“Don’t you dare blame him for any of this. He worked himself into the grave for you.”
I should have known better than to bring him up. He was a saint. He never did anything wrong.
Pinching the bridge of my nose I keep my mouth shut. She knowsexactlywhat killed him and it wasn’t work, or me, so…
She exhales sharply, “Did you tell your sister to stop talking to me?”
The subject change is so sharp I jerk away from the phone. “Why would I do that?”
“Well, she’s mad and she’s directing it at me, when this is all your fault.”
I remind myself that she’s never had to deal with the bills on her own. Dad did and then I did. Dropping them all on her was mean, even if it was necessary.
Before I can think of some way to shift the conversation, she says, “If you do not pay this, your sister will have to drop out of school. Do you want that?”
Using Anne was a misstep. She can guilt me about a lot of things, but not them. I am not my siblings’ parent.
“Of course I don’t want her to drop out of school. But your inability to pay a loan you took out,knowingyou didn’t have a job to repay it, is not my fault.”
She starts crying and I take another deep breath.
That used to work on me. It tugs at my stomach now, but Ican’tkeep paying her bills.
“I have to get back to work,” I lie.
“So you can spend all your money on yourself while we starve?”
She’s lashing out and I can’t react.
“Goodbye, Mom, keep looking for a job.”
I hang up and turn the phone off completely.
I need to decompress. I need…
I need a distraction, and orgasms, and to forget about Earth for a while.
Taking a deep, deep breath, I stand up straight until my back pops twice and then I walk straight through the corridors to Phantom’s.
CHAPTER 4
It feels so strange to put on a dress. I wore them all the time when I was a kid, and then I just stopped. I don’t remember when. I don’t remember why.
On the way home from my conversation with Phantom, I stopped by a store Cherry told me could make any kind of clothing in a scant hour or two.
The dress I bought took fifteen minutes, even with two revisions.
It felt like magic, because I didn’t understand the tech, but I am so glad I bought it.
It falls all the way to my feet, but the slits goallthe way up.
Easy access.
I shiver as I remember their hands on me… as I imagine their hands on me again tonight under the table.
When I open the door, their eyes travel down me.
So glad I bought it.
