Time After Time (Sweetbriar Cove #14) - Melody Grace Page 0,84
system, and how the kids could choose some of their science and art electives; designing their own programs, so he could be learning about computer coding and filmmaking, instead of sitting through Geometry 101. It sounded perfect for him, and far more interesting than the basic curriculum at his current school, and she could see from all the work he’d done just to get this far how much it meant to him.
“You would really be prepared to be away from home for so long?” she asked. “It wouldn’t just be like an extended sleepover. There would be rules, and chores there, and you might get homesick and want to come back.”
“It would be worth it,” Matty insisted. Then he looked at her, and deflated again. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know we can’t afford it.”
But they could.
The knowledge sat, guilty in the pit of Stella’s stomach. “Why don’t you let me take a look at this stuff, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
“Promise?” he asked.
“I promise.”
Matty went to his room to read, leaving Stella to stare at the glossy brochures. A new school wasn’t like waving a magic wand, it wouldn’t just make things miraculously OK. He would still have growing pains, and friendship drama, and be figuring out who he was in the world.
But if it could make things just a little bit easier on him…
Stella looked at the calculations he’d made about financial aid and tuition, a neat line of numbers on the page that reminded her of those lists she used to write, trying to make ends meet. It was how she knew the scholarship he’d won wouldn’t be enough. There was room and board, and uniforms, and trains rides back and forth across the state. Sporting equipment, musical instruments, special clubs and trips… The last thing she wanted was for him to be toting hand-me-downs, feeling like the charity case, surrounded by rich kids.
But she knew where she could get the rest of the money. Deep down, Stella had known it all along.
The trust fund.
She hadn’t thought anything would be worth that devil’s bargain, taking money from her parents, whoever’s name was on that account. But then she thought of Matty, slouching his way through another four years of loneliness, feeling like the odd one out. Snatching moments of happiness in texts and video chats with his friends. Waiting for the moment when his real life could begin.
Was she really going to stand in the way of his happiness – his future – just because of her own tangled past?
She would do anything for him. She would lay down her life for that kid, but what if all she had to do was put aside her stubborn pride?
Stella sat there all evening, turning the questions over in her mind. But maybe Aidan had been right when he’d asked her the real reasons she was fighting Hillcrest so hard.
Was it for Matty’s sake… or hers?
Her son was her whole world. He had been since she’d seen those lines on the pregnancy test, and upended everything to build a life for them both. She couldn’t bear the thought of him leaving; being so far away.
But she couldn’t keep him here forever.
He wasn’t a little kid anymore, and their cozy world of two wouldn’t last much longer, no matter how hard she tried. He was going to venture out into the world soon enough, for college, to start his own life. And if she kept this opportunity from him because of her own selfish fears…
He might forgive her, but Stella knew, she definitely wouldn’t forgive herself.
She knew what she had to do.
Stella pulled out her phone and dialed Alice. “Do you have time to meet tomorrow?” she asked, taking a deep breath to rip the Band-Aid off.
“I need to talk about that trust.”
20
“…And of course, there are a number of performance-based incentives, based on certain profit benchmarks…”
Aidan stared out of the windows, the New York skyline looming large in every direction. From the thirty-second floor, he could see all the way uptown, towards the Empire State building and Central Park beyond. They’d probably picked this spot for the conference room to impress anyone lucky enough to be meeting there, but Aidan found it hard to focus on the panel of partners in front of him when his mind was still a couple of hundred miles away, back in Sweetbriar Cove.