bring me one step closer to opening my own bakery. It could be the training I need to strike out on my own.
When Margot slides into the back seat of the limo, her face is drawn and her movements are jittery. She glances at me and then looks away, raking her fingers through her hair over and over again. Her knee bounces up and down as we set off toward home.
I clear my throat. “How was dinner?”
“Fine.” She bites her nail, staring out the window.
“Are you okay, Margot?” I reach over to touch her leg, but my sister flinches away from me. Her eyes are wide, and her skin looks clammy. I frown.
Margot nods her head half a dozen times. “I’m fine. Dinner was fine. The Prince disappeared. I don’t think he’s into me.”
I worry my bottom lip between my teeth, averting my gaze.
Maybe it isn’t a game for the Prince? Maybe he is interested in me, and not my sister?
Margot’s face crumples, and she sucks in a labored breath. I scoot closer to her, trying to put my arm around my sister, but she shrugs me away.
I need to tell her about my apprenticeship at the castle, but I can tell she’s not in the mood to hear anything. Maybe her ego is bruised by the Prince ditching her.
Mine would be, too.
Still, I take a deep breath. “Margie, I don’t know if I’ll be able to be your assistant for the next couple of weeks.”
“Do you have to call me that?” Her head whips toward me. Her eyes are tight, and her mouth twists into a cruel snarl.
I shrink away from her. “Sorry. I meant Margot.”
My sister huffs, staring out the window. As soon as we make it to the mansion—her mansion, I remind myself—Margot speeds to the front door and disappears up the steps to her bedroom.
I nod to the limo driver and trudge behind her. My shoulders feel tense, and I head to the kitchen. I sink down onto one of the island bar stools, staring at my hands.
Maybe I can do both the apprenticeship and the work for my sister. I think she needs me. She’s not stable on her own. I can go to the castle in the mornings, and work on her schedule in the afternoons. She rarely gets out of bed before eleven o’clock, anyway.
I map out my schedule in my head, thinking of a script that I can use to tell my sister about it. A part of me thinks she should be happy for me and let me do this apprenticeship, but a bigger part of me knows that she needs me.
She’s always needed me, and I’ve always been there for her. I can’t stop now.
So, when Margot reappears in the kitchen doorway, I know exactly what I’m going to say.
But the Margot that stares back at me is completely different from the one who snapped at me in the car. She’s calm, with slower, less jerky movements. She’s lost the edge to her voice and she isn’t fidgeting as much.
Margot slides into a bar stool next to mine and nudges me with her shoulder.
“What were you telling me before?”
She doesn’t apologize for snapping at me, which I’ve come to accept. When you’re famous, people treat you like your farts smell like roses, so it’s hard to accept that you might be wrong. She stopped apologizing for her behavior a long, long time ago.
I give her a tight smile. “I was offered an apprenticeship at the castle under the pastry chef there.”
Margot’s face barely moves. She nods.
I take a deep breath. “But I was thinking about it, and I think I can do it while still being your PA. I’ll go to the castle in the mornings and come back here to do the afternoon work. It’s only for a month, anyway, so I shouldn’t burn myself out.”
My sister wraps her arms around me. Her limbs feel heavy. “Thanks, Ivy,” she mumbles into my chest. “You know I need you, right? I couldn’t do this without you.”
My chest squeezes, and I kiss the top of my sister’s head. “I know, Margie. Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
When I help my sister into her bed, her head lolls onto the pillow and her arms flop out to her sides. Margot’s already passed out.
When I head over to my own room, I let out a heavy sigh. My sister’s mood swings are getting worse. I think it’s the stress of this relationship