Surrender My Love Read Online Free PDF

his baggy jeans and ripped tee shirt. This week his hair was green. “You were supposed to be here an hour ago!”
    “I’m sorry. I got delayed.”
    Chloe walked over and handed him the bowl of ice cream. She eyed him quizzically, a niggling fear always at the back of her head. “That’s for Mom. Make sure she eats all of it!” She took a step back, her gaze landing on his bright orange sneakers. “Are those new?”
    Her br other grinned and proffered a foot, dangling his fluorescent shoe.
    Chloe’s jaw dropped. “ Richard! How much were those?”
    He sighed with exasperation and regarded her angrily. “One fifty, but I got ten percent off cuz a friend of mine works at the Shoe Depot!”
    Chloe shook her head in disbelief and gaped at her brother, thinking he looked and acted a lot younger than his twenty-one years. “You know we can’t afford them! It’s irresponsible of you to have bought them!” she started to yell, but her gaze slid to the door of her mother’s room and she lowered her voice.
    They were barely making ends meet, barely had enough to afford the care their mother needed. As it was, they had to cut the hours that the aides stayed at the apartment, and she and Richard were covering the shifts. Her brother was clueless when it came to finances. Right now, he was living with a roommate down town in SoHo.
    He apparently did chores around the apartment and was allowed to stay there rent-free. When he’d been working, he and Chloe had put money in an account to pay for their mom’s medical bills and living expenses. Now that he wasn’t employed and contributing, that money was quickly dwindling. And despite their dire situation, he continued to spend money like they had it. She worried that he was spending it in other ways, but that was not a subject she was willing to tackle now.
    “That’s it! You are not allowed to withdraw money from the account unless you ask me.” Chloe brushed by him, ignoring the look of shock on his face.
    “You’re kidding, right? That’s my money too!” He fingered the silver ring protruding from his bottom lip.
    Chl oe grabbed her jacket and purse, and faced him squarely. She didn’t have time to explain to him that he’d already exhausted all the money he’d contributed to the account.
    “No, Richard. I’m not kidding. We are in trouble here and you fail to understand that. You have to be more responsible. Why do you have to act like such a child?”
    “Why do you have to act like such a fucking old woman? Blah, blah, blah!” he snapped.
    Chloe pull ed up short, his words echoing those of her friend. She swallowed the pain. They were a stinging reminder that she’d always been the mature one, the one who had to take care of the family even before her mother’s almost fatal accident. Their father had died when she was eight years old and her mother had all but stopped living, becoming an empty shell of her former self. It had been Chloe who made sure they were up, fed, and ready for school. She’d done the laundry, balanced the check book the best she could, and held him at night when he was afraid of the dark. Richard had only been three years old, too young to remember the devastation.
    “ You need to get a job. We won’t be able to make it on my salary alone.” She heard her voice crack and hated the emotion that laced her words.
    Richard approached her, his face apologetic as usual. He must have heard the desperation in her tone. “I’ll start looking again. I promise.”
    Chloe sighed heavily and looked into her brother’s dark green eyes. He’d made that same promise a few months ago, right after their mother’s last surgery. She swallowed hard and tried to think of a way to make her irresponsible brother understand their dire situation, but fatigue was dulling her brain and making her lethargic. She needed to rest before her shift.
    Just then her cell phone vibrated and she fished it out of her purse. She was su rprised to hear her