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I rolled my eyes. My relationship with Calvin had only soured after Gram died.
The first will I found had given him the house, which made no sense because she’d insisted she would leave it tome. I later found a handwritten one that matched what she’d told me and I changed the date. I kept the old one in memory of what I’d done, but Ineededsomewhere to live. In true Calvin fashion, he took me to probate court to settle the dispute.
Somehow, I’d won.
Calvin didn’t take it well when he didn’t get what he wanted. Everyone in the family suspected that I’d forged the will, and Calvin didn’t hesitate to remind me that I didn’t deserve the house. To be fair, according to the latest will and in the eyes of the law, I didn’t. But I’d spent my childhood here. I couldn’t bear to let it get sold off to a stranger and leave me homeless. And that was exactly what Calvin planned to do.
These days, the only communication between Calvin and me was either corporate emails sent to everyone or invitations to his increasingly glamorous parties.
I usually tried not to go. After everything went south, I’d hoped he wouldn’t invite me, but Calvin had a bad habit of inviting those he didn’t like in order to show off his successes, including his own twin. He knew I didn’t have a lot of money. But this was the only job I could get, considering my last name was on the company sign.
Hey. I can’t make it tonight. I have some plans with friends.
The response was immediate.
Then invite them too. Everyone should be there.
That was the last thing I’d do. I trusted Lily with my life, but I wanted her nowhere near Calvin. I still thought about Ava’s betrayal years later. I couldn’t do it again. It was hard for me to even befriend Lily, but I took the chance since Calvin and I never saw each other these days.
And after what her parents did to her, I wasn’t even sure she would like Calvin.
The more realistic ending would be that she would put him into one of her books and murder him. Hell, she’d even write another fantasy book just to do that. But after losing too many people to him, it wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.
I switched the text chain to Emma. We talked far more than Calvin and I did, and I was the only one she came to for advice.
Are you going to the BS party tonight?
Emma
I wasn’t told there was one.
Oh wait. There’s the invitation. Ummm, no. I’m not driving four hours to see Calvin get his proverbial dick sucked by everyone.
Is there no other way to describe that?
Happy birthday, by the way. I would be there, but I have to work to support myself.
Same. It’s the worst.
I went back to my computer and blinked in shock when I saw an invitation for a meeting starting in two minutes.
Since when was I included in such short-notice meetings? Maybe they were finally switching me onto a different team so I would have something to do. I would miss my reading time, but even I felt bad about being paid to do nothing—no matter how low it was.
I grabbed my phone and checked my appearance, eyes going wide when I saw how frizzy my curls had gotten. I shoved it into a ponytail and tried to tame the flyaways.
I joined the meeting one minute later.
Immediately, I wanted to leave.
My brother’s face was the first thing I saw, along with the Nashville skyline. Calvin had a fancy high-rise, and his meeting background was so perfect it looked fake, but I knew his office overlooked the city and was so well lit that it was picturesque.
When his eyes met mine, I paled. Why was he on this? He never talked to me directly during work hours.
“Amy,” the HR representative started. I scrambled to look for her name and found it at the bottom of the screen.
“Hi, Cora. What can I do for you?”
“This will be a short meeting. Unfortunately, I’m afraid there isn’t much you can do for us at this time. We’re letting you go.”