He Locked Me Out Now He’s Begging Me Back Chapter 22
“Does Daniel know that?”
“He agreed.”
I tightened my grip on the phone. “When?”
“Before I moved in.”
Inside the restaurant, my coworkers were laughing through the glass. Outside, the wind cut across my skin, and all I felt was a coldness spreading through my chest.
Tessa was still trying to defend him. “Dad was just afraid you wouldn’t accept it at first. And anyway, you two don’t need all that space right now. What’s the big deal if you wait another two years before investing? You make plenty of money. Why do you have to be so petty with us?”
So in their eyes, my house, my money, and my life plans could all just be pushed back.
And my sacrifice didn’t even require my consent.
“I understand now.”
I hung up and went back to the table.
Marisol looked at me but didn’t ask.
I picked up my glass and clinked it lightly against my coworkers’.
There was nothing left in that house worth turning back for.
I had barely sat down again when my phone buzzed once more.
Still Tessa.
“There’s one more thing,” she said, her tone gentler now, as if offering some perfect compromise. “Dad is planning to apply for a HELOC. He wants to use the house equity for the down payment on a small apartment for me in the same school district.”
I set my chopsticks down.
“What did you say?”
“Once I buy an apartment, Noah and I will move out. Isn’t that what you wanted all along? And if you’re going to remodel the ADU anyway, you can just borrow a little more and solve everything at once.”