The conversation with Roman had all but felt like nothing more than a dream by the time I woke up. After a night of wine and rolling around in the sheets, I had managed to sleep in quite a bit and he was already gone for the day. When I rounded the corner to the kitchen in nothing more than a large t-shirt and slippers, I screamed at the sight of a strange burly man sitting at the kitchen island.

The conversation came back to me in a single tidal wave of memory. A hand went over my heart and I cleared my throat. "Sorry about that," I called to the man. "I forgot he said there would be people here."

"All good," the man called back over. "I’m Luther."

"Nice to meet you," I mumbled. "I’m going to go... get dressed."

I scurried away and back up the stairs. By the time I returned appropriately dressed in a blouse and shorts, my new companion was gone and there were voices coming from the front of the house. I followed them with curiosity, which might have been naive at that point, what with everything going on. My jaw dropped at the sight of my brothers on the security camera monitors the guards had set up in the den. They were talking through a speaker. "For the fifth time, we are Hannah’s brothers! Let us in! We are allowed to see our sister."

A mixture of nausea and anger swirled in me. Anger because they had let me down one too many times and I couldn’t believe they would show their faces around here, and nausea just because I didn’t even want to look at them, let alone deal with them. The two guards operating the cameras looked up to me.

"Are they telling the truth?" one asked.

"Yes, but I don’t know if I want them in," I muttered.

They were probably there because word had gotten out about our father’s arrest. Once people were arrested the charges were public, weren’t they? They knew I was telling the truth and wanted to grovel for forgiveness. I knew I shouldn’t have been so petty, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted them to taste the hopelessness and desperation that they had forced on me when they didn’t believe me.

"Let them in, but make sure they don’t go past the foyer," I said. I crossed my arms and positioned myself just a couple yards from the front door.

The guys moved over and opened the doo,r and then posted themselves by the entrance to the dining and kitchen area, with one by the stairs. Edward and Freddy stumbled their way inside and looked at me with rounded eyes. Pathetic.

"Hannah," Edward croaked.

"That’s my name," I snapped. "What do you want?"

Freddy was the first to step forward. The guard Luther cleared his throat in protest. "Sister, I... I don’t even have the words. How could I? I didn’t believe you when you were your most vulnerable. We’ll never forgive ourselves..."

I could tell there was more to the little speech he had prepared, but I couldn’t resist chiming in. "Good. You shouldn’t forgive yourselves. I know I won’t."

"Please, Hannah," Edward pleaded. "I know what we did was wrong, but can you blame us? We had never heard of such things, and even if we had, we would have never imagined Father doing something so heinous to his own child!"

"Yeah, because he would never do that to either of you," I snorted. "You are his golden children. You’ve always been blind to how he treats women."

Edward continued, "We aren’t anymore. I know it seems too late, but..."

"But what? It is too late! If you wanted to be brothers, you should have decided that then. Instead, you laughed at me and were downright cruel. You acted just like father. I’ll treat you as such too, then. Get out of my house."

"Please, Hannah. I have to make this right with you. I won’t be able to live with myself," Freddy urged. He paced forward and was almost near enough to reach me when the other guard stood between us.

"I think that’s close enough, pal," he warned my brother.

"You’ll have to figure it out," I called to my brother from around him. "Get out."

They didn’t have any more time to protest or plead as the bodyguards kicked them out. I thanked the men, asked for their names, and then went to sit on the couch. I rubbed my face as if I could get rid of that interaction by doing it. I hated them for not believing in me back then. I had never done anything to make them think I would make up such an insane story unless it was true. And yet, my thoughts went back to my own words I had said back then. They had been brainwashed by my father. Could I really hold a grudge with them forever when they weren’t thinking clearly? I wasn’t sure, but I knew I could hold one for the time being.

I went to the kitchen to find Geoffrey already having prepared a brunch for me and carrying it to the dining room. I thanked him and sat down with my breakfast of fruit and avocado toast. I picked up my phone and began texting Roman good morning when Lori appeared.

"Morning," I called to her.

"Morning," she replied with a yawn. She sat across from me and fixed herself a cup of coffee from the carafe Geoffrey had prepared. "How’s it going?"

"We have bodyguards now," I informed her. When Lori’s eyes gaped at me, I nodded in the direction of one passing by behind her. She glanced over at him before turning back to me. "So, I’m going to say, ’not well.’"

"What’s going on?" she asked, leaning forward.

I shrugged. "I don’t know. It happened before I got up this morning. Roman said he didn’t want to stress me out so early. I’m dying to know, but I think I needed the sleep."

I thought back to how terribly I had slept while our father had been in the house. Yeah, Roman had made the right call. I probably wouldn’t have been functional had I not stolen those last couple hours.

"That was sweet of him," Lori replied with a half smile. "Do you have any plans for the day?"

"Don’t think so. I’m guessing it’s best to stay close to home, since we’re having to be guarded," I said with a shrug.

"We travel," Luther replied as he passed by. "Just let one of us know."

My sister and I exchanged a look and a giggle. While we had grown up in privilege, things were so crazy because of the Auction house case that sometimes it felt surreal. Never had we needed security guards at our home, or bodyguards to go shopping with us.

"Maybe we should get out of the house for the day," Lori suggested. "I feel like you’ve been cooped up for too long."

"I’m fine, really," I told her.

At that moment, my phone buzzed. I looked down to see a random number and ignored the call on reflex. When I opened my mouth to say something more to Lori, my phone started buzzing again. It was the same number. Rolling my eyes, I picked it up and greeted, "Who is this?" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"I’m going to kill you, kill you, kill you," a woman’s voice sang, followed by laughter.

Instantly, I hung up the phone.

I knew better than to shrug it off. I knew I should have done something about it, but I didn’t want to deal with it. It had all been so weird and intense I just wanted a day to relax.

When Lori shot me a questioning look, I shrugged. "Wrong number."

It wasn’t, and I knew it wasn’t. However, so long as it was prank calls and didn’t escalate, I would cope with it for the day. At least until Roman got home and I figured out what it was that happened. I was in my house, with bodyguards. I was safe. Right?