Page 77 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

“It should.”

“It bothers the hell out of me,” Jude grunts.

“It’s not true,” I say, shaking my head. “None of it matters. The opinions of others don’t matter. I know who I am. My friends know who I am. Once all of this is over, well, no one will even remember I exist. It’ll be worth a few name calling trolls, if it means I get to be free of my father for good.”

They all stare at me for a moment like I’ve said something profound, but really, it’s just… now that I don’t have to worry about embarrassing my father, now that I don’t have his countless commands to behave and be quiet and small forcing me to care, it’s a relief to just let it all go.

It’s strange to realize that without his commands forcing me to worry about the opinion of others, I likely wouldn’t have.

He stifled so much of my personality, of who I am..

“What else do you have planned?”

Tic tilts his head. “Well, we’ve been slowly draining his bank accounts.”

“Where are the funds going?” I ask, sharper than I intend to, but I swear if they’re lining their own pockets, I’m done.

“Omega crisis centers,” Creed tells me, cupping the back of my neck and squeezing, like he knows I what I was thinking.

I let out a relieved breath and nod. “That’s good.”

“We also opened a bank account for you,” Jude adds. “And a portion of what we take has been funneled into it for you.”

I blink at that. “What?”

The smile Hale gives me is soft. “He’s put you through hell, mouse. The least he can do is pay some restitution to you.”

My mouth falls open. “Really?”

Jude pulls out his phone and a few clicks later he’s showing me a banking app with an account with my name on it. Mine. It’s got well over a hundred thousand dollars in it.

“I’ve never had my own account before. My own money.” I scroll to the top and click around to see if there is anyone else on the account, but there’s not. It’s just mine. All mine.

“When did you do this?”

Tic shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Since the week you came to stay with us.”

“The first time?”

“Yes,” Creed answers.

“We all knew you were going to hate us, hate what we’d done, and we thought… well, we thought it might be a good way to make it up to you, soften the blow, so to speak.” Jude sounds repentant as hell about it.

“Technically,” Hale adds. “I didn’t know about it. These three did it behind my back. I guess they thought I’d have a problem with it.”

“It’s been months,” I mutter. “You’ve had this set up for months, and I’m just now finding out about it. Why?”

“Can’t blame us for not giving you ‘fuck off’ money when we’re trying to convince you to stay with us,” Creed mutters. That makes me laugh. A lot.

I don’t even know why. Maybe it’s just the giddy high of having, as he put it, ‘fuck off’ money. Maybe it’s havinganymoney at all. Maybe it’s the realization that with this action, the Calloway pack has made it so that I don’t have to jump into finding a new pack—any pack—right away. I can just live. Find a pack that truly wants me. Maybe it’s the realization that even back when they were still planning to use me against my father, they wanted to ease the hurt, the pain, the confusion. They wanted to give me something to make it better.

Money isn’t always the answer. But to someone who’s never had any money, well, it goes a long way.

While I’m busy laughing, Hale retreats to his office, then returns with two shiny plastic cards in his hand. One is navy blue and emblazoned with the name of the bank my account is with, the other is black and mysterious looking. Both have my name on them.

“Your money.” He slides the blue card over to me. “Our money. Pack money.” The black card follows. I stare down at them, feeling unaccountably choked up about this.

“How do you know I will not bankrupt you?”

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