A Gentleman in the Street Read Online Free PDF Page B

beautiful inlaid geometric patterns on the sides. “Where were you keeping that?” He was in and out of her room with laundry and random chores. He would have noticed a foot-long box sitting on her desk.
    She averted her eyes. “Under my bed.”
    Hidden under her bed. Because she had known he would be displeased. He accepted the box and turned it over in his hand. At first glance, he had thought it was a jewelry box, but it was unlike any other one he had ever seen. Four of the six sides had odd, narrow panels on them, but there was no discernible opening.
    “You can’t open it. Well, you can, but it’s like a puzzle or something,” Kati volunteered.
    He glanced at her sharply. “Mei did give it to you, right? You didn’t take this?”
    Kati’s eyes widened. “Jeez, of course not! I’m not a thief.”
    “No, but you are a sneak.” Grimly, he laid the box on the kitchen counter. “You couldn’t tell me she gave this to you?”
    “Mei told me not to.” Accurately interpreting his stormy expression, Kati quickly continued. “She said you wouldn’t accept it. That’s why she couldn’t leave us a lot of money in her will, either.”
    “If you knew I wouldn’t take it, why would you take it?”
    She tucked her hands into the sleeves of her sweater. “Mei said there was probably something expensive inside. Once I broke it open, I could use it to make sure my college tuition was taken care of.”
    “Jesus, Kati. Between your scholarships and what I earn, we have college covered.” He didn’t want any of his siblings burdened with student-loan debt. His brothers had both gone to state schools with scholarships, but Kati had her heart set on Stanford, and she’d been accepted. She’d have it, even if he had to work around the clock to make it happen.
    Kati laid her hand on his sleeve. “Mei was tired of seeing you work so hard. So am I.”
    He placed his hand over hers, struggling not to get sucked into her beseeching eyes. “Kid, don’t get me wrong. I would love to win the lottery someday. But this isn’t how we do things. This isn’t right.”
    Her rounded chin came up. “I don’t see what’s so wrong about it, I guess. That Akira has more money than she knows what to do with, and it’s not like she didn’t inherit every other thing her mom owned. Even if this thing has gold bars inside, it’s nothing compared to all her other money.”
    Patience. For all her posturing, Kati was still little more than a child. “I told you, it was her grandmother’s. Even if it weren’t, it doesn’t matter. It’s wrong for us to have this because we’re not Mei’s family. Akira is.”
    “Mei said if she and Dad had been married when he died, we would have been her stepkids. She would have raised me, not you.”
    Jacob raised an eyebrow. Was that why Mei had been so kind to them over the years? Had she felt guilt over the timing of his father’s death? As if it had cheated them out of some sort of life of wealth and privilege?
    His dad had been a firmly middle-class physician before he met Mei at a charity fundraiser and recklessly married her a month later. At that point, Jacob had already been out of the house, so he hadn’t experienced living in Mei’s world the way the three younger Campbells had.
    The marriage hadn’t lasted long, a surprise to no one who was familiar with Harvey Campbell’s flightiness. Jacob hadn’t thought Ben, Connor or Kati had particularly hungered for luxury after it was over, but maybe they had.
    Privately, Jacob doubted anything would have changed, even if Mei and his dad had been married when the old man had died of a sudden heart attack. While Ben and Connor had been older at the time—fifteen and sixteen respectively—Kati had been a baby who Jacob had sheltered since she was born. He wouldn’t have been able to tolerate someone else raising her, especially since he had barely known Mei. He wasn’t his father, ready to entrust his charges to a relative