Now That I've Found You - Kristina Forest Page 0,15
where are your manners?” Gigi hisses, looking horrified. “And stop with all that yelling.”
“Sorry,” Milo says to me cautiously, and I realize that I’ve ruined their family dinner. Quietly, he says to Gigi, “I’ll be back later.”
He quickly exits the room and heads upstairs to what I assume must be his bedroom so that he can take off his slippers.
“Gigi, what is going on?” I ask. “Why are you letting this boy stay here?”
“He needed help, and I’m in a position to help him,” she says.
Something about her sympathetic tone makes me even more upset, and I don’t know why.
“You didn’t think to tell me about this?”
“I tried telling you. I left you a voice mail last month. One of my many calls that you didn’t answer.” She pauses to level me with a look before continuing on. “As I’ve said, I am trying to help him.”
“Okay,” I say, feeling numb. It was the same way I felt for days after the video leaked. I had hoped coming to Gigi’s house would be the end of that feeling. “But what about me, Gigi?”
She goes completely still.
“What about me?” I repeat. “On one of your voice mails, you said that you would do anything to help me through my situation. Why is it so easy for you to help him, but you won’t help me, your actual granddaughter, by coming to the ceremony?”
“How would I be helping you by doing that?” she asks. I don’t say anything for a moment. How do I tell her that my entire career is riding on this? “Talk to me, Evie Marie. You don’t talk to me anymore.”
This is the moment. Now is as good a time as any.
Quietly, I say, “Gigi, I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?” she asks. Her expression grows increasingly worried. She reaches across the table and gently places her hands over mine. “You can tell me anything, baby.”
I gulp. I guess I’m about to find out if that’s true. I start with the first reason that I need her at the ceremony.
“Well, I think making an appearance together, no matter how brief, would really help. Just having you there with me. I think it would remind people that I’m not just some screwup. I’m Evelyn Conaway’s granddaughter. I’m part of a legacy.”
“What I don’t understand is why you care so much about what people think,” she says, shaking her head. “Why are you letting that influence your decisions?”
I bite my tongue to stop myself from talking back. That’s so easy for Gigi to say. She didn’t grow up in today’s world. It’s so much easier to ignore what people say when you aren’t bombarded with their opinions every time you open an app to check your mentions or casually go on the internet.
“This is a big opportunity for me, Gigi. I can still be a serious actress,” I say. “I can still be great.”
Just like you. Just like Mom and Dad.
She waves her hand dismissively. “You’ve had a little taste of how nasty people can be. I never wanted this life for you. You’ve lost sight of who you are, which is probably why that whole video business happened in the first place. You should be grateful that this has forced you to take a step back. You’re saving yourself from a life of unhappiness.”
You’ve lost sight of who you are. She sounds just like my parents.
I know exactly who I am and what I want. It’s why I’m going through all this trouble. I thought that Gigi of all people would understand why I want to fix this situation, why I need her help. But she doesn’t understand, and she’s refusing to try.
“And you call yourself happy?” I ask, throwing my hands up. “How can you say that when you can’t even bring yourself to leave this house? How can you judge me for my mistakes when you embarrassed yourself in front of the world and ended your career over a mean thing your husband did to you? What do you know about happiness, Gigi?”
My voice gets louder and louder until I’m practically shouting. But when I finally take a look at Gigi’s face, all the fight in me dies.
“I’m sorry, Gigi,” I quickly say. “I didn’t mean that.”
She turns away from me. Gigi doesn’t yell. Her motto is that the quietest person in the room actually tends to be the loudest.
I try to apologize again, but she holds up her hand to stop me from talking