“I sure as hell hope so.” Jenny shrugged and walked towards the door.

Our mother was already at my house. Jenny and I decided to handle the last of the moving on our own since it mainly consisted of going through the memories that would hurt our mother the most. There had been no word from our father—he became a ghost the moment he told our mother that their faux-marriage was over. I wondered if he had someone watching the house until we were gone so that he could avoid confrontation. It wasn’t like him to miss a chance to rub someone’s face in his evil deeds—but maybe even the devil understood that his level of cruelty had been taken to a whole new level.

“Do you want to stop and get some lunch before we go back to my place?” I opened Jenny’s door and motioned for her to get in.

“We could.” Jenny nodded as she sat down. “Maybe something from Cafe Russe. Mom does like their roast beef and provolone sandwich—she might actually eat that.”

“Hopefully.” I closed her door and walked around to my side of the car.

I truly had no idea how long it was going to take our mother to get over the heartbreak that had left her shattered. It took me a while to even face the daylight after I lost Caroline. Our situations were different, but her heart was still broken, and she had to learn to live with the sundered pieces in her chest. There was no way to make that easy. Jenny and I would have to provide her with support, even if we thought having our father out of her life was the best thing that could ever happen to her. We would be supportive, even when she mourned the loss of something that had seemed dead to us for a very long time.

“You’re about to miss the turn.” Jenny motioned to the road that I was about to pass.

“Damn it…” I shook my head and did an abrupt left turn. “Sorry.”

The situation with our mother wasn’t the only thing that was distracting me. I was also thinking about Leigh and the night we spent together. It wasn’t the best time to start a new relationship, especially when my family needed me more than ever, but it was impossible to get Leigh out of my head. Our next date was the only real positive thing on the horizon.

Jenny and I picked up lunch from the Cafe Russe. I sent a text message to Leigh to check in. She was supposed to be at work, so I didn’t expect to get a response immediately, but I wanted her to know that I was looking forward to our next date. We still hadn’t picked a time or place, but I had another thing to work out before we did. If the date led to more than just a kiss, I cou

ldn’t bring her back to my place since my family was staying there. The Pembroke wasn’t appropriate due to the memories that haunted it—and the fact that Leigh worked the front desk. That didn’t leave us with many options. I certainly wasn’t going to take someone I cared about to a dump like the Carson City Inn.

Maybe I should try to find a villa that I can rent for the entire summer—even if it doesn’t come with a private beach.

“I’ll see if mom will eat lunch with us in the dining room.” Jenny grabbed the order from Cafe Russe as soon as I pulled my car into the garage.

“It’s okay if she doesn’t.” I shrugged. “I just want her to eat something.”

Jenny did manage to coax our mother into leaving her room. I ate fairly quickly so that I could start unloading stuff from the car. It wasn’t like our mother was going to engage in conversation with either of us. She ate a few bites, which I considered to be a small victory. She was cycling through emotions, and they were all painful at the moment. Jenny joined me in the garage and helped me unload once she finished eating. It didn’t take us long to get everything in the house, and by the time we did, our mother had gone back to her room. I wasn’t in the mood to unpack, so we left everything in the foyer once we were done.

“Now that we’ve got everything moved out of Sinn Manor, I think it’s time for me to have a talk with our father.” I poured a drink and sat down in the living room.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Jenny shook her head nervously.

“Why? He stole your trust fund—he abandoned our mother. I’m sure he knows what kind of scumbag he is, but I still want to say it to his face.” I gritted my teeth angrily.

“There is a lot I want to say to him too, but I don’t want to piss him off.” Jenny looked down at the floor. “He said I wasn’t allowed to leave and while I’m sure you really could keep things tied up in court until I turn eighteen, I don’t want to risk it. With any luck, he’ll be so distracted by his new wife that he won’t even notice I’m gone…”

“So we just let him get away with all of this shit?” I scoffed. “I don’t think so.”

“It’s not like he’s going to have a change of heart because you call him out on it.” Jenny shrugged. “That’s never worked—we’ve both tried it over the years. I’d rather lose my trust fund than spend the next year of my life worried that I might have to spend what’s left of it with him.”

“Maybe you’re right…” I exhaled sharply.

Jenny did have a point. Our father never listened to reason—he seemed to enjoy making other people miserable. A legal battle would be messy, and our mother wasn’t in any condition to convince a judge that she could take care of Jenny better than our father. She wasn’t much of a fighter, to begin with, and I didn’t want to put her through that unless it was absolutely necessary. My old man had Jenny’s trust fund—there was no reason for him to demand that she live at Sinn Manor until she turned eighteen. A clean break might be better for everyone involved. I could take care of my family. I didn’t need a damn thing from Edgar Sinn, and I could see to it that they didn’t either—even if they deserved to have what was rightfully theirs.

I was stewing in my own anger when my phone lit up, and I saw a message from Leigh—it brought a smile to my face—until I saw what it said.

Leigh: We need to talk.

Damien: Is something wrong?

Leigh: Can I come by your place?

Damien: Aren’t you at work right now?

Leigh: No, I didn’t go to work today. Please, it’s important.

I stared at my phone for a moment as I tried to make sense of Leigh’s message. If she needed to talk and it was important, I wasn’t sure that my house was the right place for that conversation. Jenny would give me some privacy if I asked for it, but I couldn’t ask my mother to do that if she left her room. It was obviously a big deal if Leigh didn’t even go to work, but I had no idea what could be bothering her. We had an amazing night together, and we had talked since then—there was no indication that she regretted what we did. As much as I hated it, there was one place that I knew was empty.

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