I tried three more times, on the fourth Rosie stood up reaching out, trying to take the phone from me. ‘Stop, she’s not answering.’
The words left Rosie’s mouth as Charlotte's shrill voice screeched over the line.
‘What is it?’
Speaker.Rosie mouthed.
I obliged, taking a deep breath. ‘Fallon you’ve called me an absurd number of times. I’m too busy to deal with you right now.’
Rosie’s cheeks went pink with rage. Her mouth opened, no doubt to retort with something extremely unsavoury but I held up my hand to stop her.
‘Did you send yourself an email from my account when you were here?’ An outright accusation wouldn’t be the most productive way to go about things, she was more likely to hang up than answer, but I needed the truth.
The silence on the other end of the line was deafening.
After what felt like forever, Charlotte replied. ‘Whatareyou talking about Fallon?’ Contempt seeping out of every word she spoke.
I ground my molars together. ‘Did you send an email from my account or not?’
A heavy sigh. ’I’m not sure what’s going on with you right now, but I don’t have time for your asinine questions. I have a wine supplier giving me a headache with invoicing andseveral waiters who refuse to show up on time. I’m busy. And calling more than once is incredibly rude. If someone doesn’t pick up the phone, take the hint.’
With that last barb thrown at me, she hung up. The phone fell like a dead weight by my side. My eyes connected with Rosie’s.
‘Son of a bitch.’ I breathed. Hardly able to believe the words coming out of my mouth. ‘She fucking did it.’
Like a pot that had been left on the stove too long, Rosie’s rage boiled over. ‘That sanctimonious, dimwitted, two-faced, cow!’
My whole body was numb. Walking back to the living room, I fell with a flop onto the sofa as Rosie continued to call my sister every name under the sun. ‘Whilst I appreciate the colourful names, it’s not helping right now.’
‘It’s helping me,’ she snapped, huffing out a sharp breath, placing her hands on her hips.
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my thighs and cradling my head in my hands. ‘It was my own stupid fault. I let her in. I left her alone in my flat.’God, Oliver.Thinking about him made me want to vomit. He was right. It had been my fault that the article was being published; just not in the way he thought.
Rosie got down on her knees in front of me and took my hands in hers. ‘Uh-uh, no. You are not doing that. The only person who takes any of the blame right now is your snollygoster sister.’
I blinked, struggling to keep up. ‘I’m sorry, what the hell is a snollygoster? That’s not even a word.’
‘It is, and it describes Charlotte to a tee. My point is thatyoudid nothing wrong.’
I huffed. ‘For once.’
‘Stop,’she growled. ‘This self-flagellation you put yourself through every time something goes wrong isn’t healthy. It’stheir fault for making you feel like you have to do something to prove you’re worthy.’
‘They’re my family.’ I muttered lamely. It was a pitiful excuse. But it was one that had been drilled into me from a young age. The rhetoric that tells you it doesn’t matter what someone you’re related to does, how heinously they act, because at the end of the day, they’refamily. As if that fact is supposed to excuse a multitude of sins.
‘The people who share your blood aren’t your family. They’re who you’re related to. Your family is the people who love and support you unconditionally; who accept you for who you are, not who they want you to be. That’s me. I’m your family. And you’re mine. Your siblings and even your parents don’t deserve a single moment of your time. You’re kind and selfless and loyal, and all they do is make you feel “less than”. They treat you like you need to do something to earn their love and respect. It’s fucked up… they should love you because you’re one of the funniest people I know, most of the time without even trying. Because you really don’t know where any of the countries are in the world. Because you have a pretty intense Red Bull addiction and that when you’re happy you blast Taylor Swift and dance around in your underwear.’
I let out a watery laugh. Rosie smiled, eyes glistening with unshed tears.
‘When someone shows you who they really are; believe them.’
‘Who said that?’
‘Someone a hell of a lot smarter than me.’ She smiled softly for a moment before her tone turned serious once more. ‘Stop letting them dictate your happiness. They don’t deserve to have any power over you.’
I took several deep breaths. Letting her words cleanse me from the inside out.
‘What are we gonna do about this though? Oliver hates me, that article’s gonna get published and I don’t think I’ve got a job anymore.’ All of that information threatened to undo the deep breathing from moments ago. ‘Wow, it would be so easy for me to panic right now.’
