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Sloane leans against my desk crossing her arms over her chest. A frown pulls her already long face down further. “Rumors that you were involved with… one of the employees.”
Ah. So, it’s nothing new. My chest aches with disappointment. I don’t know what I was hoping for, but it wasn’t a rehash of old news. My body feels deflated, so I drop down to sit in my chair.
“Ah,” is all I say to my sister.
Sloane’s face twitches slightly as she moves her lips up and then down to frowning again. “Is it true?” The tone in her voice is judgmental, not something I really want to deal with right now.
“So, what if it is?” I spit back. “Or was? What difference does it make? It’s over. That was weeks ago. Get with the present, sis.”
“It makes a difference because Mandy is my friend.” Sloane’s eyes burn a bit. Unfolding one of her hands, she slams her palm against my desk. The slap resonates in the usually quiet room. “Besides, I’m sick of the way you and Dad treat women! We are not disposable!”
“I am nothing like Dad!” Her words have me on my feet in a second, my fists clenched at my sides.
“You’re exactly like Dad!” Sloane shrieks in my face, clenching her own fists at her sides. “You act like you own everything and just take what you want…” Her voice keeps rising. “And if someone gets hurt, then well…who gives a damn!”
“I do not—”
“You cannot just take from people, Christian! People are not possessions!”
My sister is visibly panting from anger. I’ve never seen her like this. Usually, Sloane will bicker a bit. She’ll act condescending or nitpick, but yelling isn’t something she usually does. It’s a display of emotion — something she shuns. She’s too prim and proper. I’m stunned by her outburst.
In the back of my mind, I remember a fork slamming into mine and the look on Mandy’s grandmother’s face when she told me that I had enough and didn’t need to take more. Take…take…take. Was I acting like my father?!
All of my breath leaves me. My legs feel weak, causing me to step away from her and sit down hard into my chair.
Sloane inches a step back, taking in all my movements. “You didn’t realize?!” she says harshly then repeats in a gentler tone, “You didn’t realize?”
I drop my arms onto my desk and then lean my head on them. “Yes. No. I mean, subconsciously I was starting to realize it, but you put it so plainly.” I looked up at her, feeling like a drowning man. Worry crosses Sloane’s face. I don’t usually show her anything but arrogance. Emotions between us are new.
“He takes everything from me,” once I start speaking, I can’t stop, “He takes over my home, by making me house his mistresses. He’s seduced every one of my girlfriends since I was sixteen. I stopped getting romantically involved with women. I didn’t want to feel that pain again. He’s even tied my personal bank account to his. I keep getting new ones, but he finds them, and on the next statement I’ll see his name. I’m about ready to start keeping money under my mattress!”
My sister’s face is pale. Her eyes are wide with horror. “What the fuck?! Dad keeps his mistresses at your house?!”
I grunt out a choked laugh. “You had no idea?”
She sits down on the desk next to me, silent and thinking for a moment. “I’ve never checked my bank accounts for his name. Do you think I should?”
I nod my head. “It’s there, I checked.” Her face goes positively white and it makes me laugh. “You didn’t know how trapped we are, did you?”
She shakes her head. “I mean, he’s always been pushy about who I date. He’s said that I have to get his approval to get married. I figured he was joking.”
“He’s not.” I look up at her, suddenly curious and hopeful. “Are you dating that Jered guy?”
Sloane doesn’t look at me, but she shakes her head again. “No, that day we all went out to lunch, Mandy warned me that he was a gold-digger and was probably after my money…or rather, Dad’s money. She said she used to date him, but he dumped her because she wasn’t rich enough.”
Her words are like a punch to the chest. They make me angry, at Jered and myself. I never asked Mandy to explain. I just assumed that she was still in love with him.
I rub my face with one of my hands and groan. “I fucked up big time.”
Sloane looks at me, taking a second to catch on to my change in subject. “Yes, you did. You don’t even know how much.”
When she doesn’t elaborate, I ask the next question that comes to mind. “How did you find out about us?”
