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“Dad will be furious if you do that,” Sienna says. “He won’t like it.”
Greta makes a face at her. “Then don’t tell him.”
“I will tell him,” Sienna snaps back.
“Then Eva won’t do your makeup,” Greta snaps in return.
I place the makeup kit on a table, holding my hands up. “Whoa, don’t bring me into this.” I cross my arms. “But you know, Greta, it probably is dangerous to go riding in this rain.”
Greta slumps a little. “Yeah, I know.”
Sienna shoots Greta a smug expression.
“But I’m not going just because you said you’d tell dad,” Greta says to Sienna. “It was all Eva. She’s the one who talked some sense into me.”
“Damn straight,” I say, sitting down next to Sienna, who pouts. She’s the only person in the world I’ve seen actually do that.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Greta says, waving a hand towards Sienna’s face.
I laugh and pick up the makeup kit, placing it in my lap. “Here, Sienna, let me do your makeup.”
That perks her up in an instant. “Ok, I want pink eyeshadow and pink blush and the reddest lipstick you have.”
Greta shakes her head as she leaves the room. I look back at Sienna. “Whatever you want.”
But just as I reach into the kit to grab the eyeshadow, our father arrives, striding into the library.
“Greta,” he says. “Come back in here.”
Sienna jumps up and runs to hug our father. With a lean build and dark brown hair that he always slicks back with grease, my father looks younger than he is. He’s nearing sixty but doesn’t look a day over forty-five.
Father pats Sienna on the back and leads her back to her seat as Greta trudges back into the room.
“You know I don’t like the shuffling,” he says. “Walk with proper form.”
Greta rolls her eyes behind Father’s back, but she stands up straighter as she comes to sit beside me. Imelda enters the room as well. She looks at her feet as she finds a seat.
“What’s going on?” Greta demands.
Father sighs, sitting down across from us. He stretches out his long legs and places his hands on the back of the couch like he has no care in the world. He’s always one for taking up a lot of space. It’s his way of showing dominance.
“I have some news I need to share with you girls.”
We remain silent, waiting for him to continue.
“So, you need to understand. I’ve recently fallen into some … money troubles.”
“Money troubles?” Greta asks. “What does that mean?”
Father scratches the back of his neck. “It means that I made some deals with people I shouldn’t have, and now, our family is in debt. And I need a way to pay it back.”
This is big news. Father never shares about business, so the fact that he’s telling us about it now means that something big happened.
“How much do you need to pay back?” I ask, fiddling with an eyebrow brush.
Father waves a hand. “The price doesn’t concern you. All you need to know is that I have to pay it back.”
“Will something bad happen if you don’t?” Imelda asks, her voice quiet but steady.
