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I just kissed him. How was I going to go off and marry him?
“I shouldn’t have opened these,” I muttered to myself, tossing the bills onto the table and going upstairs.
Augusta’s rant came to mind. She was right. With everything we had to manage and take care of, just getting a job wouldn’t cover it. Singing and songwriting gave me more money than most average jobs did, and I still couldn’t take care of it all.
“What an empire you built,” I said gently, looking at the picture frame beside my bed. Kicking off my shoes, I pulled my curls into a French braid and tied up my hair in a silk scarf. And after that, I was too tired to change. I just lay on my bed.
“Dad. I kissed a prince today. It’s all part of Mom’s master plan. Can you believe it?” I spoke out, wishing he was still here to laugh with me, yell at me, advise me. “Should I do it, Dad? Should I just marry him? He swore to me... he said, ‘I, Prince Galahad Fitzhugh Cornelius Edgar of the House of Monterey, will not hurt you, Odette.’ Can I trust him?”
Like always, I couldn’t hear his voice, and I got no answers. Instead, my eyes started to drift shut.
AGE FOUR
“Baby, hear me out! It was a mistake!”
“I don’t care! Get out!”
Smash.
I jumped, seeing the glass fly into the hall.
“For years, they called me a homewrecker! The press was in my goddamn face every time I stepped outside, and you do this? How the hell could you do this to me?”
“It was a mistake!”
“How do you make this mistake, Marvin? How? Did you just fall into bed with her?”
“Baby, breathe.”
“I am not your baby! I am not your anything, you son of a bitch!”
Smash.
I gripped on tighter.
“You are going to wake up Odette!”
“Let her wake up! Let her see what kind of useless—”
Smash
“Piece of shit you are.”
Smash
“Let her know her father destroyed our lives because he couldn’t keep it in his pants!”
“Wilhelmina, I can’t talk to you like this!”
“I don’t want to talk to you! I don’t want to see you! I don’t want to hear you lie to my face again! Get out!”
“I’m not going to leave you like this with Odette.”
“Oh, don’t pretend you care about us now! Go to your new family or your old family. I don’t care anymore!”
“That is not fair! You—”
“Not fair? Not fucking fair? That is my line! You are not fair! You ruined us! You ruined everything! Get out! I swear I will call the police if you don’t get out!”
