Mother said she couldn’t work because it’d ruin her image. And her perfectly manicured nails. My eyes fell to the now grown-out red claws. The nurses had helped me file them down because we didn’t know how long my mother would be in this state.

She’d be appalled.

She did all she could to keep up the image in front of her friends. Friends who kept her around from our previous life because they pitied her.

I’m positive she knew it, but it was the world my mother knew better than anyone. She’d grown up with them in their mansions. She came from money, so having none made her the outcast. But she dug her sharp red claws into them and hung on for dear life.

Even if they talked behind her back. Laughed at her.

She just couldn’t handle the violent dismantling of our life.

Her lack of a job meant that when she wasn’t with her friends, she was holed up in our apartment—the only property we now owned—all day long doing nothing but scrolling social media.

Our family’s scandal was long past, but the comments on her social media posts made it seem as if it happened just yesterday. There were always a few people still holding a grudge against my father.

Even when he’s dead. I often wondered if they would ever just let up.

He was gone, and so was all our money. We had been punished thoroughly by whatever god they believed was angry enough to take vengeance on us.

I was guilty of scrolling through the posts too, each one just another notch on the anger belt that was getting tighter and tighter around my neck.

Her blonde hair lay by her side in a careful braid. Another thing the sweet nurses helped me with since I'd been too busy with work.

How did I miss it?

Behind the anger, there was pain. Guilt. Shame.

I may have grown up with my father’s money, but I was young enough to adapt. He taught me that much at least before leaving this earth.

My mother, on the other hand…

My eyes welled with stinging tears while a renewed anger burned bright inside me, threatening to destroy everything in its path.

His fault. All his fucking fault.

If it weren’t for him, Father would still be here and Mother wouldn’t have dared⁠—

My throat caught. I couldn’t think about it anymore.

I looked over the welcome email again, my eyes catching on the bold title.

Black Silk Auction welcomes you…

I never thought I'd stoop to this level. Sell my body.

Being raised in a millionaire family meant I’d never really thought much about what would happen if we lost our money. It was almost impossible.

But the impossible happens every day.

And this would be my only chance to get back at him.

“Ms. Mercer?”