It had been one of those long, bone-tiring days where the city felt like a machine chewing me up and spitting me out on the other side. My laptop was still open on the kitchen counter, an unfinished email glaring at me accusingly. I was standing by the window with the phone pressed to my ear, watching the jagged outline of skyscrapers carve into a sky painted in streaks of orange and pink.
And in the middle of that quiet, the voice I least wanted to hear said, with almost gleeful venom,
“You’re banned from the family beach house forever.”
Victoria’s words snapped through the speaker like a whip, sharp and crackling, as if even the cell service couldn’t quite stand her.
My grip tightened around my phone. “What?”
“I’ve changed all the locks,” she continued, savoring each word. I pictured her perfectly manicured nails tapping against a marble countertop as she spoke. “Don’t even think about trying to get in. This is what you deserve for ruining Lily’s graduation party.”
I stared at my own reflection in the glass—dark hair pulled into a sloppy bun, an oversized sweater hanging off one shoulder, eyes ringed with the faint shadows of too many late nights and too little sleep. Somewhere far below, a car horn blared. Above, a plane traced a line through the sky.
“The party,” I said slowly, because I genuinely wanted to see how far she’d go with this, “you specifically didn’t invite me to?”
She scoffed. “Oh, please.”
