Trusting Stone by Alexa Sinclaire Read Free Book Online

understand, he was not nearly as active in New York.
    As she searched for him online, she slowly remembered that his parents’ divorce had been a particularly brutal one. Eden remembered her mother gossiping about Eliza Stone, that she had done something despicable. Why else would Edward Stone have up and moved back to England, abandoning his wife and only son? Mrs. Stone didn’t have any money of her own, and after being such a steady member of her parents’ social group, she was very quickly expunged from it after her bank account didn’t hold up anymore. A few months later, their house was up for sale and they were gone.
    Eden’s fantasy of Sebastian finding her in New York was nothing more than that—a fantasy. And furthermore, there was nothing to say that he even wanted to see her again. Yes, that kiss in the car had been intense, but he had walked away from her at the door. He hadn’t even tried to come in and test his luck. He hadn’t asked for her number or any way of contacting her.
    Eden had decided to approach it as Dr. Shepherd had suggested—consider it a breakthrough, a wonderful start to her new life, regardless of the briefness of the encounter.
    Besides the new apartment , she also had a new job. She’d accepted a position as an archival assistant at the Smithsonian Archive’s New York branch. It was only part-time, and the salary was embarrassing compared to what the other women in her formal social circle were earning. But Eden had jumped at the chance. She had loved the brief internship she had done at the Edinburgh Gallery and she knew it was a coup to have the Smithsonian on her resume.
    She ignored the low salary and instead took pride in the position. After her mental makeover in Edinburgh, she had started feeling uncomfortable relying purely on her trust fund . Anything to supplement it was welcome.
    Her parents had given her access to the trust soon after the attack. Part of her knew this was because they were afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle the realities of working life, and she more than appreciated the gesture. Despite her father’s wealth, they had always made it clear to Eden that she would have to make her own way in the world and wouldn’t have access to her trust until she was 30, although they would gladly help her in the first few years after she graduated.
    After the attack, everything had changed. The trust conditions had been amended. She not only had unlimited access, but her parents encouraged her to use it. There had been something else about the sudden access to the trust that made Eden uncomfortable. Whenever she brought it up with her mother, it was quickly dismissed and her mother chastised her for talking about money.
    Eden was torn between wanting to reject the trust fund completely, as she so wanted to do with everything in her former life, but she was acutely aware of her own wants and needs. She wanted to take the job at the Smithsonian, despite the small salary. She wanted to be able to live in a nice apartment and not have to rely on roommates to help pay the rent for some hovel above a fast food restaurant in order to stay in New York. She wanted to have the freedom that the money allowed her. Eden didn’t want to be trapped by her family’s social connections and expectations, but she also didn’t want to be trapped by poverty. She may have been spoiled growing up, but she was certainly not naïve enough to not realize the freedom that money gave her.
    She had discussed the subject extensively with Dr. Shepherd. She felt like a hypocrite and the money did feel dirty . She couldn’t deny the fact that her parents had given her the trust fund early because she was attacked. It tainted the money and she didn’t know how to reconcile the conflict she felt whenever she took out her credit card.
    There was another reason, one that Dr. Shepherd found much more interesting than the guilt about the trust fund . Eden knew that she wouldn’t be able to