ticking down but then I remembered I wasn't supposed to care.
"It's the world in general," Lex said softly after what had to have been a good minute of silence. I glanced at him but saw that he was staring straight ahead. I knew well enough what he was talking about because I remembered every part of our conversation from the day before.
"Unless you're one of those lucky foster kids who find your forever family the first time out, you learn pretty quick not to trust anyone. Especially the grown-ups, even though they all tell you that you can trust them. Just like they all tell you that things will be different and how happy they are to have you in their family. It took me a while to figure out that grown-ups don't always tell the truth. What didn't take me a while was learning that I had absolutely no say in any of it. Anyway, you weren't asking about that. You wanted to know about trust. I trust my brothers. That's it. Absolute, unconditional trust? That's for my brothers and no one else."
It was hard to keep my attention on the road as Lex spoke because I really wanted to see the emotion on his face since his voice had fallen flat. But I didn't interrupt or ask questions because we had just a few minutes left, and I wanted as many details as I could get.
"I made my first million when I was twenty-two. And it wasn't just a million. It was more like ten. The year after that it was a hundred." Lex paused for a moment and then said, "There’s no class on how to deal with making a shit ton of money after you've grown up without any. Spending the money is easy, of course, but all the stuff that comes with it…” Lex let out a small laugh. “I know this sounds like some poor little rich boy thing—”
“It doesn’t,” I heard myself say. Despite promising myself that it wouldn’t matter what Lex said, I was completely caught up in wanting to know more about him and why he’d reacted the way he had.
“When the money started coming in, people began taking notice. All of a sudden I was giving interviews in magazines and getting fan mail and stuff. People would send me letters telling me all about their lives and how badly they needed money. Some of them would even use their kids to try and get a handout. They’d tell me how sick their kid was and how if he didn’t get an operation… well, you get the idea,” Lex murmured.
Yeah, I did. Money did strange things to people and if Lex had as much as he said he did, he would have had a target painted on his back for all sorts of con artists.
“I always wanted to be able to do good things with my money because I had more than I’d ever need, but I had to learn how to do it in a way that it would actually do some good. Sorry, I know you’re probably wondering what this has to do with how I acted yesterday…”
I opened my mouth to tell him not to apologize, that I wanted to know as much as he was willing to tell me, but then I realized how strange that would sound, especially considering I was supposed to be pissed at him.
And I was still pissed at him.
Admittedly, though, maybe it was a little less now than it had been.
Which made no sense because he still hadn’t explained why he’d turned on me. I should have told him that we were just a minute from his cabin, so his time was running out, but instead, I found myself easing up on the gas pedal. I glanced at Lex and saw that he was staring at his hands, which he was rubbing together like he was trying to soothe himself. I actually started to reach out to cover his hands with one of mine before I remembered myself.
“I became this overnight success story… foster kid turned self-made millionaire,” Lex said softly. “People started wanting to be around me. They wanted to be my best friend or confidante or whatever. Some wanted more…”
I realized he was talking about romantic partners. The near-violent streak of jealousy that went through me was so surprising, I actually ended up jerking the steering wheel a bit.
“What happened?” Lex asked in surprise as his body hit the door.
I