THEY PINNED ME TO THE FLOOR AT MY OWN FATHER’S GALA — BUT MY WICKED STEPSISTER DIDN’T KNOW WHO WAS ABOUT TO WALK THROUGH THOSE DOORS

Winter brought a bitter, biting cold to the city.

I was sitting by the roaring fire in the grand parlor of the estate when the intercom buzzed.

"Miss Sterling,"

The head of my new, thoroughly vetted security team reported from the front gate.

"Your step-sister is outside. She is freezing, and she is asking to speak with you. She says she has nowhere else to go."

I stared into the flames for a long moment. I could have easily told the guards to call the police. I could have left her in the snow.

"Send her up to the porch. Do not let her inside the house,"

I instructed coldly.

I walked out the front door, wrapping a thick wool shawl around my shoulders.

Veronica stood on the bottom step of the grand entrance. She was shivering violently, wearing a thin, cheap coat that was entirely inadequate for the winter storm. She looked gaunt, her eyes hollow and desperate.

"Scarlett, please,"

Veronica sobbed, her teeth chattering loudly.

"The shelters are full. I haven't eaten in two days. Please, just give me some money. Just a few thousand dollars. It’s nothing to you!"

"It is nothing to me,"

I agreed, my voice completely devoid of warmth.

"But you are not getting a single cent of my father's money. You wore fifty-thousand-dollar dresses while plotting to throw me in an asylum."

"I was manipulated!"

Veronica cried, sinking to her knees in the snow.

"You were complicit,"

I corrected her smoothly.

I looked down at the pathetic, broken woman. I did not feel pity, but I refused to let her turn me into a monster.

"I will not give you money, Veronica. But I will give you a job,"

I stated flatly.

She looked up, a glimmer of desperate hope in her eyes.

"You will work in the laundry department of the new veteran rehabilitation center. You will wash the soiled bedsheets of the men and women your mother stole from. You will work twelve-hour shifts, you will be supervised at all times, and you will be paid minimum wage. If you are late once, you are fired."

Veronica stared at me in horror, realizing the absolute humiliation of the offer.

"Take it, or freeze on the street,"

I finalized, turning my back on her.