and worry that’d crossed her features when she looked at him, she loved him too.

I caught myself wondering how he could possibly l

ove someone like Jacqueline, someone capable of the coldness and cruelty I’d seen in her, then shook my head ruefully.

The four boys I cared about were some of the most deeply flawed people I’d ever met. But I’d also seen the parts of them that were beautiful and good—parts I wasn’t sure many other people knew about. Maybe my grandfather had found those sides of my grandmother too and loved her for them.

But I still can’t see them.

“Here, Talia. This is from your grandmother and me.”

Philip smiled warmly as he handed me a small box wrapped with a ribbon. When I lifted the lid, I found a set of car keys nestled inside.

“It’s got the highest safety ratings of any vehicle on the market. I—we—had it delivered to campus. I know it’ll be a while before you need it, but it’s there when you do.”

He watched me almost anxiously, and my heart squeezed in my chest. I had told him about how my brakes had failed, but I hadn’t mentioned the possibility that it’d been Adena. He’d hired an independent assessor to examine the wreckage, but Elijah had been right—the car was too badly damaged for the investigation to reveal anything.

“Thanks, Grandpa… and Jacqueline.”

Philip beamed, but she just nodded stiffly.

A few days after Christmas, my grandparents stopped by my bedroom in the early evening, dressed to the nines for a holiday party. Philip had offered to stay home if I preferred, but I’d brushed him off. There would be house staff around, and it wasn’t like I needed constant help.

“Can I get you anything before we go?” His hand rested on the small of Jacqueline’s back, and he looked younger and taller somehow in his black tuxedo.

“No. Thanks.” I shook my head, muting the movie I’d been watching. “Have fun.”

“Thank you.” Jacqueline’s voice was cool as always, and she didn’t quite meet my eyes. I couldn’t tell anymore if it was anger or pity that made her act this way around me.

“We will.” Philip stepped forward to press a kiss to the top of my head, a now-familiar gesture.