Georgia communicated to me precisely what a hassle she felt this was for her. Regardless (mostly, my guess, because she needed me to do the job I was doing for the family, and no way in hell she was going down), she negotiated a deal that my father would make it through that twenty years in prison without any issues if he left both of us be.

He’d balked at first. But something I was not made privy to happened in lockup so he changed his mind and made the deal.

He was no longer in our lives.

I had no intention of deepening my relationship with my sister because of that.

I also had no intention of continuing a relationship at all with my father, so I didn’t.

And as life was already dismal enough, I didn’t need other sources making it more so, therefore when Georgia cut off our stepfather’s kickback, I cut off my mother.

She brought me no joy so why bother?

Nothing brought me joy but Mom not only didn’t bring joy, she was a pain in the ass.

So seriously.

Why bother?

It was not a surprise when my mother didn’t bother either. I imagined it was actually a relief to her. It freed up her social schedule and added time she could berate her employees and control my stepfather.

I went to work because I got paid to do it. I went home to the huge-ass house my father made me buy that it was annoying to try to sell, and since I didn’t have to anymore, I took it off the market. I did Pilates. I walked on the treadmill. I had my eyebrows shaped and my pubic hair waxed. I went to movies by myself. I went to dinner by myself.

I breathed.

I existed.

I pushed as far as Georgia would allow me to do so as my only enjoyment.

When I knew I was pushing too far, I toed the line.

The only other blip to getting to that was the unsurprising fact that Georgia had lost her mind about the fact that Nick had played me. She’d been infuriated at Nick for making that move. She’d been more infuriated at me that I’d let him.

The conversation with my sister that came right after the conversation I had with Tommy telling him I was over him and we had no future, regardless of his plans for six years he shared not an iota of with me, was unpleasant to say the least.

But one thing you could say for it, outside of it being done, was that I now definitely knew my place.

My father might be incarcerated but I was a Shade and my life was owned by the head of the House.