Chapter 6

Elise finally understood why the call had made her so uneasy. The Julian she remembered had always been buried in work. He rarely spared his free time for anyone, yet now he was worrying about her and offering to come out himself.

That had never happened before.

“No, you don't need to!” she said quickly. “You have work to do. I can get home on my own.”

His sudden concern was unsettling. Besides, all she had to do was wait for the rain to ease. After everything she had put up with growing up, waiting under an awning hardly counted as a hardship.

Whatever Julian said, she refused to budge. At last, he gave in.

“All right, Ellie. Can you tell me if there's any other way to get home from where you are?”

She looked toward the bus stop. It was still some distance away, and with the road under repair, she wasn't sure she could even walk there. People at the curb were trying to flag down taxis, but every cab that passed through the downpour already had passengers.

“It doesn't look like it.” She shook her head.

“Then tell me what's around you.” His patience seemed endless.

Elise peered through the rain. “There's a convenience store on my left, and a fruit shop. Across the street there's a car dealership. On my right there's...”

“A car dealership?”

“Yes.”

Julian brightened. Here was a way to solve the problem that had been bothering him.

“Didn't I have Daniel give you a card?”

“Yes. Why?” Her hand went to her bag. The black card was still inside.

“Go across the street and pick out a car you like. Use the card to buy it.”

Then he remembered that she was seventeen and didn't have a driver's license.

“Have one of the salespeople drive you home in it afterward.”

Elise went still, her phone pressed to her ear. She glanced at the sign outside the dealership. Ferrari. Mercedes-Benz. Lamborghini.

Was he seriously telling her to buy one as casually as he'd ask her to pick up groceries?

Her first impulse was to refuse. This was absurd. She was stuck in the rain, so he wanted her to buy a car, just so she'd have a ride home and someone to drive her?

“I've been meaning to get another car anyway,” Julian said. “You can pick it up for me while you're there. Don't spend too long choosing. Just get the most expensive one, all right?”

He was particular about cars, and he preferred quality to quantity. But if he told her the car was a gift, she would balk at the cost. Asking her to buy it for him was much simpler.

Elise had no answer to that.

She thought of the rows of cars in the garage at home. What a waste of money. Before she had been reborn, once she and her brothers had grown close, she would have told him exactly how wasteful he was and insisted that he stop throwing money around. Now, with so much distance between them, she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Julian heard her silence and softened his voice.

“Ellie, do your big brother a favor. Please?”

He so rarely asked for anything in that tone. Elise looked across the street again.

“All right, then.”

Julian ended the call in a very good mood. Once she brought the car home, he could hire a driver just for her. A driver would need something to drive, of course, so naturally she would be the one using the new car.

Then he wouldn't have to worry about her getting stranded somewhere with no way home.

Brooke Carter and Kayla Morris were still following Elise.

Brooke couldn't let it go. She hadn't managed to get a single ugly picture, and instead of agreeing with her, everyone had accused her of being an Elise fan. Her thread had run to hundreds of replies before it was deleted. She blamed Elise for every bit of it.

She had dragged Kayla along after her, abandoning their shopping to keep Elise in sight. When the rain started, Brooke was delighted. A downpour like this had to leave Elise looking awful. Perhaps she'd finally get a picture that showed how shabby and miserable the girl really was.

Before she could take one, Elise answered her phone. A few minutes later, she opened her umbrella and went into the dealership across the street.

The two girls stared after her. What was she doing in there?

Ten minutes later, Elise stood at the entrance to the showroom, folding her umbrella. Water dripped steadily from its tip, and her wet shoes darkened patches of the red carpet. Her clothes and hair had caught plenty of rain too. She looked rather bedraggled.

She stepped farther inside and looked at the different brands on display. Julian hadn't told her which one he wanted. All he'd said was to get the most expensive.

Choosing books had been easy. Cars were another matter; she knew next to nothing about them.

The storm had kept most customers away, leaving the showroom quiet. Elise scanned the rows of cars on either side of a service desk, unable to make sense of the models. Wasn't she supposed to find a salesperson who would show her around?

A man in a suit was leaning against the desk with his back to her. An employee badge hung around his neck. She went over and gave him a polite smile.

“Hi. I'm here to buy a car. Could you show me around? I don't really know much about them.”

He turned with a practiced smile. His gaze lingered on her face for a moment, then moved over her clothes and down to the used books she was carrying. He frowned, and the smile faltered.

“You're... here to buy a car?”

Elise nodded. According to Julian, she was here to buy the most expensive one they had.

The salesman looked her up and down again, doubtful.

Every customer took work. He had to explain the features, arrange a test drive, and stay attentive through the whole process if he wanted to make a sale. Sometimes he spent half a day on someone, took them out in a car, and got all the way to the end only to hear that they'd decided against buying.

He had learned to judge people's spending power the moment he met them. That told him whether they were worth his time. With only a few days left in the month, he was just short of taking the top sales spot, and there was a bonus attached to it.