Page 60 of Brandy Snap: Part Two

I didn’t want to bow my head or ask for help anymore. I wished I didn’t have to admit again how weak I was. I was meant to support my family, but I couldn’t even do that anymore.

“Rosa, let me come and stay, please? I’ve done so much for you over the years. Can’t you help me just once?”

“Not if you’re not even going to appreciate it. What can you give me? You don’t have a job and Tommy goes to his friends for babysitting now, so I don’t need you at all.”

“It’s not about need. I’m your sister.” I knew I should have hung up the phone and given up on her, but I couldn’t stop.

“That’s never mattered to you before,” she bit back.

I choked out loud at her words. I wouldn’t in a million years call myself the best sister ever, but I at least treated Rosa as a person instead of a means to an end. No matter how she brokemy heart, she was still my family, but it looked like she’d never felt the same.

I sighed heavily, pushing my clenched fist against my forehead as if I could force out the thoughts of how I could harass her to make her say yes. I’d changed too much since Zania invaded my nest, and I hated it.

I’d gone from comforting Kai and feeling like the most important person in his world, straight back into being sad and desperate with no way out.

“And if I transfer the Greensprings account over?” I asked, my resignation setting in.

She paused at the end of the line. I hated how she had to think about it.

“No. No, I’m sorry, Mel. It’s just too much. We can’t afford to have another person staying with us.”

“What if I pay rent?” It was getting more humiliating by the second.

“You can’t even ask the Risler pack for money. There’s no way you can afford to pay me.”

Disappointment sent my heart plummeting. I should have known better than to have expectations.

If I told her how much money I had left from Zania, she would instantly change her tune. But how much would she demand from me? Would she be like how I imagined my landlord and try to get something from me whenever I saw her?

I couldn’t trust her with money or this.

I just wished she’d extend a hand to me, to lend me support for once.

“Okay, Rosa, sure,” I replied numbly. “Thanks for nothing.”

“Come on. Don’t be so grumpy. You know you’re always welcome to come by for tea! Oh, except tomorrow because I have baby yoga. Oh, and Fridays are for Carl’s crystal healing. And then Saturday we’ve got—”

I didn’t need to hear any more. I ended the call, my arm dropping to my side in glum defeat.

I had two blankets in my bed and one wrapped around my shoulders that told me where to go.

But I called them every time something bad happened, even though it was meant to be a short-term deal.

Lucielle told me a guest was responsible for how I’d met them. Apparently, they paid to have me sent to that room, and they asked her to send me. Specifically.

But the only reason I could think of someone planning that would be to use me to do something to the Risler pack. Zania kept going on about bloodlines and keeping everything pure. If the aim was to make sure Caspian had children, there was no way she would use me. Not only because I couldn’t have children.

Because, to them, I hadn’t just been a maid. They all thought I was a host, including her. I was the very last kind of omega Zania would want in her son’s pack.

No matter how I thought about it, there was no logical reason to blame Zania. So why else would I be sent to their heat suite? How did they know I was a latent omega when I’d lived as a beta my whole life? How did they even know we were scent matches? I still couldn’t discover answers from my position.

So, was it fair of me to lean on Sin, Kai, and Caspian even more when we all might have been manipulated from the start?

I kept telling myself I couldn’t do that to them, but if Kai was the one who agreed, would it be okay?

I groaned at the disappointment swimming around me, both because of my sister and myself.

I was going to have to risk it.