Sneaking a peek into Julianne’s bedroom, I couldn’t help but smile at the intense concentration masking her expression. Lifting my hand to knock on the door frame, my knuckles vibrated slightly, and the hairs on my arm stood up. In the fraction of a second it took for the sound to reach her, my chest tightened, and a lump lodged in my throat.

“Come in…” Without looking up from her laptop, Julianne spoke up, and I crossed the threshold and halfway to her bed before she glanced at me. “You didn’t come home last night, Roark.”

There was no accusation in Julianne’s tone, but guilt still filled my lungs as I sat on the edge of her bed.

“I know. The funeral took a lot more from me than I expected. Have you talked to Dad yet?” My self-disgust was potent to the point of physical pain, and my little sister shook her head sullenly. I’d been so busy with Luca’s wake, what if evoked in me, that I didn’t remember my parents were coming back last night. “I’m sorry, JJ. I just… I don’t even have an excuse.”

“I’m not mad at you…” Julianne’s brows bunched in confusion that flickered across her face, and I grimaced at how pure she was. “You were with Ms. Mazkov, right? She’s your girlfriend, right?”

Alarm spread through me, and I blinked hard as Julianne’s questions rang loudly in my ears. For a long moment, I was totally dumbstruck, but her searching gaze didn’t drop. The silence, absent of her typing, was deafening when the ringing died, and I cleared my throat harshly before daring to open my mouth.

“What gave you the idea that we were in a relationship?” My return question only earned me an eye roll, and Julianne looked at me like I was a complete moron.

“I’m not stupid, Roark- you blushed when you saw her at school. Also, you and Sam don’t try to be quiet when you talk about her. So? Are you dating?” Damn. This is bad. Keeping my mouth shut at Julianne’s probing, I rolled answers around in my mind.

I could say ‘no’, because in all actuality, Ally and I weren’t dating.

I could say ‘yes’, but I didn’t want my little sister to inject her attention into the situation.

Then, there’s the trusty ‘it’s complicated’… which is also fairly accurate.

“Well… it’s not as simple as ‘are we dating’, JJ. I would appreciate it if you didn’t ask Ally- Ms. Mazkov- about it, either.” Julianne blushed profusely at my slight warning, but I knew she would never put herself out there like that. Leaning to ruffle her hair, I grinned even as I opened my mouth. “Why are you asking about it?”

“… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in such a good mood. Carla- Carla hated me, and everyone knows I was a mistake and that’s why Mom and Dad don’t like me much, either. I thought… maybe if you were dating Ms. Mazkov…” My brows shot up as Julianne trailed off in embarrassed insecurity, and every muscle I owned became rigid. The implications of what she wasn’t saying hit me hard, and I leaned back to stare at her through wide eyes. Almost instantly, my little sister started to tear up, and I couldn’t even find it in me to twitch and displace the mix of surprise and anger.

Among other things.

“Julianne…” Clasping my hands tightly together, I took a deep breath and tried not to let my building rage show. I didn’t need to look away from my sister to know my knuckles were white, and I counted to three silently before opening my mouth. “You. Are. Not. A. Mistake. Do you hear me? I know- I know it hurts… but putting all of your faith in Ms. Mazkov isn’t fair to either of you. Especially when she only knows you as a student, and you only know her as a teacher.”

No matter how firm I tried to be, the despair that whirled in a maelstrom within the confines of my ribs managed to leak into my voice. Only a foot or two away, Julianne pursed her lisp together even as they trembled, and I released my breath harshly when she nodded with a duck of her head. Reaching to hold her fragile, thin hand, I frowned at the cold that clung to her clammy skin, but she still squeezed my fingers.

My little sister was going through something no child should, and I would never understand how she wasn’t insane with bitter jealousy towards me.

“Okay. Uh- a- anyway… Erh- what do you think of this banner for my company?” Shuffling into a different topic awkwardly, Julianne turned her laptop in her lap, and I tore my eyes off her red-stained face. Her banner was neat, simple- just like her. The bright orange script against the white background popped, and I narrowed my eyes on the picture of some flower I didn’t recognize before nodding.

“I like it. You designed it yourself?” Glancing at my sister, I smirked slightly when she shook her head hastily.

“N- no… you know I suck at artsy stuff. But Charlotte helped me, and I helped her set up her pillars of infrastructure. Just like you showed me how to do.” Arching a brow, I leaned back to whistle long and low, and Julianne turned a bright, tomato red. Pride rushed through my veins, pushing everything else to a central point so I could ball it up and store it for later.

“You know, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to corroborate your business strategies, JJ. Building something from scratch is difficult, and there are a lot of different ways to do it. I’m sure Al- Ms. Mazkov- wouldn’t mind it if you asked her.” Catching my blunder, I licked my lips and cleared my throat in the face of an impressionable, young girl whose money couldn’t buy her happiness. “I’m not gonna lie- I stole a lot of tricks from Dad, and I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of other people. You have a lot of power here, JJ- making all of the decisions is going to be hard, and sometimes it’ll seem crazy or impossible, but having other opinions is important even if you don’t take to them. Starting a business like the one you’re pretending to essentially means you’re going to be talking to a lot of people about what your research can offer, and what you want in return.”

“Do- do you think I can make interviews? And video record them on my laptop? I’m- I’ve already burned through the money Ms. Mazkov allotted for the groundwork just on the building alone.” Smiling at the excitement in Julianne’s voice, I nodded as her cheeks returned to their natural, pale color, and she returned the gestures with gusto. “Great! I’ll write a question sheet! Do you think we can get Sam to help, too? And I can give this idea to Charlotte?”

“You can certainly ask him, JJ- but I think you should keep this to yourself, right? Charlotte has to make her own decisions and come to her own conclusions. Maybe she doesn’t think of this, but she has an equally great idea. It’s not fair to make her pick between them because she’ll start to doubt herself, and for a growing business, that’s bad.” Liar. Truthfully, I just wanted Julianne to stop thinking about everyone else, so she could focus on herself. She was too busy trying to be the perfect, demure, rich girl so that someone would notice her in a positive way. It’d been something she struggled with even in California, and there was nothing I could do to change it.

My explanation must have made some degree of sense to Julianne, and I watched her go wide-eyed and nod vigorously. Standing up, I reached to pat her head once more before making my way out of her bedroom. Closing the door behind me, my hands balled into fists, and I sucked in a sharp breath before heading for my father’s office. The house was quiet- even Sam was off doing whatever he was doing, and my mother was nowhere to be found.

Pushing my way into my father’s office, I narrowed my eyes on him as he rocked himself lightly behind his desk with a paper in his hands. Before I could even open my mouth, he spoke up without looking away from what he was reading, and his bland, vacant tone made my skin crawl.

“Whatever you’re angry about, Roark, I’m not in the mood to talk about it.” My father’s declaration froze me, mind and body, and I stopped just short of his desk to stare at him. The rage that surged through me was white hot, and he glanced at me above the edge of the paper before turning his attention to me completely. “What is it?”

“If you keep ignoring Julianne, I think she’s going to end up hurting herself, Dad. She just asked me if I was dating her teacher because everyone else hates her, including you and Mom.” Grinding the words through my teeth, I tensed at the very notion of what I was saying. My nails dug into my palms, and my father frowned before me. That slight downturn of his lips was his only reaction before he turned back to his paper, and I braced my fists on the edge of his desk to lean in close in anticipation for his response.

“Are you dating her teacher? I was wondering when you were going to start seeing women again. After everything Carla put you through, you deserve a humble, homely girl, Roark.” My eyelid twitched as my anger reached a breaking point, and I pursed my lips together to avoid screaming. He’d ignored everything I said about Julianne, just like he always did. Father of the year, right there. Taking a slow, long, deep breath, I held it for a few seconds before exhaling through my nose.

“This isn’t about me, Dad- this is about Julianne. For Christ’s sake, do you think it’s okay that she doesn’t expect anything from you? Do you think that she’ll just go away if you don’t pay her any attention- if you ignore her enough? What kind of bullshit is this, Dad? Julianne is-“ Cut off by a raised palm, I nearly blew smoke out of my ears while I watched my father fold his paper and set it on the desk between us. Slowly he rose, imposing for a man in his 60s, and I clenched and released my jaw wildly in the heavy, growing silence. His eyes pierced mine violently, but I didn’t back down.

I couldn’t, for Julianne’s sake as much as my own.

“Julianne isn’t my daughter, Roark. I don’t want her to expect anything from me, and with any luck, she’ll disappear at some point and cease being a stain on my family. I gave her a place to live- I’m paying for her schooling. I’m even paying for whichever college she decides to go to and everything that comes along with it. I’m doing what I promised my wife, and nothing more.”