Page 70 of Cashmere Ruin

That’s all the proof I need.

“You want another plaything.” Each word I’m saying sounds less real than the one before it. “You turned your daughters into monsters, and now, you can’t control them.”

“Careful,” he hisses. “Or else the offer’s off the table.”

“You know what you can do with your offer?” I spit. “With your dirty, stolen bribe?”

Then I do something I never thought I’d do.

I tear it up.

I tear up half a million dollars.

Dominic looks at me like I’ve finally gone mad. Mad like my mother, the mistake he could never forget. My existence alone made sure of that. “Have you lost your damn mind?”

“Actually, I think I’ve finally found it again.”

“Listen—”

“No, you listen,” I interrupt. “Youalllisten.”

They crawl out of the woodwork like worms: Kate, Diana, Anne… and behind them, Nora. Eavesdropping, all of them. Like I knew they would be.

Nora’s face twists. “April, quit this tantrum this instant. Your daughter?—”

“My daughter is not for sale.”

“Lower your voice!” Dominic snarls. “The neighbors will?—”

“I don’t care if they hear me all the way to Staten fucking Island.”

“Staten Island?” Nora blinks. “What’s that got to do…?”

“I never told him I was pregnant,” I explain icily. “I never told anyone he knew—except for one person. So tell me, Nora: how doyouthink he knew?”

Watching Nora’s perfect mask fall to pieces is the first good thing that’s happened since I stepped foot here. “You said you weren’t talking to her,” she splutters at Dominic, all grace lost. “You…!”

“Oh, believe me,” I snort. “If I know Eleanor, they’re doing a lot more than talking.”

“Dad?” Diana demands.

“Is this true?” Kate asks.

Only Anne stays silent. Even as all hell breaks loose on the respectable Flowers balcony, Anne doesn’t say a single word.

Until she does.

“It doesn’t change anything, you know.”

I blink. “What?”

“I said it doesn’t change anything,” she repeats. For once, her smile is gone. “You’re still a failure. You’ll fail as a mother, too.”

Silence falls around us. It’s like the world has gone still on my behalf: only me, my sister, and the frozen blood in my veins.

Failure.

“I bet it wouldn’t even take much to get custody,” she muses. “Any judge would see we’re the better option. So just take the money, hm, sweetheart?”