CHAPTER 57

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College Decisions

Sometimes Mickey could be too smart for his own good. He'd padded into the room the next day and laid across the entrance as if he could stop her from leaving. But it was his doleful brown eyes that made her pause.

Marnie set her bags against the wall of her room next to the upright bookcase and sank to her knees. “Come on, boy. You know I don't really belong here.”

Mickey poked his cold nose into her hand and gave a low moan. Marnie sighed. The elevator chimed and Rob's clipped haughty voice called out.

“I'm in here,” Marnie said.

Rob paused at the entrance of her room.

“Danny's gone to a meeting.”

“He'll be back soon?” Rob asked.

Marnie nodded.

“Got any coffee?”

“I just put a fresh pot on.”

Rob gave her a wide smile and pivoted, heading toward the kitchen.

“Rob.” Marnie stepped over Mickey and followed him into the kitchen. “I thought a lot about our conversation a while back, about how long I'd stay.”

Robert nodded.

“I'm not staying. I want to go back to school.”

“My dear, you already have a job most graduates would die for. Why leave?”

After everything that had happened with Danny, she needed a break. Not to mention seeing Brian again was painful. Once she'd regained her sobriety, her thoughts turned to who she was before she'd left home. She'd been studying to be an accountant. The idea sounded boring now, but going back to school filled her with a hope that she could go back to being normal. She'd already signed up for an online class as a tester. If she could handle that, then she would enroll in school full time.

“I wanted to tell you so you and his manager could think about a replacement.”

“My dear, you are absolutely irreplaceable. Danny will lose his mind without you.”

As if on cue, boy wonder entered and poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Danny, don't you think Marnie is irreplaceable?”

Danny frowned and set his cup down. “Rob, everyone is replaceable. Including me. Isn't that what you're always preaching?”

Robert's shoulders drooped as if the wind had been taken out of his sails.

“You understand, don't you, Marnie?”

She grinned although his words felt like a stab in the gut. “Of course.

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Robert rolled his eyes. “One day the so‐called man is going to regret he said that.”

Danny shrugged. “Rob, what's with all the moodiness? Is it that time of the month again?” Danny chuckled at the poor joke.

“I could tell you, but I assume grown men want to learn things on their own,” Robert said. “You children are foolish that way.”