The Heir Read Online Free

was amazed.
    By the looks of their home, she could tell
they were very well off. Unfortunately it all brought into focus
the ugly fact that while they were living in comfort, she was being
dragged from city to city, one cheap apartment to another; in some
of the poorest areas of the city.
    Why? Because rundown apartment owners don't
check credit, they don't do back ground checks. They do month to
month with no contracts instead of leasing. Most important of all,
everyone minds their own business.
    The only constant in her life had been her
mom and her honorary uncle Mike. Now she was being taken away from
everything she knew. No more mom or Uncle Mike. Even worse was the
fact that she was going from one side of the tracks to the
other.
    Not that she'd ever belonged to the other
side. They'd never stayed in one place long enough to belong. But
that was beside the point; there, she knew the deal. Here, she was
clueless.
    She was clueless and scared.
    What if she embarrassed herself? What if she
embarrassed her new family and they decided they didn't want her?
What if they decided they couldn't deal with her? That she wasn't
worth the trouble? Just like they'd decided when she was a
baby.
    Rejection; it was her biggest fear.
    "Here we are" Lauren said, claiming her
attention once again.
    Jessica stood back and watched as Lauren
nervously opened the door to the room. Realizing that she hadn't
paid attention to where they were going, Jessica looked back down
the hall and followed Lauren in to the room.
    She took one step and froze; her eyes bugging
out of her head. She'd never seen so much pink in her life! It was
like a princess's room on steroids. Light pink walls, pink bed set,
and white furniture with pink accents.
    There was pink and white everywhere.
    "Wow" She said as she released her breath,
"I'm speechless."
    It was a good thing too, because nothing nice
was running through her mind at the moment. Not nice at all. By the
way Lauren was looking at her; Jessica knew that if she uttered one
profanity it would break the lady's heart. So she took a deep
breath and smiled.
    She turned in a slow circle as Lauren stood
back and smiled back at her. Jessica mentally patted herself on the
back, she'd been right not to voice her dislike. Besides, she
wasn't planning on staying forever, it didn’t matter where she
slept.
    I’ve stayed in worse places, she reminded
herself.
    "I'm so glad you like it!" Lauren beamed.
    "Yeah" was all she could manage with a fake
smile plastered on her face.
    Amazed that so much pink could be crammed
into one room, she turned around once more. She was trying, hoping
to find some other splash of color, purple? Green -yellow
even-nothing.
    "See mom I told you she would love it!"
    Jessica snapped around to see the son
standing by the door with a glimmer of triumph in his eyes.
    Lauren clapped her hands together, bursting
with excitement. "You were right. Thanks Ry for keeping me from
redecorating it." She turned to look at Jessica "As years passed I
wanted to re-do the room with maybe something less girlie but Riley
told me that this look was really popular right now. Now I'm sure
this was the right decision and I'm so glad you like it"
    "I'm so sorry; you have to excuse my bad
manners, because I didn't stick around for the introductions.
What's your name?" She walked up to him, stuck out her hand and
smiled. It was a fake smile.
    He eyed her warily and shook her hand a bit
reluctantly. "I’m Riley"
    "Well Riley, my name is Jessica. And you're
right I do love this room.” She went to stand in front of the bed
and dropped her backpack on it. “Is the bed new, I mean has it been
slept on?" She asked Lauren over her shoulder.
    "No" Lauren answered a bit confused by the
question.
    "Has anything in this room ever been used by
someone else?"
    "No"
    "Well like I said, I love it" She smiled at
Lauren hoping to lessen the impact of her next comments and then
returned her attention to Riley "You want to know why I