Dad was right.
A man doesn't suddenly turn rotten. He was rotten all along.
I wiped my eyes, and without realizing it, I had walked all the way home.
Construction trucks roared. Dust blew everywhere.
My room and Cherry's had been gutted into one big concrete cavity, and all of Cherry's favorite dolls had been shredded and churned into the dirt.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
I screamed and rushed forward to salvage what I could.
A pair of hands yanked me aside.
Maccabee met my eyes, pleased with herself.
"Ruby, we're just renovating."
"You've always been off your head, and now you've started scheming against the child. There's no curing you, so Claude and I had no choice but to ask the app for help. It recommended we redo the place, fix the energy of the house."
Behind her, Claude nodded along.
"Change the layout, expand the bedroom a little."
When he saw me pressing my lips together, saying nothing, just staring at the ruined things, Claude added one more line.
"They're just objects. If they're broken, they're broken. When I have time I'll take you and Cherry to buy new ones. You can pick them out yourselves."
I looked at him and let out a soft laugh.
"The token of our love, the anniversary gifts, Cherry's baby teeth, those are just objects too?"
Claude's body stiffened, and something guilty crept into his eyes.
Maccabee was grinding her back teeth, but she quickly pulled on a pitiful face.
"I'm sorry, Ruby, it was all my carelessness. I never thought you'd be this angry. I'll go pick them back up right now!"
She made as if to duck under the truck's grappling claw, but her feet didn't move an inch.
That terrified Claude too, and he rushed to shield her.
"Ruby, can you stop being so snide?"
"You had too much stuff. Maccabee hadn't finished clearing it out before the machine started up. It was just an accident. You're going to blame her for that too?"
"Cherry would never be as unreasonable as you."
I gave another helpless little laugh, lifted the urn I'd been holding against my chest, and looked at him with cold eyes.
"Cherry's right here. Ask her yourself."
Claude looked at the small ceramic urn in my arms, and maybe because he was thinking he hadn't seen his daughter in two nights, the corner of his mouth twitched.
He started to reach out to open it. Maccabee beat him to it.
She quickly grabbed a handful and flung it into the air, sneering in contempt.
"Isn't this just dirt off the ground? You scooped it up by the door when you came in just now, didn't you? This is going too far!"
She curled her lip and hooked her arm through Claude's.
"Claude, I think from now on Cherry should sleep with me. She keeps wishing the child dead. What if one day she actually does something to her? It scares me just thinking about it."
"Cherry isn't mine by blood, but I would never treat her like that!"
Once again, Claude took her side.
His fingers trembled, clenched into a fist, and in an instant rage took him whole. He snatched up the urn and hurled it down.
"Ruby, what a vicious mind you have!"
"If you won't repent, I swear I'll never let you see your daughter again!"
The urn shattered in the dirt, and there was no telling which was dirt and which was ash.
"Murderers! You're murderers!"
"I'll kill you!"
I lost all control and threw myself at them, clawing.
I scratched Claude's arm and Maccabee's cheek.
One of the workers couldn't stand to watch any longer and spoke up quietly.
"Sir, you really should look into your daughter. That ash just now didn't look like—"
Claude was completely consumed by fury, gripping my arm hard enough to break it.
"If something happened, it's because she's stupid! She didn't go raise the money, and she believed the app."
"So we'll just have another one, name her Cherry too. What is there to make a scene about? And besides, this is all a lie she's carefully made up!"
"Ruby, if you'd just lowered your head and admitted you were wrong sooner, things would never have come to this."
Every word was a knife sawing back and forth through my heart.
I bit down on the pain and looked at him through my teeth, my voice shaking, breaking apart.
"I really do regret stealing that money to build the company with you! Get out! Get out of my sight!"
Maccabee suddenly burst out laughing.
"Get out? Get out to where? Without Claude grinding day and night, how would the company be where it is today? If anyone's getting out, it's you."
"Ruby, eight years ago you stopped being the high and mighty Fox heiress. As one woman to another, I'd advise you to know your place. Push Claude too far and he'll throw you out on the streets, and that'll be ugly."
She drew out every syllable. "Especially for a woman on the streets. She might even end up—"
A car braked sharply at the gate, and several Rolls-Royces pulled up.
A tall man in black stepped out of the lead car.
"Who said she's no longer the Fox heiress?"
