Contingency Plan (Blackbridge Security #3) - Marie James Page 0,4
months ago, however, I interrupted a video chat, one that revealed his long-term girlfriend, Roni—the woman he used as an excuse to avoid my advances—is actually his boyfriend, Ronald.
I know it’s conceited, but finding out the handsome man was gay made me feel a ton better because I haven’t found a straight man that could resist me yet, and Flynn Coleman is going to be no different.
Eventually, my parents are going to get tired of me running the security details off. The hope is that they just get rid of them completely. I’m thinking of how awesome my life would be without my meddling parents as I creep out of my room and make my way down the stairs. I’m nearly twenty, yet they insist on having someone around to watch my every move. Heaven forbid, I have a life of my own. Who cares that my actions have put a spotlight on them? I know they’re afraid of the public discovering their secrets. It’s nothing bad, but they aren’t as loving and attentive as they like to be portrayed in the media.
Yeah, they donate millions a year to building schools in Africa, and they’re the first to stand in front of a camera and advocate for family values and how every kid deserves the world.
But their own kid? Not so much. I’m no longer the cute and cuddly child with bouncing curls and an innocent gap-toothed grin. I have my own thoughts and opinions. I have the inside scoop on how dismissive they are of me now that I no longer fit the perfect image they want everyone to see.
Long before I started acting out and causing problems, my mom ignored me in favor of child actors who could advance her career. When she married Charles when I was eleven, the transition from mother to obligatory roommate had already begun. Of course, she played nice, showing her new man that she was a dedicated mother, but it didn’t take long for her dismissive attitude to shine through. Charles, the man most envision as the perfect father on the long-running show Papa Knows Best, a remake of another show from decades ago, seemed ecstatic to have a daughter. It was literally days before he was walking into a room and acting as if I didn’t exist. He insisted I have his last name but couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge me at the breakfast table.
I’ve spent more time with nannies than with either of them, and if I wasn’t so bitter about not having my own parents around growing up, I could accept that this was probably for the best. I’ve been loved, just not by the woman who birthed me and the man who married my mom with the declaration that he was going to treat me as one of his own. Thank God they never had a child together. Not that my mother would ever ruin her body again—her words, not mine—by putting it through the trauma of getting pregnant a second time.
Lights flicker from the television as I quietly make my way to the landing of the stairs. With a quick glance in that direction, I find Flynn sprawled out on the sofa, softly snoring while the evening news plays quietly across the room.
I make my way to the kitchen for a bottle of water, realizing this is going to be so much easier than I first anticipated. Usually the first night I have a new detail, they’re up my ass and prepared for anything. My parents must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel with this guy if he’s already passed out on the couch a mere handful of hours after arriving.
This could be the beginning of the end. It’s taken forever to get to this point, and years ago when I threatened to leave, my not-so-loving parents reminded me that I don’t have a penny to my name. The luxuries I have here will disappear if I leave.
Yep, they threatened to cut me off if I moved out, explaining that everything I have technically belongs to them. At home, I have everything at my fingertips, and I want for nothing. Now I know that throwing money at me is another way to control me because they only deny me things when I get into serious trouble.
The first three months after rehab was brutal. My car was gone. My phone was taken away. My credit cards were destroyed. I had nothing.