NOVEMBER 24, 1996
SIENNA
Kylie arrived on Sunday night after Parker and Poppy were asleep. Ivy was still awake but was in the shower when Sienna swung open the door and sunk into her best friend’s arms. Sienna let herself sob for nearly a minute without saying a word while Billie tried to squeeze her wiggly happy body between the women.
It had been a messy, horrible weekend. She and Zane sat the kids down at the kitchen table on Friday after school to announce he was moving out for a while. They tried to make it sound as if it was a good thing.It’s not because we don’t love each other, because we do. Very much. Your dad just needs some downtime. He’s been so busy for so many years that he needs time to sleep and read and think.
For a moment, Sienna thought they’d get away with the glossed-over version, but then Ivy, who was wiping tears away with the palms of her hands, spoke up. “You’re lying! I heard everything. I know about the baby.” She glared at her father with enough force to stop the tides. “I know you’re paying Claudia off to pretend it’s Mike’s!”
Zane’s jaw dropped at the same rate as Sienna’s heart, and she knew in an instant that her perfectly drawn map for the future was about to be torched.
Parker, who looked mildly worried up to that point, let his head snap back. He yelled, “What baby?!” at the same time that Sienna raised her voice to ask, “What exactly did you hear?”
Ivy ignored them both, her gaze fixed on Zane. “Tell them, Dad.Tell them what you did. They deserve the truth!”
Zane squeezed his eyes shut, then turned his head away from his eldest child. “I can’t.”
“Fine.I’lldo it,” Ivy said, each word like the snap of a whip. She turned to her two younger siblings. “Dad had a baby with Claudia.”
Poppy’s face scrunched up. “Wait? Claudia had a baby? Nobody tells meanything!”
“Yes, Claudiaand Dadhad a baby and now Dad’s moving out because Mom can’t stand the sight of him,” Ivy said. “And if you ask me, he can’t move out fast enough.”
“Stop saying that!” Poppy shouted back. “That didn’t happen because Dad is married to Mom. That means he has babies with her!”
“Itdidhappen, you moron,” Ivy answered. “It’s called cheating, and Dad did it.”
“Ivy! That’s enough,” Sienna said. “There’s no need to be mean to your little sister just because she doesn’t know that some men cheat on their wives.”
Zane let out a strangled moan, and buried his face in his hands, while Sienna stared at him, appalled that she’d be forced to take control of a situation that was his to handle.
“Goddammit, Zane, pull it together,” she muttered, fury swelling inside her chest. She took a deep breath, taking on a soothing tone. “All right, here’s the truth. Claudia and your father had a baby. But we arekeeping it a secret, for the good of the family, and for the baby’s sake too. The world will be cruel to him if they know, and we don’t want that. He’s innocent in all of this, just like you.”
“What you’re doing is blackmail,” Ivy said with all the authority of someone who’s not quite eighteen.
“It’s not blackmail,” Sienna snapped.
“What’s blackmail?” Poppy asked.
“It’s when you force someone to do something they don’twant to do by threatening them with something terrible,” Ivy told her.
Poppy gasped. “You threatened Claudia?”
“Nobody threatened anybody,” Sienna snapped. “We simply found a solution to a terrible problem. Claudia doesn’t have any money, and now she has a baby to take care of. Mike didn’t have any family left, so nowhisshare of the money from the band can go to the baby.”
“So, like a bribe?” Parker asked, looking very confused.
“It’s not a bribe,” Sienna answered. “It’s a gift to her—one she happily accepted. And it’s our only chance to save the band and our family. Because if people find out what your father did, they won’t buy their records anymore, and we’ll lose all our money.”
Poppy and Parker both wore matching shocked expressions, their eyes wide, while Ivy turned to Zane for confirmation.
Zane suddenly snapped back into the conversation. “That isnottrue.”
Sienna narrowed her eyes at him. “Isn’t it?”
“Don’t listen to that, kids. No one’s going to take our money from us. We’ll always be rich.”
“But the world willstop loving you, and you know it,” Sienna said, her tone icy.
