Chapter 5

Ivy's POV

I could practically hear Robert and Deborah working it out. All they had to do was keep me happy long enough for me to say yes. Once Mr. Castillo sent the money, they'd have something to give the men who were after Taylor.

I figured those men still had him. Robert knew what they were capable of, and he wasn't about to risk his son's safety by arguing with me any longer.

"You've got a deal, Ivy." Robert looked at me like it hurt him to meet my eyes. "I wish I'd never put you in this position, sweetheart."

Taylor had gambled his way into more than four hundred thousand dollars in debt.

Two hundred thousand from the deal would leave them with a lot to cover, but they'd been putting money away for years. Between the two, they could pay what he owed.

Giving up my father's turquoise pendant would be easier for Robert. He'd already taken it in to have it appraised.

A hundred bucks, maybe two, was about all it would fetch. You could find pieces like it at a flea market.

As far as he was concerned, handing it back to me would cost him next to nothing.

The house was another story. If his name had been on the deed instead of mine, he'd have sold it years ago.

Most of the time he liked to tell me what a good girl I was. Whenever he brought up selling, I gave him the same answer.

It was my home. If I let it go, I'd have nothing left.

I could see how much it bothered him that I wouldn't budge. My father had been every bit as much of an inconvenience to him.

"You're sure about this?" Robert asked. "I need to know you won't change your mind about marrying him."

"Why would I? If everything you've told me is true, I'll have money, an easy life, and a husband I won't have to worry about cheating on me." I nodded like I'd thought it all through. "My parents are gone. You're the only family I have, and I want us to get along after this. If Taylor ever needs anything from me again, all he has to do is ask."

I kept giving him reasons to believe me.

I'd heard years' worth of promises from Robert that he'd never meant to keep.

I'd picked up a few things listening to him.

My first priority was getting enough supplies to make it through what was coming.

The second Mr. Castillo's money was in my hands, he could forget about getting it back.

I owed him as little as I owed Robert.

The first time around, Robert would never have slipped anything into my dinner or let that man into my room unless he was sure the man's father would go along with it. Mr. Castillo hadn't needed to give him an order. Knowing he'd look the other way had been enough.

Deborah used to make remarks about how much I ate, so I'd learned to keep my portions small.

That night I'd only had a few bites before I went to my room. There'd been enough of whatever was in my dinner to make me pass out.

I'd come around when I felt someone put his hands on me.

When I opened my eyes, Castillo's son was tugging at my pants. His face was twisted with the effort and there was spit at the corner of his mouth.

I could barely move, but it took me about a second to put the dinner and the man beside my bed together.

I used to keep a little pair of scissors under my pillow. I got my hand around them and jabbed one point into my thigh. The pain cut through the fog long enough for me to keep my eyes open.

The moment he realized I was awake, he swung at me. I went at him with the scissors.

He'd land a punch and I'd jab back, and by the time it was over we'd both been hurt.

When his father realized I might hurt his son again if he went through with the wedding, he ended the talks.

Robert had put all that effort into getting me to marry the man and had come away with nothing.

I could keep my four hundred thousand without losing any sleep over it.

If it cost me two hundred thousand to get Robert to agree and move out, so be it.

I had to get ready for the hurricane, and getting Robert out of the house was worth the trade.

Every evening I spent arguing with him was an evening I couldn't spend getting ready for the hurricane.

Robert wasted even less time than I'd expected. He packed up and moved out that night, well ahead of the deadline I'd given him.

He handed over my father's things as he was leaving.

I went through them until I found the pendant. The turquoise was low grade, with a crack running right through it.

I let out the breath I'd been holding.

Once they were gone, I locked the door. I took out a blade, nicked the tip of my finger, and let the blood drip onto the pendant.

After the world went to hell the first time, I'd seen that same pendant around Amber's neck day after day.

I'd figured it meant something to her.

She loved dressing up too much to wear a piece that cheap with everything unless she had a reason.

She never took it off, and she guarded it more carefully than anything else she owned.

She kept it on right up until shortly before I was taken to the island.

That's when she told me why. She'd been pleased with herself when she said it. The pendant had belonged to my father, and there was a space inside it where she could store things.

Back when the apocalypse started, I'd still been trying to survive with their family.

Amber told everyone she'd developed a power that let her stash supplies in a space of her own. It held a lot, and anything she put in there was hard for anyone else to get at.

People thought she was one of the first to develop an ability, and she never let any of us forget it.

I had no power at all in those early days. Mine came out in the middle of a fight, when I found out I could control the wind.

From then on, if there was a job that might get somebody killed, it fell to me.

Amber could carry our supplies, but she couldn't fight with the pendant.

Taylor was a grown man who could make everybody at home miserable, then go weak at the sight of a zombie.

Cody was only eight.

Deborah and Robert were both in their fifties and always told me they couldn't handle the strain.

I still didn't know about the settlement checks back then. I thought I owed them for raising me.

When something came after us, I was the one who went out in front. And whenever we had anything decent to eat, I made sure Robert and Deborah got theirs first, along with Cody, the youngest.