CHAPTER 4

He ignores her, continuing on, "I'm about to cut into my stake. I'll advise you to save yourselves the embarrassment before I take my first bite." He picks up his knife.

One of the girls lets out a huff. She rises to her feet, an angry pout on her face. Her friend follows her lead. Kane drags his gaze to Rune, who lifts his hands in mock surrender. He doesn't even look at the girls as he gives them directions to his room upstairs; they trail out of the dining area.

"Kane, that was awfully rude of you." His mother chides.

"It's nothing new, mother," Rune says. "He's always got a stick up his ass." "This is a family dinner," Kane states. "I see no reason why either of them

should have been brought to this table. And that includes you." His green eyes slide to mine.

"What?" I breathe.

From my peripheral, I notice the subtle frown settling onto Rune's features.

"I can't quite remember stuttering."

I swallow hard. "I don't understand what you mean."

"I said this is a family dinner; at what point in that sentence did you get

lost?"

"That's enough, Kane." Rune says.

"Leave the table." Kane ignores his brother.

My breaths come out in short pants. Is he insinuating that I'm not part of

our family? "I think-"

"I don't give a damn what you think." He interrupts me, "Your presence is gratifying. You're no better than a pest. And since the unfortunate truth is that I can't squash you, I'll settle for the next alternative. I'm telling you to make yourself scarce while my family shares a meal."

The way he highlights the word 'family' rips the composure right out of me.

I shove my chair backwards; this time, Rune doesn't try to stop me. "Fine." I say, rising to my feet, "Like I'd ever willingly choose to participate in your pretenses anyway." I stormed out of the room, a fresh batch of tears already pooling in my eyes. They hadn't been back for even twenty-four hours, but they'd already managed to make an entire mess of my emotions.

How dare he? How dare he speak to me like that and treat me like I'm not any better than the maids? This family is as much mine as anyone else's on that table.

I don't hear her come up behind me before she grabs my upper arm, jerking me to a stop.

"I've had about enough of you ruining this night." Emaine seethes in my face. She pulls me forward, practically dragging me along with her as her nails dig into my flesh painfully. "Since you've been entirely useless today, I have something I think would occupy the rest of your evening.

She pulls me into the kitchen, ripping a post-it note from the counter. The maids shoot us perplexed glances. She shoves the long paper at my chest.

I frown at the lengthy list of groceries.

"One of the workers will have all the doors locked till you return with every single item on that list." She tells me, "If you want to sleep on a bed tonight, I'd suggest you get shopping." She spins me around, shoving me on my back before I've had time to process anything. She tosses a wad of cash in my general direction, slamming the backdoor shut behind me. And then I'm left outside, wearing light clothing that does nothing to ward off the harsh evening weather.

The sun is setting already, and most of these stores will be closing down any minute now. Emaine would never pay any mind to that kind of excuse, though; she'd be more than happy to keep to her threat regardless, so I don't stall.

It's nightfall by the time I get to the last item on the list. Cherry tomatoes. My hands are full, and my fingers are aching as I clutch onto the paper bags, trying my best to grip them evenly so they don't rip. I pay the man at the cashier, he bags them up, and I make my way out of the store.

The bag snags on the metal handle the second I step past the door.

"Shit!" The items tumble out of the torn bag, rolling onto the dirty floor. Ugh, there are a bunch of papers littered on the concrete, most of them mixing in with the discarded groceries.

Frustrated, I snag them up haphazardly, shoving the spilled items into any of the bags they'll fit in, along with some of the papers too stubborn or sticky to shake off.

By the time I make it back to the house, my mood is even more sour than when I left. I use the backyard, wanting to wash off some of the grime from the vegetables before Emaine sends me back out to get fresh ones out of spite. I empty the contents of one of the bags, splaying it all out on the back porch. My eyes snag on a piece of paper blown to the side by the night air.

It's a job advertisement.

Instantly, my interest is piqued. I reach for it, reading the contents.

Looking for extravagant work as a service with a hidden identity? Contact us here...

My eyes rove over the words written on the flyer. The estimated payment makes my eyes budge out of their sockets. That's a hell of a lot of money for just waitressing.

The details of the flyer are very vague. The name of the place isn't even written on the flimsy piece of paper. But there's contact information and instructions on how to apply. Suspicion pulls the muscles of my stomach taut; everything looks too good to be true. But I'm more than willing to give it a shot; there's truly no harm in trying.

And if it is true, if I could actually make that much money in such a short amount of time, this could very much be my ticket out of this hell hole. Maybe I'll finally be able to leave once and for all.

Hope takes root inside me. I go over the details of the printout again, making sure I'm not missing anything, my eyes lingering on the last line.

Give it your best shot, if you dare.