Chapter 8 - CLARA PUT HER NAME BACK ON THE HOUSE
Clara hated the cease-and-desist letter.
It sounded cold.
Property descriptions.
Unauthorized commercial use.
Misrepresentation.
Future access prohibited.
Nothing in it captured the experience of standing in her own kitchen while strangers walked through her living room believing she worked there.
Melissa told her that was precisely why lawyers existed.
“The letter doesn’t need to feel what you feel.”
Clara signed it.
Sienna received it Tuesday morning.
At 9:08, she called Julian.
At 9:11, she called Clara.
At 9:19, she arrived at the gate.
Clara watched her through the security monitor.
“Open it.”
Julian looked at her.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
They met Sienna outside.
She did not enter the house.
Her face was blotchy from crying.
“You contacted my clients.”
Clara nodded.
“They contacted me first.”
“You’re destroying my company.”
“You sold access to my home.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
Sienna looked at Julian.
“After the launch.”
“After contracts were signed?” Clara asked.
“I needed proof the concept worked.”
Julian laughed without humor.
“Using my emergency account.”
“I was going to repay it.”
“With deposits for a venue you didn’t control.”
Sienna’s jaw tightened.
“You said I could use the house.”
Julian shook his head.
“If Clara approved.”
“You always say that because you know she’ll say yes eventually.”
Clara went still.
Julian stared at his sister.
Sienna realized what she had revealed.
Clara asked, “Is that why you kept pushing me?”
Sienna rubbed her forehead.
“You make everything harder than it needs to be.”
“Because I say no?”
“Because you act like this place is sacred.”
Clara looked toward the stone façade.
“It’s my home.”
“It’s a twelve-thousand-square-foot estate occupied by two people.”
Julian interrupted.
“Stop.”
Sienna ignored him.
“Do you know what one wedding here could gross?”
Clara stared at her.
There it was again.
The house had become unused inventory in Sienna’s mind.
“Why is that my responsibility?”
Sienna’s expression cracked.
“Because I am drowning.”
The first honest sentence.
She had $187,000 in business debt.
Her divorce settlement was nearly gone.
The event company she launched after two years of freelancing had lost a major hotel partnership.
She had laid off her assistant.
Vendors had stopped extending thirty-day terms.
Evelyn knew almost all of it.
Julian knew almost none.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Julian asked.
Sienna laughed bitterly.
“Because I’m forty-one?”
“You’re thirty-five.”
“Feels older when your brother became rich at thirty-two.”
Julian said nothing.
Sienna looked at Clara.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like being the failure at every family dinner?”
Clara’s anger did not disappear.
Her understanding changed shape.
“Yes.”
Sienna blinked.
“Your mother has spent twelve years reminding me you’re Julian’s real family.”
Sienna looked away.
“That’s different.”
“It always is when it happens to someone else.”
Sienna began crying.
Clara did not move toward her.
“You can be desperate,” Clara said. “You can be ashamed. You can be terrified your business is failing.”
She held up her still-swollen hands.
“None of that makes me your employee.”
Sienna wiped her face.
“What am I supposed to do about the deposits?”
Julian started to answer automatically.
Clara looked at him.
He stopped.
Old reflex.
Rescue.
Smooth it over.
May you like
Julian took a breath.
“You need to show us the books.”
