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it.
    “Peyton, Courtney, and Savannah,” he said, looking at each of
them as he said their names. “Did I get it right?”
    Courtney nodded, unsure how to reply. “Hi” felt too casual. Her
mouth went dry, and she swallowed again, trying to think of something to
say.
    “You all look just like your pictures.” He glanced at the table
in the foyer and ran his fingers over the glass surface. “I see you got your
credit cards. Good. Have fun with them, but don’t do anything too extreme.” He
walked through the foyer, his black leather shoes tapping against the marble
floor. “I’m Adrian Diamond.” He cleared his throat. “Your father. Although I
suppose you’ve figured that out already.” He laughed, but it wasn’t enough to
take away the heavy awkwardness in the air. “Welcome to your new home. I trust
everything is to your liking?”
    Courtney had a million things she wanted to say to him, but she
felt useless. It was like the world was spinning out of control, and she
couldn’t figure out how to make it steady again.
    “We did get our credit cards.” Peyton stared him down. “And
then I threw mine in the trash.”
    “Really?” Adrian actually chuckled, even though Peyton was
still giving him a hate-glare. “Why would you do that?”
    “She didn’t really throw it in the trash,” Savannah chimed in.
“Well, she did, but nothing else was in there and I rescued it.”
    “Good to know.” He still had an amused smile on his face, which
Courtney guessed wasn’t the reaction Peyton had been expecting. “If you don’t
want your credit card, that’s your choice—I don’t mind if you toss it in the
back of a drawer in your room—but they can’t be thrown away due to security
reasons.”
    Peyton set her jaw and didn’t respond.
    “It was kind of you to give them to us.” It was the best thing
Courtney could think to add to the conversation. “We’ll use them as responsibly
as possible, and only for emergencies.”
    “That’s very mature of you, Courtney,” he said, and while she
shouldn’t have wanted to earn the respect of the man who had abandoned her and
her sisters, she felt proud of his approval. “But you can use your credit card
for whatever you’d like—as long as you don’t do anything too extreme, like buy a
yacht or charter the jet around the world. You’ll have to ask permission before
doing anything like that. But most everything else—shopping, food, spa days or
whatever else you want—is fair game.”
    Courtney wrapped her arms around her stomach, unable to meet
his eyes. She knew she should thank him, but this huge gift made her feel as if
all the money she’d worked for around the clock over the years meant nothing
now. All that time she’d slaved away mixing coffee drinks for minimum wage felt
demeaned knowing that Adrian could have just handed her an unlimited credit
card. A lump formed in her throat at the thought that it had all been for
nothing, and she swallowed it away. That work wasn’t for nothing. She’d earned that money through her own means to help out her
family. She would always be proud of that.
    “So I can get a designer tote bag for school?” Savannah asked.
Courtney wanted to tell her not to take Adrian’s generosity for granted, but she
was glad the attention had shifted from her. “And designer sunglasses, and
clothes and shoes?”
    He smiled at her enthusiasm. “I know someone who will be more
than happy to shop with you for whatever’s going to be popular next season,” he
said, a knowing glint in his eyes. “But aside from that, we have a lot to
discuss. I was sorry to hear about your mother.” He paused and glanced out the
window, his thoughts seeming far away, as if he were remembering a time long
past. Then he refocused and returned his gaze to Courtney and her sisters. “I
didn’t know just how rough this past year has been on the three of you until
your grandmother informed me. I’m sorry you had to go through what you