Thousand? I'd blinked. For a seventeen-year-old girl, that was an astronomical sum.
I stared at him. "Seventeen thousand dollars? Leo, you can't be serious."
"I'm dead serious. My sister spent all those years in the countryside, roughing it. We're doing well now. Shouldn't we help her out?"
He grabbed my hand. His eyes were soft, tender even, but something behind them felt calculating.
I frowned, making no effort to hide my irritation. "If you want to help her, you help her. She's not my sister. Why is this my problem?"
Leo's expression froze. He clearly hadn't expected me to refuse so flatly, without even a moment's hesitation.
If he'd asked me to pick up some small gifts to make a teenage girl smile, I'd have been all for it. But seventeen thousand dollars? Whoever handed that over was a fool, plain and simple.
He stared at me for a long moment, then let out an awkward laugh. "I was just testing you, that's all. Seeing if my future sister-in-law was willing to spend a little on my kid sister. If you don't want to, I won't push it."
That comment did not sit well with me.
Testing me? That wasn't a test. That was emotional blackmail.
I didn't respond. I turned and stared out the window.