Finding You
Authors: Kaydee Scott
Finding You
By:
Kaydee Scott
Finding You
Copyright © 2015 by Kaydee Scott
All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced in any form other than that in which it was purchased and without the written permission of the author. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this e-book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to the supplier and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, brands, establishments, businesses, entities, organizations, places, events and incidents are either the products of the authors imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The author appreciates you taking the time to read this book. Please take the time to leave a review on Amazon.
Cover Photograph © 2015 by Kaydee Scott
Cover Design: Crystal Wilkerson
*CONTENT WARNING*
This book contains explicit language, sexual situations and violence which may be upsetting to some. This book is intended for readers 18 and older.
Dedication
To my husband,
for always believing that I could.
Table of Contents
“Damn him,” Nova yelled after reading the letter sent to her via certified mail. This was Stanford’s last ploy to lure her back home. Actually he wasn’t luring her anymore, he was giving her no choice but to tuck her tail between her legs and go back. First, he cleaned out her bank account. Second she received a notice of eviction indicating she had to move out of her apartment by the end of the month and now, a notice from the financial office at Harvard indicating her tuition had not been paid.
Her life had just come to an abrupt stop all by the hands of the man she hated. This was the last semester of her MBA program. If her tuition wasn’t paid in full in two weeks she would not be allowed to finish and she could kiss her job with Braddock & Brown Investment’s good-bye. She was so close to being rid of the life she had tried so hard to run away from. The thought of it made her sick. All the self-constructed walls she had built were crumbling at her feet. She had no money, except for a few hundred dollars she had kept for emergency cash and soon she would have no place to live. The only thing he hadn’t taken yet was her car. She would live in it if she had to because the idea of being homeless wasn’t hardly as scary as the life he was trying to pull her back into.
Kicking the edge of her kitchen table she groaned out loud as she watched all the papers scatter on the floor.
Fuck
! This was all because she had turned down his job offer. He wanted her back in Georgia and she had refused. This was what she got for thinking she could ever outsmart him.
Stanford had been surprisingly civil since she moved to Cambridge. As long as she had been away at school he had always provided for her. He had covered every expense she had, from tuition, down to money for groceries and not once had he ever complained. Despite his generosity, she had always known not to poke the monster. She intentionally lived as modestly as she could. Not once had she ever spent his money irresponsibly. She knew how to live within his boundaries and she had done so. All had gone well until now.
She laughed at the irony of it all. All those years he played nice in front of his colleagues and all the voters that he had won over with his smile, he made her think he had forgiven her but now that her future was just within reach he decided to yank the rug out from under her feet. He had simply extended to her the same courtesy she had given him when she screwed him over and got into Harvard. This was his final punishment for her deceit.
Getting into Harvard was the easy part. She was a stellar student, the problem lay with him letting her go. It took her three weeks to decide how to handle him when she got her acceptance letter because she knew there would be hell to pay but if she could survive it she would be rid of him and all the horrible memories.
Unfortunately, Stanford found out before she could tell him. Stanford was a Harvard grad himself and Nova had underestimated the fact that he still had connections to the college. Laying her head down on the table she tried to block out the memories of the day he found out but she couldn’t. Her stomach turned at the memory of being called to his office.
He had kept her waiting outside his office for almost an hour. It was his way of reminding her that he controlled her. The longer she sat waiting trying not to imagine what he was going to do the more her stomach turned. When her nerves finally got the best of her she retreated to the bathroom only to be stopped half way there by one of Stanford’s colleagues.
Fearing she would throw up all over him she choked down the vomit and turned on the smile she had perfected since her mother had died two years before. Seemingly unaware of her anxiety, the man asked her what her plans were after high school and before she had any time to truly think it through she told him she had been accepted to Harvard and would be leaving in a few months. The man was elated. He headed straight for Stanford’s office to congratulate him and she ran to the bathroom while she lost her lunch in the toilet.
She would never forget the look on Stanford’s face when she walked in his office and his colleague was popping the cork on a bottle of champagne and congratulating him on his daughter following in his footsteps to Harvard.
While she had been throwing up her lunch a small party had formed in Stanford’s office and he was currently the center of attention and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do but to play along and pretend to be the proud father.
Refusing to allow herself to think about what happened that night when she got home she got up and started collecting the papers in the floor. She refused to admit defeat. She had beaten him once and she could do it again.
When she woke up the next morning she was more determined than ever to finish what she started. She wasn’t leaving without the MBA and she sure as hell wasn’t going back to Georgia. She was the top of her class and there was no way she would let him take it from her. He had taken enough already.
After making an appointment to meet with the Dean she spent a few hours on the internet trying to find some lower cost apartments that she could afford if she got a job. There weren’t any cheap apartments but she found a few that she might be able to afford. They weren’t much but it was better than sleeping on the street.
On the way to campus she made a few stops looking for prospective employment before her appointment with the Dean. Her best option would be waitressing. Hours were flexible. Her biggest challenge would be trying to come up with the hefty amount of money to pay her tuition.
She was actually feeling better when she arrived for her appointment and then worse after meeting with the Dean. She refused to discuss why her father had refused to pay for her tuition. He offered her essentially no alternatives other than applying for a student loan or seeing if she had any other family that would be willing to help her until she could pay them back.
Aside from Stanford, she had no other family. She had no idea who her real father was and had never met any of her mother’s family. Walking back to her car she realized how stupid it had been to never question her mother about it but she and her mother had spoken so very little in the years leading up to her death. She always felt like her mother just forgot about her. Forgot she was even in the same house or that she even had a daughter until someone needed something of Stanford. Social occasions, photographs, high profile cases brought together the picture perfect family but when the cameras weren’t around an there were no social events, Nova stayed as far away from them as she could and that was how Stanford and her mom seemed to like it.
The next day Nova went to four different banks trying to get a loan but everyone turned her down. She had nothing in her name and without a co-signer no one would take the risk. She couldn’t even get a credit card with a limit higher than eight hundred dollars.
She went to the financial aid office next but the financial aid officer basically told her she was wasting her time. In order to qualify for financial aid she would have to show her income for the last year. Since she had no income and her tuition had always been paid by her father they would need proof of his income for the last year in order to complete the application. There was no doubt in her mind Stanford knew she couldn’t finish school without him. All the time she thought she was out on her own making a life for herself, but he made sure she remained dependent on him, and now her stupid mistake of not realizing that was going to cost her.
Four days later she found herself sitting back at her kitchen table. The tears seemed to flow effortlessly as she finally admitted she had no options left but to withdraw from school. The only thing that kept her from drowning is despair was the knowledge that she could come back and finish when she had the money.
The job with Braddock & Brown would be gone the minute she told them about her predicament but she still had a Bachelor in Business Administration. She would just have to find a job, establish credit and come back and finish when she could afford it.
After waiting outside the Dean’s office for an hour to formally notify him of her withdrawal she finally gave up and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon sending out resumes. At five o’clock she took twenty dollars out of her emergency cash fund and went to the bar around the corner from her apartment. Mike, the owner, was the closest thing she had to a friend since she had lived in Cambridge.
The bar was fairly empty when she arrived which was what she was hoping for. One or two drinks and then she’d leave before the bar got busy.
“Hey Nova.”
Mike’s smile as she walked over to the bar actually made her feel a little better. “Hey Mike, how are you?”
“My night’s definitely looking up now.” Throwing his bar rag over his shoulder he winked at her. “What can I get you tonight?”
“Vodka. Straight.” It was probably a mistake but her nerves were shot to hell.
He eyed her for a minute before grabbing a glass. “Bad day?”
Sitting down at the bar she dropped her bag below her feet. “Bad week,” she muttered.
“What’s up? You’ve got me a little nervous. I’m used to you being all quiet and snobbish but I’ve never seen you like this.”
“Like What?” I asked.
“You look like your dog just died. You’ve seriously got me worried babe.”
“Aren’t paying customers supposed to be able to sit quietly and drown their sorrows without a grand inquisition?”
“Of course they are,” he replied, sliding her drink across the bar, “Just not you. What’s wrong?”
For some reason the idea of saying it out loud made it all seem so much more real. “I’m dropping out of school.”
Lifting her eyes to look at him after he didn’t reply she almost laughed at how shocked he looked.
“You’re serious aren’t you?”
“Do you honestly think I would joke about something like this?” She didn’t mean to sound bitter but nonetheless, she did.
“My God Nova, why?” Leaning against the bar in front of her she really appreciated the concern in his eyes.
“No choice, I can’t pay the tuition.”
Mike’s concerned expression immediately hardened. “You’re dad doing this?”
She had never confessed to anyone what her home life had been like but Mike paid attention. Growing up in a house of violence himself he recognized it in her not long after she started coming to his bar. Birds of a feather she supposed.
She simply nodded. There wasn’t anything to say.
“You aren’t going back home are you?” His tone was hard.
“No. I’m going to get a job and go back to school when I can afford it. I’ve sent out resumes all afternoon. Hopefully I will hear something soon.”
“Why soon?”
Sometimes she really hated just how perceptive he was. “I’ve got to be moved out of my apartment in two weeks.”
“Fuck,” he said rubbing his hands up and down his face. “Do you have a place to go?”
She had no doubt Mike would help her in any way he could but it wasn’t his place to help her. “Yes, I found two girls who are looking for a roommate. They said I can move in next week.”
The lie soured in her mouth. She never really had any friends before but she liked Mike and lying wasn’t something she ever wanted to do with him. Yet she just had.
“Come on, let’s talk in my office.”
She didn’t want to go, she knew if she went back there she would just have to lie more. “I’ve got this handled. Stop worrying so much.”
He wasn’t standing for it. “Get up Nova, let’s talk.”
Quietly she followed him down the hall to his office. Sitting down in front of his desk she took a deep breath as he sat down in front of her.
“Nova, I’ll give you a job if that will help. You’re beautiful. Not like the customers wouldn’t love to have you waiting on them. Would that help you? A job I mean.”
Sweet Mike, did he not realize it would take years to save enough money working for tips to get back in school but then the realization hit her. If no one called her back for an interview this might very well be the only job offer she had. “Would you mind holding the offer for two weeks to see if I get any interviews?”
“Of course I will. My only concern is that you are going to be alright.”
No!
“I will be, eventually.”
Thumping his thumbs on his desk he finally got the nerve to ask her the question he knew she wouldn’t answer. “Your dad didn’t hurt you did he?”
“He’s not my dad Mike. He’s just the asshole who adopted me after taking in my mom and me. He doesn’t know anything about being a dad.”
I promised myself I wouldn’t cry anymore but in front of Mike I just couldn’t stop the one lone tear that fell down my cheek.
“I won’t ask any more questions, just promise me you’ll come to me if your living arrangement falls through or you run out of money. I’ve got a room in the back of the bar you can stay in. Not the quietest place but it’s got a bed and small bathroom.”
Little did he know, in two weeks she’d probably be asking him for it. “Thanks Mike. I really appreciate the offer and I will certainly take you up on it if I can’t get it all figured out.”
Sitting back at the bar she finished her drink in silence as she watched Mike leave to handle a staffing issue.