Page 316 of Faking the Goal

My stomach drops.

He'd already stopped paying her tuition months ago. Before he ever gave me that deadline. Before he ever pretended I still had a choice. The bastard had already gone back on his word.

Miho gives me a small, heartbreaking smile.

"It was okay at first. I still had money from my part-time job in Paris, so I paid what I could little by little." She twists her fingers together nervously. "But then I got laid off. I tried finding another job, even waitressing, but... tuition there is expensive."

A curse slips quietly under my breath.

"Miho..." I scrub a hand over my face. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you."

"You should've."

"I knew you already had enough on your plate."

"We would've figured something out." I shake my head, frustration building with every word—not at her, never at her. "The café still brings in enough for us to live comfortably. We aren't rich, but we would've found a way. Maybe we'd have to tighten things for a while or move some money around, but you shouldn't have been carrying this by yourself."

She offers me another sad smile.

"I just wanted to help."

The simplicity of those four words lands like a punch to the gut.

Fuck.

I'd been so consumed worrying about Taylor and the threat hanging over her that I'd pushed my father's ultimatum to the back of my mind. Not because I'd forgotten it, but because some naïve part of me still wanted to believe he wouldn't actually follow through. That when it came down to it, he wouldn't use his own daughter as leverage.

What a fucking fool I've been.

I lower my head, pressing my fingers against my temple as the beginnings of a migraine throb behind my eyes.

"I'm sorry," I say quietly.

Miho immediately shakes her head.

"Oni-chan—"

"No." My voice comes out hoarse. "This is my fault."

Before she can argue, I hear Mom's chair scrape softly against the floor. She walks over until she's standing beside us, her eyes searching mine with an expression I haven't seen in years.

"...Kentaro."

I slowly lift my head.

"Did you know about this?"

I can't even bring myself to meet Mom's eyes.

The guilt is already eating me alive before I finally give her the smallest nod.

After a long moment, I find myself telling them everything. Every threat Dad had thrown at me over the last several months. How he'd been using them as leverage to force me back to Japan and take over the family business. How every conversation we'd had lately somehow ended with another ultimatum hanging over my head. I don't spare them a single detail, and with each one that leaves my mouth, Mom's face grows a shade paler while the anger in her eyes burns brighter.

By the time I finish, the apartment has fallen into a suffocating silence.

Miho lets out a broken sob beside me.