As nausea churned in her stomach, the six-foot-tall young man standing in front of her transformed into a lost little boy right in front of her eyes. Danny’s bottom lip trembled, his broad shoulders drooping as if he couldn’t support his own weight.
Mia didn’t waste time—she threw her arms around him and hugged him with everything she had.
“Oh, Danny, I’m so sorry.”
Moisture soaked her skin as Danny buried his face in her neck. His tears triggered a jolt of anger that blasted into her chest. She suddenly wished their mother were here so she could strangle the living shit out of that bitch. How could Brenda have done this? How could she?
Mia stepped back. “You’ve been here all alone for the past two days?”
He nodded wordlessly.
Drawing a steady breath, she led her devastated brother over to the couch and forced him to sit while she went to switch on the floor lamp. A moment later, light flooded the room and revealed Danny’s red-rimmed eyes and wet cheeks.
Mia sat beside him and wrapped one arm around his shoulder, speaking in a firm voice. “It’s all right, baby. We’ve dealt with this before, remember? She shows up and then she leaves, that’s just what she does. I know you were hoping it would be different this time, and I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out the way you wanted. But we’ll get through it, the way we always do. It’s okay to be sad and hurt and upset, but it’s not the end of the world.”
“Yes it is, Mia!”
The certainty in his voice and the vehemence in his eyes startled her. “It’s not, sweetie, I promise you that. I know she hurt you again, but—”
“She hurt my future!”
Mia was caught off guard. “What are you talking about?”
Danny looked up with a crestfallen expression. “She took my savings.”
A wave of horror rammed into her. “What?”
“She emptied out my bank account,” he mumbled, then let out an agonized moan that sent a knife of fear straight to her heart.
She had no idea what he was saying. How was that even possible? She and Danny had opened his account together—they were the only ones who could withdraw or deposit funds into it.
“Danny,” she said softly. “What did you do?”
Tears welled up in his eyes again. “She told me she wanted to help out,” he whispered. “She said that college would be really expensive even if I ended up getting a scholarship, and she offered to throw money my way whenever she had some to spare. She told me it would be easier if she could just deposit money into my account through her online banking.”
Ice crept through Mia’s veins, making her entire body run cold.
“So we went to the bank together and we spoke to the bank manager…”
Mia could hardly breathe now.
“He made us fill out this form that would link our accounts. That way Mom could put money directly into my account from hers.” Danny’s lower lip started to quiver. “I signed the form, Mia. I didn’t think it was a big deal. I mean, it wasn’t like it was just Mom who could access my account—I could access hers too.” He shrugged helplessly. “I thought it was really cool that she trusted me and didn’t think I would try to take her money or anything.”
Mia’s pulse roared with fury, nearly drowning out his voice. “The bank manager shouldn’t have let that happen,” she hissed out. “She’s not your guardian, damn it. She shouldn’t have been given access to your account.”
In fact, Mia was already planning on marching into the bank the second it opened and demanding that motherfucker be fired.
“So on Thursday morning, I was waiting for her to pick me up,” Danny went on, “but she never showed. I hung out here, and then the next morning I got an email from the bank. It was a confirmation of a transaction, and…I clicked on it and saw that she transferred all my money into her account, Mia. I had almost ten thousand dollars saved up and she took it all! I immediately tried to transfer the money back, but I kept getting an error message saying her account number was no longer valid.”
His face scrunched up as if he was fighting back tears, and Mia quickly pulled him into her arms again. Silent sobs wracked his shoulders, and each time he sniffled, another chunk splintered off her heart.
“Why didn’t you call me?” she murmured. “And why didn’t you tell me about the bank thing?”
“Because I knew you’d get mad. I knew you’d tell me I was being a gullible idiot, but I thought she wanted to help me, Mia. I really thought that.”
She sighed. “I know you did, kiddo.”
“And then when I got that email from the bank, I was so embarrassed.” Another round of tears shook his body. “I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me. I didn’t want you to hate me.”
Salty moisture formed in Mia’s eyes. “I could never be disappointed in you and I could never hate you,” she said fiercely. “I love you, Danny, you hear me? And one of the things I love most about you is the way you always try to see the good in people.”
Her brother looked up, his expression absolutely ravaged. “I love you too, Mia.”
“I know you do.”
He rested his head on her shoulder, and she gently stroked his hair, wishing she could take away his pain. Brenda deserved to burn in hell for what she’d done to him. If the woman ever showed her face again, Mia was going to throttle her, no mistake about it.