Accepting Fate - (Slums to Riches, Book one)

Chapter 21

I changed the video three times before settling on this one. It doesn't really go with the chapter, so if anyone has suggestions, leave a message.

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Angelique's breath caught in her throat. "Logan?"

Logan waved her off as soon as she rushed towards him. "Michael is fine. I promise."

"Did you read my thoughts?" she asked.

His coarse thumb brushed over the creases on her brow. "Sometimes, I wish I had your gifts. Your face gave you away. It's very expressive, especially when you worry. I promise, Michael is fine, and he loves his bedroom. But I found Jamie and Ty's bedrooms. I can't imagine Andrew sleeping in either of them. He is way too serious and manly for what I just saw."

Angelique's whole body shook with suppressed laughter. She hid her smile against Jenny's hair and squeezed her eyes shut against the gathering water.

"Are you kidding me?" Jamie yelled. "You come out here looking like our little brother died and all you say is you saw our rooms? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I could ask you the same," Logan said. "Those rooms were designed according to your tastes and preferences. It looks like some old lady spilled gallons of strawberry milk all over the place and then spent her remaining years decorating it with doilies. There are frills everywhere. And a unicorn must have snuck into Ty's room and shat rainbows all over the place. His room is not one specific color. It's all of them. At the same time!"

Unlike Angelique, Andrew could not suppress his laughter. He leaned against Logan's truck, hooting and holding his stomach. Ty rocked on his heels, grinning as though he were the unicorn Logan mentioned.

"I suppose you deem the double As bedrooms normal," Jamie said.

Logan rubbed his neck and leaned closer to Angelique. "Double A's?"

Angelique rolled her eyes, trying to hide how one of her many nicknames affected her. "She means double-A batteries. Andrew and I earned the nickname because we were always busy, while the rest of them sat on their asses, expecting to be served like royalty."

She resisted the urge to glare at Jamie. Once she ate her anger would subside and things would go back to normal. Mentally, she crossed her fingers.

"Around here, there will not be any lazing about. If you want to eat, you work for your food, even if it's as simple as collecting eggs from the henhouses. The exception ends with Angelique. Her parents worked hard so she wouldn't need to."

"If you think I am going to sit around and let everyone serve me, you don't know me at all," she said and then brushed by him.

She turned towards the left passage, but stopped to stare up the grand staircase. The royal blue carpet stretched to the second floor landing and continued up a second staircase to the third floor. Six chandeliers hung from the ceiling high above her, but the candelabra against the walls and the open windows beside the oak doors illuminated the entry hall.

She turned a frown towards Logan and asked, "Is there only three floors?"

"How many more—"

Logan held up his hand to silence Andrew. "Angelique probably saw four rows of windows from the outside. The fourth floor is the attic, but Cook refuses to show me the entrance."

Material fluttered in the wind, before the older woman appeared beside them with a loud pop. Everyone but Angelique jumped.

"You heard me," she said with a pout.