2

“Anne, can you please go and arrange Jinny’s room upstairs?” Julie said

The maid stood there, looking at her in confusion.

“Excuse me? Are you waiting for something?”

“Ma, am, Jinny doesn’t have a room upstairs.”

“What?”

“Last year, when you and Sir punished Miss Jinny, you moved her to the room down here.”

“What?”

“And when Miss Jemma said she needed more closet space, you told us to convert all the rooms upstairs to her closet.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about her room?”

“I tried to, Ma,am but you said you’d fire me if I ever mentioned anything about her room again.”

"But I remember ending that punishment long ago," she said, voice trembling.

“You said room downstairs?” Jack asked

“Yes, sir.”

“But there’s no room downstairs.”

The maid winced, “Th-the storage room, sir.”

Julie’s head snapped up immediately to look at the maid. “What? No, I-I moved her to a room down here.”

“There are no rooms down here, Ma,am that what I was trying to tell you back then, but-”

"I slapped you. You tried to help her, and I hit you." Tears spilled down her face. "Can you show me where she sleeps?"

She nodded, “Right this way, Ma'am.” She led them to the other part of the house, where the storage room had been located. As they entered, the dust alone made their eyes watery and cough, but when they finally got in, Julie felt like breaking down. The water pipes had burst, so water was dripping from the ceiling. The bed looked old and rickety, the light bulb was half dead, the paint was peeling from the walls, and there were insects everywhere.

“How come she’s been living like this and didn’t bother saying anything?” Justin asked

“Because we did this to her. God, who wouldn’t want to end their life, witha family like us.” She sniffed

“It was a mistake that we forgot, and we were just punishing her.”

“It was not a mistake, Justin,” Julie snapped, “And the punishment went too far. She’s our daughter; this is not how she’s meant to be living. She was suffering in silence and came to us for help, and we didn’t even bother ourselves to check up on her.”

“You have to remember why we did this, because of what she did.”

“And so fucking what, Justin? We did so much worse when we were younger, and we punished her because she got caught?” He opened his mouth and closed it; he had nothing to say because it was the truth. They did do so much worse when they were younger, so what was his Justification for punishing her? Julie was bawling her eyes out, the tears flowing as something broke in her.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok, it’s ok.” As Justin held her, trying to console her, “We’re gonna make it up to her’

“How? How?”

“Well, first off, we need to get her her old room back. Ok?”

She nodded.

They headed upstairs and checked out the rooms, the saw clothes, bags, shoes, and other clothing accessories everywhere.

“Are these all yours, sweetheart?” She asked Jemma

“Yeah mum, but they're mostly my old stuff.”

“Ok,” she nodded, “We’d need to donate some to clear out this room, ok?”

“No problem,” Jemma nodded.

“She’d need somewhere to sleep. Do you mind if she stays with you, sweetheart? I’m sure by tomorrow, the room will be ready,” Justin added.

She smiled, “It’s fine, she can stay with me as long as needed.”

“You’re a darling,” he quipped.

The food spread out across the table almost as if it were endless. I was mesmerized. This alone could feed about 50-100 people. Aside from that, the food was scrumptious. Everybody was so quiet that I could hear their forks clinking, and I felt eyes on me, but whenever I looked up, they averted their gazes so quickly that even I couldn’t catch them.

“The food was really good, thank you.”

“I’m glad you liked it,” my dad said. There was a palpable tension here I could feel, as if they were afraid that if they played the wrong key, all hell would break loose.

“You should go freshen up and get some rest, today’s been so hectic, and I’m sure you must be tired,” My mum added.

“Sure, ummm, where do I...”

“Anne, pls Take her.”

“Yes, Madam.”

“Anne, don’t worry about it, I’ll take her Mum.” Jemma walked over to me.

“Are you sure, dear? I mean Anne-”

“It’s fine, I’m more than happy to take her,” She smiled.

“ok honey.”

She turned to face me. “Let’s go,” she smiled.

Once they were out of earshot, Their Father started, “Listen to me, this is a golden opportunity for us, it’s a blessing in disguise. We have a literal clean slate to make this all right. Both Jinny and Jemma are your sisters; they’re our daughters, and we love them both equally, so we need to show her that she doesn’t need anything that’ll trigger her, so make sure not say anything to Jemma about last year, and I’ll mention this to Jemma too. Okay?”

They nodded in unison.

“Wow, your room is beautiful,” I said, and it was not a lie; it looked straight out of a fairy tale, but it was so pink.

“Thank you,” she smiled. I was actually getting to like it as it was so warm and genuine, did I mention it was pretty? Practically everything about her was pretty, beautiful, and sexy to the point that it made me look like a butter scotch. She could’ve really been in the running for Miss USA.

“Mum designed it. And I’m sure she’s gonna make your room just as pretty as mine,” she smiled again. Ok, I could really turn gay for her, if she weren’t my sister. “The bathroom’s right through there,” she pointed at awhite double door.

“Thanks. Ummm...if you wouldn’t mind, can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot”

“I’m sorry if this is innapropriate”

“It’s ok.”

“Alright, I heard that you were ummm...adopted, how? I mean...”

“It’s ok,ummm...it’s kind of a long story so-”

“It’s fine, I wouldn’t mind bonding with my sister.”

“Again, that you forgot about.” We both laughed. “So, when I was youngerMy father was a drug addict and abusive, so my mum left, and my father slumped one day and just died, so child services came for me and put me in foster home after foster home, but most of ‘em, were the same abusers, drug addicts or they hated me or the idea of having children at all, they just wanted the money” she paused

“You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to.”

“Oh, it’s ok,” she smiled, “so anyway, finally, rather, they just dumped me in an orphanage home, I was there until I turned ten, and then one day your mum, I mean mum, was hosting a charity event to raise funds for the orphange and she saw me, I don’t, I guess something just clicked and she took me in as her own family as did you all”

“I’m so sorry to hear about all the stuff you went through.”

“Oh, it’s all right. I think it worked out for the best, don’t you?”

“Yeah, plus it’s good that I have someone to talk to, not three big, burly bodyguards 24/7.” We laughed, “but honestly, I’m glad that you’re my sister.”

“Same here”

“Alright, so I’m gonna go freshen up, then I think I’ll turn in for the night.”

She nodded.