Got Your Number

consequences."
    "Mother would never forgive me. Trenton would be scandalized. The job in Chicago would be out." Then she gave a little laugh. "But I'm not so sure all of that would be a bad thing."
    "You don't want to go to Chicago?"
    "I don't want to marry Trenton."
    Roxann agreed with her wholeheartedly, but had kept her opinion in check.
    "I'm tired of doing and being what everyone expects of me. Sometimes I wish Mother had left my face the way it was so I could just... be . Be plain, be fat, be happy. You know—a simple life with a good man and a few kids." She burst into tears. "I think I'm in love with M-Mike B-Brown."
    Roxann's eyebrows skyrocketed. "What?"
    "He's so good to me—I've never had a man take his hat off for me, bring me flowers, a ham." She sniffled. "Mike makes me laugh, and he makes me feel good about myself."
    At first the idea of Angora the debutante being the wife of a plump Midwestern farmer was comical, but after Roxann tried it on for size, the image seemed to...no, actually it still seemed far-fetched.
    "Angora, you have to do whatever will make you happy. But I'd hate to see you run from Trenton and your parents just so you won't have to face them."
    "Oh, no, I'm going to face them. I'm going to tell them the truth, then break it off with Trenton."
    "We could take care of this while we're here, but we both have to agree."
    "I...think we should," Angora said. "Don't you?"
    Roxann nodded. "Yes, I do." Even though she could imagine the disappointment on her father's face, she could also imagine the relief of a clear conscience. "Are you sure you're up for this?"
    "No, but I'll live. Do you think that Mike will still be interested in me after he finds out?"
    "I suspect so." She smiled and started the engine, then turned in the direction of campus. Her stomach pitched and her neck muscles tightened. "This is going to change everything, you know."
    "I know."

Chapter Thirty-seven

    ROXANN CLUNG TO THE BACK of an aged wing chair in her father's living room. Her knees were practically knocking and her mouth couldn't seem to produce enough moisture to say what she had to say.
    "Go on," her father urged from his La-Z-Boy, unreclined for the serious discussion they'd been having. "It can't be that bad, Roxann."
    She inhaled deeply. "Dad, when Angora and I were eighteen, we made a deal. I took the ACT test, and the Notre Dame entrance exam for her." She swallowed hard. "And while we were there, I took tests for her whenever she was afraid she wouldn't pass."
    He closed his eyes briefly, and his grizzled mouth pulled down. "In return for what?"
    "She paid me enough to cover most of my tuition."
    "You didn't get a scholarship?"
    "No, my grades in high school weren't good enough."
    He shook his head, his eyes wide and disbelieving.
    "But you made straight As in college—you were a valedictorian."
    She walked around and sat down in the chair. "I studied hard because I was trying to prove something to myself, maybe trying to punish myself for what I was doing."
    Her father's hand shook while her heart broke. "How did you do it? Don't the instructors even know who's in their class?"
    So far, the conversation was meeting her worst expectations. Roxann sighed. "Everyone was always telling me and Angora how much we looked alike. I...wore a blond wig on the days I took her exams." She leaned forward. "Dad, I felt awful the entire time I was doing it, and ever since. I wanted to go to law school when I graduated, but I felt too guilty—like the degree I'd earned was the fruit of a poisonous tree."
    "Well, it was." He got up and walked over to stand in front of the old cabinet-model TV, looking out into the yard that, she suspected, he'd tidied for her homecoming. The sun highlighted his sparse hair and the stoop of his shoulders. Then, to her dismay, she realized his shoulders were shaking. Her father hadn't cried at her mother's funeral, but she'd managed to make him cry on a sunny Wednesday in late October.
    Swallowing her emotion she went to stand behind him and touched his shoulders. "Dad, I did a dishonest, horrible thing, and I'm so, so sorry that I let you down."
    "No," he said, his voice breaking. "I'm the one who let you down, Roxann. I was a hateful, distant father who saw the woman I loved and lost every time I looked at you. I expected you to live your life the way I had it planned, and when you didn't, I thought it was out of spite."
    She turned him around and looked into the face of remorse