Page 3 of Don’t You Dare Marry Me (Love in Massachusetts #3)

three

“I need that ring back. Now.”

Nicola shuddered at the command in Warren’s tone—even through the phone, it still affected her.

What had she ever seen in him? Had he ever been nice and sweet to her?

She sighed inwardly. He had, at one point.

But that had all gone out the window when she hadn’t met the standards he expected in their relationship.

She was almost surprised it had taken him so long to figure it out.

“I told you that I’ll give it back when you have a check for me.”

Warren snorted, and then had the audacity to guffaw. “You know I don’t control my trust fund. Everything has to go through Aunt Abagail.”

Nicola knew that. But she still thought it was weird as hell that Abagail was literally in charge of the family finances when she wasn’t really part of the family.

Well, she was, but she wasn’t part of the immediate family.

Gnawing on her lip, Nicola held her ground.

She really needed that money. Her sister’s medical bills were piling up faster than she could keep up with.

Or even think about keeping up with. Alanna had gone into that rehabilitation facility six months ago and her quality of life had improved a vast amount.

But Nicola also knew that affording it was impossible.

She’d told Alanna she’d make it work, somehow. And this was now the somehow.

“You promised me fifty thousand dollars, and I need that money, Warren. You know I do.” Maybe if she pleaded with his good side, then she’d be able to convince him that this was the right decision to make.

Then again, this wasn’t the Warren she’d fallen in love with.

“I don’t have it. I do need that ring back.”

“You have nothing to bargain with, and a gift is a gift. If I were to take this to court, they’d side with me.” Nicola bit a little too hard on the inside of her lip and the iron tang of blood reached the tip of her tongue. “I’m going to keep it.”

“Nicola, that’s a family ring!”

Guilt ate away at her stomach. She really did need the money, but he wasn’t wrong.

And she had told him that she would return it because it was a family heirloom.

She couldn’t imagine not having the things that were left of her parents, including her mother’s simple wedding band that she always wore on her right ring finger. She stared at it now and smiled.

What would they think of where she was now?

Disappointed? Probably.

Unethical? Maybe.

Did it matter though? The entire point was to keep Alanna in that rehabilitation facility for as long as humanly possible.

She needed to be able to learn how to live on her own again, didn’t she?

The doctors had said that would never happen, but Nicola had hope.

They said she would always be confined to a chair and a bed.

Nicola sighed, not wanting to remember those moments.

They’d been so painful, and she’d had to make so many decisions.

She didn’t want to regret any of them, and if she thought about them too long, then she very well might. Swallowing, Nicola ran her fingers through her hair. “Fine, but I’m not going to meet up with you after what you did the last time. I don’t trust you.”

“Fine.” Warren paused, and Nicola waited. “Give it to Aunt Abagail.”

“What?” Nicola’s eyebrows rose into her hairline. That woman absolutely hated her. Although at least she wasn’t a total jerk about it. She could hold her tongue, unlike Warren. “I can’t?—”

“She’s got some meetings at her bar tonight. Head on over there and give it to her. Maybe you can ask her to release the fifty grand while you’re there.” He chuckled, the sound sending a shiver down Nicola’s spine. He didn’t care about her. Had he ever? He was just being mean now.

“Fine.” Nicola pressed her lips together hard.

Maybe while she was there, she could apply for a job.

Because, fuck, she really needed money. Without waiting for a reply from him, she hung up and put her car into drive.

She needed to see Alanna. She needed to set the rehabilitation center straight on her account—in other words, she needed to beg them for yet another extension.

And then she needed the sister time to calm her soul.

It took Nicola thirty minutes to get to her sister’s facility in Framingham.

She parked her car, sent up a little prayer that it would start again, and then stepped out into the chilly spring air.

It was so cold still, wet and damp and chill.

It didn’t help that she didn’t have the gas to run her car at night and keep it warm while she slept.

Scratching her hand against the back of her head, Nicola walked inside. She stepped around one of the nurses as they smiled at her, and made her way straight to her sister’s shared room. She hated that she couldn’t afford a private room, but at least she was here, right?

“Alanna!” Nicola grinned as soon as she stepped through the door.

“Nic!” Alanna held out her hands, her fingers still curled in since she didn’t have the control any longer to straighten them out. She was sitting up in the bed, her legs bent. She grinned broadly and waited for Nicola to step into the circle of her arms.

Nicola breathed in her scent deeply and closed her eyes, tightening her grip.

She didn’t want to let go. Everything that had happened in the last few years had taught her that these moments were precious and fleeting.

But with the world so hard out there, with Warren’s breakup, with the weight of bills hanging over her head, Nicola just needed this.

Simple love and warmth from the one person she hadn’t lost in that accident.

“What’s wrong?” Alanna asked, whispering the word into Nicola’s hair since she still hadn’t pulled back.

She started to, but Alanna pulled her back in tight, the sides of her thumbs digging into the bones in Nicola’s back, but she didn’t complain. She wanted this more than anything. Alanna here with her. It was the only consolation from that accident.

Alanna had survived.

Nicola smiled again and then finally pulled away. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“You’re not fooling me.” Alanna gave a half-lopsided smirk, which was the only smile that she could give since her paralysis diagnosis. It had taken Nicola a long time to get used to the fact that this was who her sister was now, but she still was so grateful that Alanna was alive.

“Warren called just before I got here.”

“Oh.” Alanna frowned. “What did he want?”

“He wants the ring back.” Nicola sighed and dipped her hand into her purse. She pulled out the small velvety box and handed it to Alanna after opening it. “It’s a family heirloom.”

“Then you should give it back.”

“I know.” Nicola watched as her sister used her curled fingers to maneuver the box so she could look at the ring.

“It’s huge!”

Nicola laughed. Her sister said that every time she looked at the ring. When Warren had first proposed and Nicola had raced over here to show it off and tell Alanna all about it, she couldn’t stop saying that. “It really is. Way too big for me!”

“You deserve someone who loves you big. Not an asshole who doesn’t want you.”

Nicola hated that Alanna was right. Because she’d thought that was what she had found with Warren.

Not only someone who loved her for her, but someone who could actually support her so that she could focus on bringing her family back together again to be whole—well, as whole as it ever would be. But she’d been wrong. So very wrong.

“What else did he say?”

“Nothing really.” Nicola frowned, taking the ring back and closing the lid on it with a snap.

She didn’t slide it back into her purse like she wanted to, keeping the warm box in her fingers as a reminder of why she wasn’t engaged any more.

“I refused to meet up with him, so I’m going to bring it to his aunt tonight. ”

“His aunt?” Alanna frowned slightly. “Why her?”

“It’s her ring, technically.” Nicola shoved the box into her purse finally, her stomach twisting in knots.

Something about Abagail had always made her uneasy, and she’d never really been able to put her finger on it.

She was an attractive older woman who certainly knew what she wanted in life and wasn’t afraid to make that happen.

Maybe that’s what it was, because Nicola couldn’t be more opposite of that.

She was blown this way and that way by life, and most often felt like she was just struggling to hang on for dear life.

“Then you should really give it back.” Alanna pointed her hand at her. “Tonight?”

“Yes, I’ll give it back tonight.” Nicola hated that her sister was always the ethical one. Then again, it was good to have that compass in her life, because she was getting desperate for cash. Desperate enough to do some very unethical things. “What have they got you doing today?”

Nicola had to change the topic of conversation.

It was veering far too close to conversations that Alanna didn’t need to know or worry about.

Nicola leaned back into the uncomfortable family chair and listened as Alanna rattled on about all the therapies she had that day still and the ones she’d already completed.

It was a long litany. They never kept her still there, which was a good thing. Alanna needed the stimulation.

When the assistants came to get Alanna for some physical therapy, Nicola cleaned up the room a bit before trying to leave unnoticed. Unfortunately, as soon as she opened the door to leave, Miss Trunchbull—at least that’s what Nicola called her—was right there waiting.

“Oh, hi.” Nicola plastered on the biggest smile that she could. She was going to have to charm her way out of this conversation. “I was just leaving.”

“Not yet. We need to talk.” Miss Trunchbull crossed her arms and blocked the door. Even if Nicola wanted to leave, she couldn’t.

“Fine. Your office?” Nicola tried her best to keep that smile plastered on her lips, but it was a little harder now.

Miss Trunchbull nodded and then put her hand out in front of her so they could walk side by side. She definitely wasn’t going to let Nicola get away from this one, was she? As soon as they were inside the office, Nicola took a seat and nervously clung onto the side of her purse.

“We need a payment by the end of the month or we’re going to have to terminate services for Alanna.”

“I know.” Nicola frowned. “I’m working on getting a new job today, actually.

I’ll be able to pay you something next week.

” Why had she just made a promise she absolutely knew she couldn’t keep?

Nicola held back the wince, not letting anyone see how weak she was.

“I’ll catch up all the payments by the end of the year. I promise.”

Miss Trunchbull sighed heavily. “Alanna is making good progress here. I would hate for her to decline because she wasn’t receiving the proper medical care.”

“I understand.” That was honestly the only thing Nicola ever thought about lately—how to make money for Alanna’s medical care. She had to make sure that Alanna had the very best so that she could someday leave the facility and live on her own. That was the ultimate goal.

“Perhaps there’s some family you can call on at a time like this.”

Nicola pursed her lips. She’d already talked to her Aunt Simone, but she was going through her own drama right now, which meant that finances were really tight.

Other than that, there was no family left.

She’d been counting on Warren’s check, which had been stupid.

She shouldn’t have thought he would actually follow through on that.

“I know. I’ll get you a check next week for at least the rest of this month.

I’ll start working on paying everything off as soon as I have this job locked in.

” The lies were adding up now. Nicola swallowed them down and let them churn in her stomach.

The advantage to Alanna being holed up in the facility was that Nicola could control what information got to her—at least about this.

And Alanna had no clue that Nicola had been living out of her car and had a negative balance in her checking account.

Biting her lip, Nicola lifted her chin and faked the confidence she knew Abagail had in spades.

Maybe it wasn’t that they were opposites. Maybe it was just that Nicola wanted to be like Abagail. Rich. Confident. Free. Nicola squared her shoulders. “Was that everything you needed to discuss with me?”

“Next week, Nicola.”

“Just like I promised already. I’ll have a check to you then.” Nicola stood up and slid her purse higher up on her shoulder. She didn’t look behind her as she walked out of the office and through the hallways back to her car.

It wasn’t until she slid behind the wheel of her vehicle that she let everything go.

Tears slid down her cheeks and fell onto her thighs.

She pressed her forehead into the steering wheel and let herself succumb to the emotions that she couldn’t show to anyone else. No one could know just how bad it was.

Because she was at rock bottom.

She had no other choice than to beg Warren or Abagail for money or turn to the seedier side of life that she’d wanted to be a last-ditch effort.

And she already knew Warren and Abagail were a no, so that left her with one option.

She had to find a way to make money.

Yesterday.