They Gave My Sister My Room, Now They've Lost Everything novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Common Room

I stood in my room with the gift letter in my hand and the pen on the desk, and the door still swinging on its hinge.

Valentina watched me from the bed.

"He's right," she said, in a very small voice. "You should go home."

"Don't talk about him."

"I'm only saying."

"He's right about one thing," I said. "I was about to sign."

I folded the gift letter in half, then in half again.

I put it back in the white envelope and held it out to her.

She stared at it.

"Take it, Val. I'm not signing."

"But Franco."

"Franco has a lawyer coming. I'm going to find him one tomorrow, from the legal clinic on Amsterdam, and I'll pay for it with my first work-study check."

"That's weeks."

"Then it's weeks."

"The deposit is due at noon!" Her voice cracked up high. "I'll lose my place. I'll have nowhere to go."

I sat down on the other bed, facing her.

She had my father's mouth when she cried, I realized, and my mother's way of looking up through wet lashes to see who was moved.

I knew every part of that face.

I had also never seen it ask for anything it didn't already have.

"Do you have your school's number?" I asked.

"What?"

"The housing office. Do you have the number?"

She dug in her bag and found it on the back of a crumpled email.

"We're calling at eight when they open," I said. "You're going to tell them the truth. Your parents can't pay, there's a family emergency, and you need an extension or a payment plan. They have those. Every school does."

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