Page 46 of Sins & Secrets

“I got it overturned. We’ve got everything approved, Mason.” I can hear the glee in Liam’s voice. Pride even. He claps on the other end of the phone, a rough laugh filling the room as it spins around me. “We just need that last check from your father.”

Setting both of my elbows on the table to steady myself, I tell him, “We don’t need shit from him.”

It takes a moment for Liam to respond, “What?” He took so long I almost forgot he was on the phone.

“Are you drunk?” Liam asks, his annoyance only thinly veiled.

“No.” I’m quick to deny it, but I know I am.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” he asks. “What’s going on between the two of you?”

I shake my head, not wanting to answer. “We aren’t taking shit from my father.” It’s all I can say.

“We are. We need those funds by Monday.” Liam’s voice is hard but also panicked.

“We’ll find someone else.” My eyes narrow as I steady my breathing and steel my resolve. I refuse to owe a man like him. I refuse to play by his rules.

“By Monday?” he says, raising his voice and the disbelief rings through. “Mason, we can’t. We’ll lose the deal. It’s not like no one else was waiting for this property. It took almost a year to get it.”

Liam’s voice drones on as he lists off every reason why this plan is fucked. How we’ll be ruined. How everything will fall around us.

I already knew it, though.

I stand, leaving the glass where it is and the bottle of whisky open, taking the phone and leaving the dining room.

“I don’t give a fuck.” I take a deep breath, listening to the silence on the other end of the phone. “I’m not taking another cent from him.”

I have to face reality. Even if it fucking kills me.

JULIA

Nothing is suffocating.

It cuts off the air.

Nothing is drowning,

But nothing is fair.

Nothing to hold and nothing to thrill.

When left with nothing, nothing can kill.

The air is crisp on the iron balcony. The thick canopy of oak trees just barely blocks the sounds of the city traffic. I’ve always loved the colors of autumn and the way the dark green leaves thin out and shift to gorgeous reds and burnt oranges.

They’ll fall and wither away to nothing. Yet every spring they come back, good as new.

I’ve always loved their majestic natural beauty in the middle of this concrete jungle. Not today, though.

It’s not fair that they come back untarnished. It’s not right that life continues after death … only for those deserving.

Bundled in my favorite cashmere throw and sipping tea, I let out a deep breath, calming myself. I twist the cap to my flask and pour a bit of tincture into my tea. A small, faint chuckle leaves me as the liquid mixes with the now lukewarm tea.Tincture.Really, it’s just vodka.

It used to be a tincture. It used to be just enough to take the pain away.

But sips turned to bottles as I preferred to feel numb.

Today is one of those days.

---