16th November, 7,305 Days until the banquet.

“What do you mean you don’t want to date me?”

“I mean… we can still be friends, but we can’t date.”

Claudia fidgeted nervously, her cheeks red as she confessed to her friend, hoping desperately that the other girl wasn’t going to get upset with her.

“But… we were going to go to homecoming together.”

“I know, but-”

“You were the one who asked me out.”

“I did, but-”

“Then what happened?!”

Unfortunately for the poor girl, Zenna was very upset with her, and she had a right to be.

“I- I can’t say… I’m sorry-”

Claudia knew exactly why she couldn’t go to homecoming with Zenna, and she was far far too afraid to say.

“I thought we were best friends.” MacNair had tears in her eyes as she stared over at Claudia, her best friend since even just elementary school. Back then the three of them had been practically inseparable, but that was never going to be the case after today. “We were more than best friends-”

“But we can’t be, Zenna. I can’t go to homecoming with you-”

“Then you shouldn’t have asked me-”

“I didn’t know…”

“Shut up!!” An angry thirteen year old Zenna wasn’t exactly the kind of kid to think before doing something stupid, and her best friend instantly paid the price for it.

Claudia had trouble walking, Zenna knew she had trouble walking. Even a light shove sent her tumbling to the ground in the middle of the school courtyard. She certainly didn’t mean to knock her over like she did, but you wouldn’t know that seeing it from a distance, like so many of their classmates did.

All they saw was one freshman girl getting shoved to the concrete by another, right in the middle of the quickly crowding courtyard.

It just had to be her; it just had to be Claudia. Anyone else's hip would have easily been able to handle the force of another teenager, but not her's. The three of them knew that, everyone did.

It was humiliating to say the least. It hurt to find herself on the ground where she belonged, right between her two best friends. As if she could even call them that anymore.

“Claudia-” Zenna seemed to quickly regret tossing the other girl over. The courtyard outside was quiet and empty, and then filled to bursting with noisy laughs, sneers, and giggles. There wasn’t much that could speak louder than the noise of other kids at school making fun of her, but I’m sorry probably would have helped- not that Claudia needed help.

She didn’t deserve help.

This is your own fault, munchkin…

Who cared that Claudia was categorically experiencing every variety of pain if she was second-class. She felt less like an underclassman than an underhuman at times- if only it were that simple.

This wouldn’t have happened if you had behaved. You wouldn’t be getting punished if you had been good.

Claudia curled in on herself, her whole body twisted from being thrown to the ground. It was her own fault she fell, she was the one with arthritis in her hip from an injury she never properly recovered from- she just thought that Zenna was the type of person who’d never make fun of her for that. But she was laughing along with everyone else, wasn’t she?

You should know better than to ask another girl out. Women are too frail and too emotional.

Her mother was right. She never should have even considered falling for a girl. Two women just can’t raise a family on their own. Wives were meant to be subservient to their husbands for a reason, there was a natural order to things, you can’t lead a family as equals. Equality doesn’t exist, there’s always going to be someone on the top and someone on the bottom.

You should have listened the first time. I wouldn’t have to do this if you did as you’re told.

Her father was right. She could have avoided all of this if she had just obeyed her family like she was supposed to. But instead, she was left lying on the floor of the courtyard as the other students laughed at her. She was the one with the fucked up hip, she was the one who literally couldn’t support herself enough to stand on her own.

It’s your fault Daddy did this to you. Daddy wouldn’t have done it if you didn’t deserve it.

Claudia never really knew why it happened, just that it was her own fault. She was the one who had been bad, she had disobeyed, she had misbehaved- and she was punished for it. It was as simple as that.

Do as Daddy says and he’ll treat you like his princess, he gives you the world, he spoils you beyond imagination. But disobey him and you get what you deserve, you get treated like someone beneath him should- you get punished, hurt, raped- just like anyone who chose to cross him, man or woman.

Her arthritis was her own fault, she had deserved what Daddy did to her, it was her body that failed her. It was her own fault she had fallen over, but it wasn’t her fault that she had been shoved. It didn’t matter that it was Zenna, whoever shoved Claudia to the ground deserved to be punished.

“C-Claudia?” She looked up to see Zenna leaning over her, trying to help her up. “I… I didn’t mean to knock you over, I’m s-”

“Back off!!!” Claudia screamed at her from below, slapping Zenna’s hand out of the way with as much force as she could muster. “Get away from me before I rape you too!!!”

Silence. Shocked silence. Claudia’s blood boiled with rage, wishing she was as strong as her father was. Zenna didn’t know who she was really messing with, but in her eyes, Claudia deserved a foot to the crotch for that.

“Oh you want to see rape?” Zenna grinned angrily, practically slamming herself down on top of the other girl. “I’ll show you rape!!”

Claudia practically screamed as Zenna slammed her foot down between her legs, crushing Claudia’s genitals beneath her shoes, furiously kicking the girl while she was down. This was the day that would haunt Claudia’s nightmares, this was the day Zenna became Claudia’s abuser.

“Who fucking needs you then?! Come at me and I’ll show you how serious I can be!!” Zenna snarled back, hissing like an angry lion as she spat straight into Claudia’s face just to spite her. The pack of hungry lions around them just erupted with newfound laughter as Zenna continued to beat up on the girl at her feet, tears in her eyes as she disowned her now former best friend. “G-good luck with the dance then, l-loser… the whole school already fucking hates you, s-so enjoy going alone cripple girl!!”

Claudia’s heart squeezed tight in her chest, clawing her way upwards, desperate to teach her new bully a lesson before she slipped out of her grasp. But thankfully for her, Claudia did still have a friend to stop her before she went too far.

“Claudia stop!!!! You’re gonna get hurt!!!!” She felt the other girl tugging on her arms from behind, trying to keep her from running after the girl and getting into another fight. “Let her go!!!! It’s not worth it!!!!”

“Get your hands off me or I’ll do the same to you!!” Claudia snapped back, shoving her friend away after being helped to her feet. “D-don’t pretend like you still want to be my friend-”

Smack!!! Claudia was no stranger to being thumped in the face, especially today, but getting smacked by mom or dad was a lot different than when Leah did it.

“Don’t tell me how to be your friend…”

Claudia had her friend drive her away shortly thereafter. Leah was actually two grades ahead of the other girls, so she was the only one of them who could drive. They had met through Leah’s little sister, Rachel- granted, Leah’s sister didn’t like Claudia very much at all, but that was Cyrus’ doing, not hers.

But Leah liked her. Leah, as it turned out, was just about Claudia’s only friend nowadays.

“Did you cut that girl off like I told you to, Claudia?” Her mother set down a full bottle of gin as she spoke, cracking it open and pouring herself a drink. “What was her name, Jenna?”

“Zenna…” Claudia frowned, growling under her breath at the name. “And yeah, I did it today… just like you said…”

Lilith exhaled a mouthful of smoke, putting her cigarette out now that her daughter had shown up. “You’re just like your father sometimes, putting things off until the last minute.”

“That’s not the only way she’s like her father.” Leah snickered from behind her, trying to make light of the previous afternoon’s events. “She threatened to rape her too.”

Lilith didn’t seem to approve of that in the slightest. “Did you now?”

Claudia blushed, lowering her head in defeat. “Yeah…”

Both Leah and her friend sensed that she probably shouldn’t have brought that up, even as a joke, but it was a little bit too late for that now.

It had just slipped out of her. Claudia was only fourteen after all, she just said the first thing that came to her mind. It just so happened to be the only thing she could think to say to defend herself was threatening the other girl with what she was the most scared of.

“Happy birthday to me, I guess…” Lilith sighed, sliding the bottle of gin towards her daughter’s friend. “Take it… I’ll drive you girls home…”

“Y-yes, Ma’am?” Leah swallowed nervously, excitedly grabbing at the bottle. “You mean I can just… have this?”

“I was planning on sharing it with my daughter.” Lilith bent her cigarette in half between her fingers. “But I don’t think a dirty mouth like that should be getting any of it tonight, especially if she’s going to be like her dad-”

“Mommy?” Claudia nervously stared up at her mom, a lump forming in her throat. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t call me that, hon… that’s what she used to call me-”

“Sh-she?”

“Claudia, dear… you know what I’ve told you. Girls aren’t meant to be together like that… it’ll just end in disappointment, or even worse… heartbreak.” Lilith blew just a little bit of the dust from her fingers, cleaning the cigarette butt off for the girl. “Open wide.”

“I… I don’t-”

Thump . Lilith’s cane thudded against the floor at her feet, causing her daughter to jump in her seat just slightly. Her mother had owned that cane for some time, it was what helped her walk on her own feet, but that sound was new and terrifying.

“Do as you’re told, Claudia.” Lilith frowned, holding the extinguished cigarette butt to her daughter’s lips. “I don’t want to see you become your father-”

“And he doesn’t want to see me become you…” Claudia snapped back nervously, the corners of her eyes wet with tears. “So I guess I’ll just have to be like Charlotte, huh?”

Lilith scoffed, forcing her daughter’s mouth open by her lips, placing the still hot cigarette onto her tongue and clamping her mouth shut. “You know better than to say that name- now swallow .”

Claudia gagged, about ready to spill up on her mother’s shoes- the incendiary making its way down her throat as she tensed up and swallowed.

Claudia cried most of the way home, only shutting herself up when she got there. Lilith didn’t usually like to drive her kids home, but she wanted a word with the girl’s father if she could. She of course drove, letting Leah sit in the backseat with her friend, bouncing giddily.

“You kids are late, what happened?” Claudia’s step-mother was impatiently waiting in the kitchen as she arrived. “You can’t just-”

“We made a stop first, okay?” Claudia moped past her, staring at the floor ahead of her. “You were supposed to be going out with Daddy tonight…”

“You had me worried sick, Claudia.” Alecia grabbed a hold of Claudia, trying to make sure she was alright. “Your brother is six, I can’t just leave him here while you and his babysitter are just missing all of a sudden…”

Claudia just scoffed, taking a quick glance back at Leah as she guiltily stepped in the doorway. “Isn’t Daddy going to punish you for staying here and not going out with him?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, he is.” Alecia frowned, getting down on her knees as she looked up at her frankly quite tall step-daughter, letting her own son cower behind her. “But my job is to keep you kids safe, so it’s better me than you or your brother-”

Claudia scoffed, her eye twitching as it made brief contact with her much smaller brother’s, as he cowered behind his mother for protection. “When I was his age, Daddy-”

“I know what your father did to you, Claudibear… and I’m trying to keep that from happening again…” Alecia’s frowned, squeezing her step-daughter’s hand. “What would your mother say if she found out you snuck out without permission and got yourself in trouble-”

“Not much, actually.” Lilith sighed, forcing her way into the house after Leah. “Something mildly disappointed, but not very surprised. My bigger problem is her threatening to rape other girls on the school playground.”

Alecia blushed, swiveling just slightly as she heard Lilith’s voice, turning to kneel facing her. “M- M- Miss Mariam…”

You could tell she was struggling with her words as she swallowed the lump in her own throat, lowering her head out of respect. And her son did the same, it was actually kind of cute how he mimicked his mother just then, she actually had to nudge him out of the corner of her eye to get him to stop.

Lilith just scoffed, rolling her eyes at the sight of the boy. “Please don’t tell me you’re raising him to be a slave, there’s a facility for that kind of thing.”

“His father hasn’t exactly decided what to do with him just yet-”

“And is his father here?”

“No, Ma’am…” Alecia shook her head, gesturing towards her son’s babysitter. “Leah, honey- can you take Cardinal to his room?”

“You named him Cardinal?” Lilith was entirely unamused, having to fight back a well of largely negative emotions within her. “What kind of-”

“I didn’t have much choice, Miss… his father named him- I’m sure if he had been assigned female his father would have named him Alecia.”

“Alecia?” Lilith’s eyes narrowed, staring skeptically at the slave woman. “Who’s Alecia?”

Alecia just swallowed nervously, still on her knees in front of her husband’s ex-wife. “Right… um- Master renamed me once we had wed. Alecia St. Clair, after the girl’s school I grew up in, remember?”

“He renamed you?” Lilith groaned, grinding out a bit of her anger between her teeth. “So what, you’re a different person now? What was wrong with being-”

“Mom!!” There were only two people that called her that, and Claudia was remaining astoundingly silent. “Come on, give her some space to breathe or something, gosh…”

Cyrus already had a backpack full of stuff slung over his arm, and Alecia seemed to be particularly distraught to see him, even if he was in much better shape than he ought to be after a week like this one, quickly making his way to his mother’s side.

“I was wondering where you were.” Lilith smiled, grabbing a hold of her boy and pulling him close, quickly noticing the uncharacteristic level of flinching for the twelve year old the moment he got close. “Cyrus honey… what happened?”

“I… I’m sorry…” Alecia cupped her face in her hands, unable to so much as look up at the other woman. “Cyrus got into a fight with his father this week…”

Lilith looked down in near disgust at her son. “He didn’t-”

“I’m sorry, Ma’am…” Alecia sighed, turning back to her step-daughter beside her. “See honey, you were supposed to come home after school… Your father and I were going to be out of the house so that your mom could come pick you up, Leah was going to babysit Cardinal and… and-”

“I don’t want to go with her anymore…” Claudia glared back at her mother, a sad look painted across her face. “I want to stay home…”

“Claudia honey-” Alecia frowned, holding the girl’s hand. “What’s wrong?”

Lilith just shook her head at Claudia’s attitude. “She’s upset over a girl.”

“Oh sweetie…” Alecia sighed, holding her arms out for a hug. “I know how that feels, I’m sorry-”

“Don’t tell her things like that, slave.” Lilith’s gravel filled voice practically spat at the woman. “She needs to know that she can’t date other girls. If she hadn’t asked the kid out I wouldn’t have had to make her call it all off.”

“You… you made her cancel her date to the dance?” Alecia frowned, looking on at Lilith in disbelief. “But she was so excited for that… why would you-”

“I’ve told you this before, Alecia. Two women aren’t meant to be in love like that-”

“I know it’s not my place to tell you how to live your life, Ma’am… I know you’ve already made your decision.” Alecia sighed, deciding it her place to finally get up off of the floor and put her foot down, holding her step-daughter in a hug. “But I think you should know better than to tell her things like that…”

Lilith’s face turned red, avoiding the other woman’s gaze. “Claudia can stay here, but send the other girl, I have to take Leah home before her parents miss her.”

“She’ll be fine here, Miss Mariam…” Alecia frowned, shaking her head at Lilith’s decision not to bring her daughter home with her. “Have a nice night, please…”

“Fine.” Lilith sighed, shaking her own head in defeat. “Don’t let your husband hurt you too bad.”

“I’ll do my best… and, Ma’am?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten…” She smiled, blushing at the other woman. “Happy Birthday~”

“Thank you…” Lilith smiled back, her cheeks as bright as the slave’s glowing red eyes. “And Claudia-”

“Yes, mom?” Claudia slumped against the wall, holding her hands out as Lilith tossed her cane straight into her daughter’s arms. “Wh-what’s this?”

“It’s yours now…” Lilith sighed, turning to leave with her son. “Just something to help you back to your feet when you fall…”

✶ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✶ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✶

25th October, 22 days until the banquet.

“You want me to do what?” Josephine nervously clutched the riding crop to her chest, curled up in bed looking towards her wife for guidance. “T-to you?”

“No, not to me- to her.” Claudia sighed, gesturing towards Candace from sat at the vanity. “Hit her. Hurt her. Punish her. You used to do it with me all the time, remember?”

“Yeah but that was with you…” Josephine stared at her sister-in-law, hands shaking at the thought of it. “You know… back when I was… you know?”

“Sweetie it’s not hard-” Claudia thumped her foot in annoyance. “Just do as I say and hit her!!”

“Okay fine!!” Josephine jumped to her feet, growling at her wife in a tone that Claudia very much appreciated from her. “If she doesn’t want to give her confession, I’ll hit her…”

Candace sat patiently in the chair of Josephine’s vanity, not restrained by any means, just waiting to see what her sister-in-law would do. Those eyes were just the right color to be mistaken for Chloe, and Candace’s red and blue eyes both stared back at her, but it was strange how they didn’t connect.

Candace saw through her, towards her sister. Claudia was sitting on the bed behind her wife, who stood directly between Candace and Claudia.

Claudia wanted to watch, but she couldn’t. She needed Josephine standing between them to keep her from looking at her own eyes in the vanity mirror. She didn’t want to see her mother’s or her father’s eyes staring on at her, judging her, she just wanted to see those red eyes.

Candace was so close but so far away at the same time. She was definitely her mother’s daughter, you could see it in her face, but one of those eyes was her father’s. Claudia didn’t need her father right now, she needed her mother. Her real mother.

Josephine took a deep breath, steadying her hand as she stood over Candace, getting ready to strike. “Do you know why I’m doing this, Candace?”

“Because your wife is telling you to?” Candace snorted, crossing her arms and her legs as she looked up at Josie, knowing that she wasn’t actually going to hit her. “And you’re trying to get back in her good graces to save your marriage?”

“Hey!!” Josephine frowned, lowering the crop again. “Come on, why’d you have to go and say it like that?”

Candace’s eyebrows raised, her face just a little bit flushed. She looked a lot like Chloe, enough so that Candace was pretending she was, even if Josie couldn’t take an insult like Chloe could. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that, I’m so used to slaves.”

“Yeah well I’m not a slave, okay-” Josephine huffed, tightening her grip on the riding crop. “Now listen or I’ll smack you on more than just the hand.”

“Right.” Candace smiled, humoring her by holding out one hand, trying to help make it easier for her. “Go ahead, I’m listening now.”

This had been Claudia’s idea, really. She didn’t like that outburst between Chloe and Candace the previous night. If she wanted to assert herself over her sister as the family’s patriarch, she needed to punish Candace like her father used to, like using the confession tactic he used to use on Candace as a kid.

“Go on then.” Josephine took a deep breath in and then out. “If you don’t want me to punish you, confess.”

Candace rolled her mismatched red and blue eyes, not even sure if her sister was listening from behind her wife. “Do you want all of it?”

“I think I deserve to hear all of it, if not from my wife, then from you.”

Claudia had done her best to hide the truth from Josephine for this long, but that really did need to stop and she knew it. All her attempts at hiding secrets for the good of her family only ever ended up in complete disaster. Josie needed to know who Chloe was. “Tell her. Please…”

Claudia didn’t often say please, so when she did, Candace was more than willing to grant her that. “Her name is Sophia Cavalier. She’s my ex-rival. She’s the girl who defeated me in the world championship last year.”

Josephine slowly lowered the riding crop. “No-”

Claudia shuddered, now just staring at her cane. “It gets worse.”

“She was mine, Josie. She was my slave.” Candace uncrossed her legs, sighing sadly. “The other families are laughing at me for that, so I convinced Daddy to let me keep her and humiliate her, that way I could show the other families that I’m not a weakling like they think I am.”

“It gets worse.” Claudia repeated. “Tell her why she’s here.”

“Because she did it again, right in front of two family heads, including my father. She beat me again even after I trained her not to, she was counting on getting taken away from me and sent to someone else, because she knew I wouldn’t let my father kill her-”

“And he went along with it?” Josephine was stunned, now nervously pressing Candace for more. “How did you get him to do that?”

“Because I’m his princess!! He wants me to be the next head of the family, and I don’t even know why. I have no say in it. He just wants it to be me… and it took me so much to convince him not to kill her… twice.”

Claudia was only half paying attention to the other women, staring into the eyes of that cane in her hands. It was only fitting that she ended up with it in the end. Her mother gave her cane, but those eyes always reminded her of her nanny. She had always thought that it was a coincidence, but she was beginning to believe otherwise.

Mom designed Preyboy to have Alecia’s eyes…

She almost smiled at the thought, it would have made her happy if she didn’t know what happened to the woman. She could never in a million years forgive herself for not doing something about it. That was one secret she needed to take to the grave, and so did her mother.

“The zed list isn’t just a list of slaves to be put down, it’s a hit list.” Claudia spoke down to the cane, the glow of its eyes making sure she knew that the device was recording. Josephine and Candace both knew that of course, but Claudia was just saying it for the sake of the recorded confession. “It was named after a girl named Charlotte Zed. She was the runt of the first litter, the only person in the first batch of slaves to never be sold, she went on to become the first to be put down by the family directly-”

“She was Lilith’s slave.” Candace rolled her eyes, sick of the semi-official tone that her sister spoke to the microphone in, but choosing to continue in the same vein. “Lilith created the facility. After she finished with the first batch of slaves, she was too attached to just get rid of her. So she belonged to Lilith until my father got rid of her. She died some years ago, and Lilith retroactively renamed the list to remember her.”

Josephine paused, she didn’t know that much about the situation, but it made sense. What didn’t make sense was the two sisters and their intense desire to keep a good as dead girl from dying. “What does this have to do with you though?”

“The confession, Candace.” Claudia sighed, pointing the camera away from herself and to her sister. “Say it and be forgiven.”

Candace rolled her eyes, sighing to herself. If it was going to finally get her out of being punished for it, she was ready to say it.

“Daddy made sure I was aware all my life that he was being kind in letting me grow up as a free person and not a slave like my mother. I’m going to be his heiress because I’m going to be just like him. My job is to always put my family’s needs before my own and to run things like Daddy runs them even after he’s gone.”

Candace couldn’t help but feel like this was a stupid thing to do, but it was admittedly helping her to get it all out there. It helped bring everything into focus for her, clear out the foggy parts and make way for a clearer picture of what was going on.

“Daddy always gives me what I want as long as I always listen and do as he says. Ever since Mommy died, I’ve done as I’m told and never asked questions and Daddy has rewarded me by spoiling me.”

Her words were the truth, she had no reason to lie, even if she was leaving parts out. Candace had never asked why her mom had died, which meant that to this day she never knew what her mother had done to earn being put down.

“When Sophia Cavalier defeated me in front of a few thousand cheering fans, Daddy decided that the only way to save face was to kill Sophia. She was put on the zed list to be killed and made an example of-”

“And your sin?” Josephine pressed her. She had no stake in this, just like Candace had no stake in Josie’s relationship issues. But Claudia needed this, Claudia needed help. Because this confession was one that Claudia couldn't sit through on her own, Josie’s wife couldn’t do everything on her own. “What are you confessing to?”

Claudia wasn’t listening anymore. She was sitting behind her wife, shielded by her to help keep her sister from seeing that she was crying. She knew what Candace didn’t, and it broke her.

“I went behind Daddy’s back and kidnapped Sophia Cavalier without his permission. I had to fake her death to make it look like she had died to the public. It had to be suspicious enough to make it look to the families like we had carried out a hit on her, but not so suspicious as to actually draw the attention of authorities.”

Candace paused for a moment, the sound of her sister’s tears making her seethe, she didn’t need pity right now. She needed to confess to what she did, let her sister show it to her father, and finally gain her father’s forgiveness.

“So maybe I did want revenge. Maybe I did want to ruin Sophia’s life for humiliating me. I went behind Daddy’s back and made her my slave without the facility’s help. I did it for me because I wanted revenge, I did, and I got my revenge!! But I didn’t just do it for me, I did it for you too!!”

She was speaking directly to the camera now, talking right to her father.

“I did it for you, Daddy, because I wanted to show you that I can do this. I can take control of a situation, I could punish her with a fate worse than death, worse than what you wanted me to do to her. I wanted to impress you and show the whole family that I’m the right girl for the job after all.”

She stopped, taking a deep breath and refocusing again. She had more to answer for, she had more to say for why she did what she did, and she needed to say them to Sophia, even if she couldn’t hear her.

“But I did it for you too, Sophia. Because I like you, and deep down I was scared of letting you die like my mother had died. I wanted you and I wanted you alive. I went behind my father’s back to get you. I protected you then, and I protected you when you humiliated me straight to my father’s face. I let you get away with it when you should have been killed. I saved your life from him and-”

She paused again, snarling loudly as she stood up from her chair, watching Josie step backwards in surprise.

“My father let my mother die and he still to this day gets to call her Alecia, so if me choosing to protect you isn’t enough to make me deserving of calling you Chloe again, then I don’t know what is. So there, there is my confession. You can choose to forgive me or not, but the punishing is over. Cross me again and I’ll show you what I deserve.”

Claudia had only once in her life been consumed by so much guilt. Candace was in so much pain. Her sister, her brother, her father, her mother- her entire family, wife and daughter included, were in pain. And it was all because of her. Because she wasn’t good enough.

Josephine tried to strike Candace, she really did try, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Candace got up and Candace left, making her way out of the door and storming off to who knows where. And Josephine did nothing to stop her.

“Thank you for telling me…” Josephine sat on the edge of the bed next to Claudia, turning the cane off. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t like sorries, Josie.” Claudia clung to her cane for support. “Be more specific.”

“I’ve taken my own family for granted, and I’m sorry.” Josie hung her head in defeat, laying the riding crop in her lap. “Please… don’t leave me…”

“Josie…” Claudia bit her lip, sniffling back tears. “Please don’t do this right now.”

“I know- I’m sorry.” Josephine cradled her face in her hands, on the verge of collapse. “Please. Tell me what you need me to be, and I’ll be that for you.”

“I don’t know what I need, Josie.” Claudia let her wife assist her in standing up. “I need help. But I don’t know what kind of help.”

“I think I know what you need.” Josie smiled, making sure she had Claudia’s cane with her for protection. “Do you trust me?”

Claudia swallowed the lump in her throat, staring at her nervously. “Yes.”

“Then I trust you.” Josie took a deep breath, sliding the pair of controllers off of her wrist and extending them towards her wife. “Take these-”

“No.” Claudia shook her head, trying to refuse them. “I don’t even trust myself with one, I can’t-”

“You have to.” Josephine frowned, taking Claudia’s hand and sliding the bands onto her wrist for her. “Because I need this cane.”

Claudia protested. “I need that to walk!!”

“Have you tried walking without it?” Josephine frowned, refusing to give it back. “Or do you only think you need it to walk.”

“If I don’t have it, I’ll fall over…” Claudia swallowed nervously, her heart filled for the first time in a long time, with fear. “If I don’t have it, they’ll push me over…”

“Let them try.” Josie smiled, pressing her lips to her wife’s and kissing her. “Let them know who they’re messing with~”

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“Miss Mariam…”

“Miss Mariam!!!”

Both Darcey and Autumn quickly ran up to Claudia the moment she stepped foot downstairs, a look of worry having overtaken them both.

“There’s a situation…”

“A really bad situation!!!”

Claudia took a step back as they got close, suddenly reminded that she didn’t have her cane on her, but she did have their controllers strapped to her wrist. “What sort of situation?”

“Well you see…”

“Well you see!!!”

Crash. Came the loud echo of glass shattering from the parlor behind them, sounding like it was coming from the foyer of all places. It wasn’t a particularly big shattering of glass, but it most certainly sounded like that of a glass bottle falling to pieces against something hard.

“Oh lord, what’s going on?” Claudia’s heart thumped in her chest, unsure if she could even handle a situation right now, without her cane. “It’s not Candace and Chloe is it?”

“Well it is Candace…”

“But it’s not Chloe!!!”

That at least came as a relief, Claudia had placed Chloe in the cell alone, and that was where she still was, as a way to protect her from Candace’s wrath while Claudia punished the girl for her. “Just one of you, Darcey, tell me what’s going on- from the start.”

“Autumn was cleaning the ballroom, Ma’am. When for some reason, there was suddenly a woman at the door!!! We couldn’t find you or our Mistress, and Zenna is being punished, so we asked for Miss St. Clair’s help, and well-”

“It’s Leah…” Autumn frowned, swallowing nervously. “I recognize her voice, it’s Ms. Watts… and she’s… well… she’s not exactly okay…”

Oh no… Claudia was cursing the god awful timing under her breath, trying not to let it show. Oh goodness no, she isn’t…

“Claudia~!!” Leah stumbled behind Candace, making her way inside, cheerfully calling out towards the other woman. “So… your Daddy sent me. Sorry about the broken bottle- I just wasn’t expecting to see Candy at the door is all-”

“Oh lord, you’re not drunk, are you?” Claudia stepped back a few steps. The last time she saw her former high school best friend, she’d been smacked directly in the face, and she was a lot less confident of her chances with the woman now that she’d let her cane be confiscated from her. “Tell me you’re not drunk…”

“I’m not drunk.” Leah tried to smile as she spoke, but she couldn’t. “I’m not drunk…”

This was about the last thing Claudia needed to see right now, because she knew Leah well enough to know that this was disturbingly normal for her, and she didn’t like seeing her fall back in on her old ways.

About half an hour and three or four glasses of water later and Leah was sitting on the sofa of the sitting room next to Candace, coaxing a hangover for the first time in a while.

“You know who’s still a wonder in bed?” Leah made light conversation as she sat there, sipping at a coffee now that she was sober enough to. “Even though she’s a slave now, Aria’s still got it, her new uhh… Mistress let me borrow her~”

“I knew you still had the hots for her, I just knew it.” Candace giggled, nudging her friend in the arm like a child. “If I knew that you still wanted in her pants I wouldn’t have moved in on her, but you said you were over it-”

“No, I said she was too young for me. Big difference there~”

“But you’re my age?” Claudia scoffed, rolling her eyes at the other woman. “That’s like saying Bella was too young for me…”

“I mean she was definitely too young for dad…” Candace sighed, rolling her eyes. “But to be fair, mom was too young for dad when he got her, wasn’t she?”

“You’d have to ask my mother about that, she knows more.” Claudia was now nervously tapping her feet, trying to distract herself from the controllers around her wrists while she thought about Candace’s mother. “They were both slaves though, is the thing.”

“And Aria wasn’t a slave at the time~” Leah chuckled, her cheeks red for some reason or another. “But she is now, so…”

“Oh my god wait.” Claudia scoffed, her brain trailing off exactly where she didn’t want it to go. “You didn’t have sex with my mother too, did you?”

“Eugh-” Candace shuddered a bit, teasing the other woman. “So Aria’s too young for you, but Lilith isn’t too old?”

“H-hold on!!” Leah scoffed, her face bright red as she pouted. “I never said I had sex with Lilith, just Aria!! Your mom just let me borrow her!!”

“How come?” Candace giggled, enjoying the flustered frustration in her voice. “Couldn’t you have had sex with a brothel girl instead?”

“Do you really expect me to take a trip to a brothel just to meet some floozy?” Leah frowned, her heart clearly dropping in her chest. “Especially after what my husband did to me?”

“Wait- what did Ben do to you?” Claudia asked, unsure of if it was a sore topic. “What happened?”

“He was seeing a prostitute from the pounding house-” Leah hung her head. “She got fired for that, you know?”

“She did?” Candace was surprised. “What for?”

“I mean it wasn’t really her fault so I can’t really blame her for just doing her job.” Leah sighed, finishing her coffee and setting it aside. “But fucking my husband behind my back got her on your father’s bad side.”

“Listen to you-” Claudia teased her friend. “Our father’s also too old for you, you know~”

“Okay you need to stop with that!!” Leah whined. “It’s not funny…”

“Sorry sorry…” Claudia swallowed nervously, fidgeting in her seat. “It’s just… nice to talk to you again…”

“Yeah…” Leah smiled, putting Claudia’s fears at ease. “You too…”

It had been a very very long time since Claudia and Leah had gotten a chance to sit and talk like this, and even longer since they’d been best friends. Long enough that Claudia wasn’t sure where their relationship stood at all. She couldn’t decide whether she should be at ease around or frightened of Leah Watts.

But one thing was for sure, she didn’t like seeing the wreck she was suffering through in the wake of her divorce. “So… did our father really put him down?”

“Ben?” Leah chuckled, hanging her head in shame as she nodded. “Yeah…”

“How come?” Candace was more than mildly concerned about that. Leah had always been closer with Lilith than with Cardinal, despite working for Candace’s father now. “I thought you had plans to do it?”

“I did, but- I had my finger on the trigger and I just… couldn’t…” Leah choked up, trying not to spill out into tears. “So your dad shot him once in the head for me.”

There it was. Of course Leah wasn’t capable of putting down someone she loved, she wasn’t a part of this family like Claudia or Candace were, she was an outsider. She was a victim.

“Why was my father even there in the first place?” Candace frowned, gently trying to calm the other woman with a hand on her shoulder. “Was it personal or-”

“Business.” Leah gagged, shaking her head. “Ben had a debt about as big as mine, you know. Your father came to collect, and collect he did. Your father repossessed just about everything that he could, took half of everything Ben and I owned… and threatened to take the rest.”

“Unless you worked for him, you mean?” Candace bit her lip, yeah- that sounded a lot like her father. “To help clear up your own debt.”

“Whatever helps me pay my balance off as quickly as possible. I can’t live through another failed marriage. I can’t…” Leah was crying now. “I can’t go the rest of my life… alone.”

Leah wanted kids. Candace could tell, she listened to Leah say it all the time. Leah was nothing if not strong, but she was also an immensely caring woman, someone with needs- needs that weren’t being fulfilled.

“Ben always wanted kids, it was all he ever talked about- someday, when we have kids … but that someday never came…” Leah wanted to beat her head against the wall until she bled. “But I couldn’t… I couldn’t do that to them…”

Claudia frowned, trying not to say anything. It was eerily reminiscent of someone else they both knew, and that worried her. It wasn’t Leah’s fault she was in this situation, it was her father’s fault.

“I’ve always wanted kids too. But I couldn’t stand the thought of being like my father, and someday accidentally forcing my debt onto them like he did onto me… So I kept telling him someday soon, someday later, someday maybe … but it wasn’t soon enough for him… he just couldn’t waste himself on me anymore…”

Candace frowned, wishing she could do something to help- and she could. It was her father who Leah was in debt to. If she could only clear it all up for her, everything would be okay. “How can I help… how much is this debt, how long has it accumulated?”

Claudia shook her head, wishing desperately that Candace hadn’t asked something like that, because that was where Leah choked. “Candace-”

“It’s a first generation bond, I-” Leah’s voice shook, coming out as little more than a whimper. “My family’s been indentured since the depression.”

“Oh Leah…” Candace swallowed nervously. “I can’t touch that… I’m sorry-”

“I know you can’t, and I’d never ask you to. That’s why I need this. This job.” Leah steeled herself, almost growling under her breath down, pushing forward with sheer determination. “If I work directly under the man at the top… there’s a chance. If I work for your father, there’s a chance. That’s what I’ve been after for so long, to get to the top and finish this for good. Your father pays more than anyone I know, and even if I have to work this off until I’m his age, I’m not going to stop.”

“Yes.” Candace smiled, squeezing Leah’s hand with hers. “What do you need from us to help you?”

“I need Xander Mallick’s money, or I need his head.” Leah huffed, licking her lips. “Your dad’s put me on debt collecting, and that’s my target. He’s on my chopping block, and I know he’ll be here, at your party.”

“So that’s why you’re working for him.” Claudia almost admired that fiery hot determination in her. “That’s what you’re after.”

“I want kids of my own, I want a daughter, and I want my daughter to grow up free… and not a slave to this system any longer… so please- give this to me. Help me do this.”

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“Hey…” Josephine smiled gently, opening up the door to the dumbwaiter so that the other girl could step inside. “Can we talk?”

“Sure…” Chloe frowned nervously, it was clear that she had previously been crying just a little bit, even if it had since subsided. “Am I in trouble?”

“You should be-” Josie giggled, shutting it closed behind her. “But no, I just want to chat is all.”

“Okay…” Chloe smiled, sitting down on the bed next to her. “I can talk?”

“Thank you.”

She sat on the bed, staring down at the serpentine cane in her hands, her wife’s cane. Josephine didn’t know where to start except from the obvious. She was nervous, but she needed to admit what she was after and get on with it.

“I need your help…” She sighed, clutching the cane to her chest. “I need you to teach me…”

“Teach you?” Chloe blushed lightly, almost smiling. “Teach you what?”

“How to stand up for myself.” She swallowed nervously, taking a deep breath in and then back out, letting her stress go with her. “How to be tougher. How to demand things. How to say no.”

Chloe looked down at her bare feet, her cheeks glowing pink as she squeezed her stuffed puppy to her chest. Yes, she still had Poppy- of course she still had Poppy. “I thought you wanted to be a housewife…”

“I thought so too.” Josephine was just as nervous as her slave, if not more. “But I don’t think that’s what Claudia wants.”

Chloe nodded, still focusing on her little friend rather than her master. “What does Claudia want?”

“Well that’s the thing, isn’t it?” Josephine frowned, gently thudding the cane on the floor in front of her. “She wants you.”

“She wants me…” Chloe was disgusted by it, but it was true. Claudia wanted her, and that should have excited Chloe, but it didn’t. Because Chloe didn’t know what that meant for her. “But this isn’t me . I’m not me anymore… I don’t know what I am. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just know that I’m not the person that I want to be, and I don’t know why…”

“You’re a dog. Dogs don’t talk, sure. But they fight, they scratch and they claw and they bite- and they fight…” Josephine smiled, now trying to comfort the other girl. “But they also chase their tails.”

Chloe’s brain lit up at that, her heart jumping from zero to infinity in a single moment. “Say that again?”

“They chase their tails.” Josephine giggled, nudging her with the cane. “And they do it a lot.”

“I’ve been chasing my own tail…” Chloe grinned, her face now beaming happily. “I’m chasing my own tail…”

“You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” Josephine stood up, now helping Chloe to her feet. “But first thing’s first, I need to punish you.”

“Yes-” Chloe was never happier to hear those weirds, especially from Josephine. “Please…”

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“Now, before you meet my daughter-” Claudia stopped Leah outside of the girl’s bedroom, trying to prepare her for what she was about to see inside. “I have to warn you… please don’t get angry. Lilian’s nanny is… trying her best… and she’s doing an excellent job of it at that.”

“Okay…” Leah smiled, blushing at the thought of Claudia’s daughter having a nanny just like her mother had. “I won’t get angry, I promise.”

“Thank you.” Claudia smiled, taking a deep breath before opening the door. “Please, after you girls~”

“Hey girls. I’m one of Claudia’s friends I guess, my name is-” Leah just rolled her eyes as she stepped inside, she didn’t quite realize what Claudia was on about until she saw the woman. Lilian’s nanny. “Zenna?”

Zenna’s eyes went wide as she looked up at Leah, her jaw dropping just slightly as she giggled at the other girl. “Are you sure about that… I’m pretty sure that’s my name~”

Claudia closed the door behind her, quietly anticipating what sort of fresh hell was about to unfold itself in front of her. She didn’t know what to expect exactly, but she didn’t at all think it was going to be good. “Now before you get at each other’s throats.”

“I never thought I was going to see you again.” Leah was smiling, crying, but smiling. “I thought you were dead…”

“Don’t they all?” Zenna could hardly contain her excitement, her feet thudding against the floor as she leapt out of bed, running at Leah to be embraced. “Don’t they all…”

“You disappeared from the police force and I just-” Leah squeezed her friend as tight as she could. “I thought the family got you…”

“Yeah well they didn’t~” Zenna giggled, purring proudly as Leah held her. “I gave myself over…”

“You didn’t-” Leah was too happy to really even question it at all. “You missed us that bad, huh?”

“I guess so!!” Zenna and Leah had always been close, even for a while after Claudia and her bully fell out. “I couldn’t keep away~”

Claudia was nervous though. She had neither her cane to protect herself from Leah, or the controller to protect her from Zenna. But one thing she did have, one teeny tiny little thing she did have, was her daughter- their daughter, slowly waking up from her nap. “M-Mommy?”

Maybe she had been too hard on wife. It wasn’t Josephine whose relationship with her daughter struggled, it was Claudia’s. She gently sat down next to Lilian while Leah reunited with an old friend, unsure of whether Lilian was talking to her- or to Zenna. “Mommy’s here~”

Lilian very nearly recoiled away from Claudia, holding a large stuffed monkey between her and her mom, the little heart in her chest quickly beating. “N-Nanny… want Nanny-”

“Nanny’s right there, see?” Claudia smiled, pointing towards Zenna and Leah, holding out both hands to show Lilian that they were empty. “Look!! No cane~”

“No cane?” Zenna quickly spun around, looking over at Claudia. “Master, don’t you need your cane to walk?”

“I…” Claudia had known exactly how to answer that question up until this morning, but now- “I thought I did, but… maybe it’s all been in my head?”

“I mean I wouldn’t be surprised. I’ve done enough childcare to know that most adults actually outgrow their juvenile arthritis by the time they’re thirty-” Leah chuckled, letting Zenna pull away from her. “Wait, you two are a mom and a nanny respectively, but you didn’t know that?”

“I’ve never said I was a very good mom.” Claudia sighed, shaking her head in shame. “Because I’m not-”

“Master!!” Zenna quickly rushed to her and her daughter’s side. “Please… don’t say that about yourself. I didn’t mean last night-”

“But you did though.” Claudia’s eyebrows furled. “And even worse, you’re right. You have been a better mother than I have, Zenna-”

“No. Please… I can’t-”

“It’s okay, Lilian.” Claudia gently took her daughter by the hand. “It’s okay to tell me… you really do love Nanny the most, don’t you?”

“Claudia…” Zenna was beyond terrified, squeezing Lilian’s other hand as tight as she could without crushing her. “Please-”

“I need to know, Zenna.” Claudia snarled, letting go of her daughter’s hand and standing up out of bed. “Because if I’m the failure of a parent that I think I am- then it’s that much more important that her mother be the one to take care of her when-”

“When nothing, Claudia!!” Zenna tried desperately to keep herself together, for Lilian’s sake. “You and Josie aren’t getting a divorce, you can’t be- I can’t lose this, not with Lilian…”

“You’re getting a divorce?” That hit Leah in the heart, having just gone through the same thing herself, but it clearly didn’t hit her as hard as it hit the little one.

“D-Divorce?” Lilian looked up at her mother with tears in her eyes. “M-Mommy’s getting a divorce?”

It pained Claudia to see that look in her little girl’s eyes, she shouldn’t even know what the word divorce meant, and Claudia understood that. She went through the same thing as a child, very nearly the same age as Lilian was now.

“I’m sorry Leah… I think I need this moment with Lilian…” Claudia tried to stay strong as she said it, now squeezing Zenna’s other hand. “And her mother…”

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Chloe did her best to ignore the extremely aggravated look at Candace’s face as she stepped past her, following Josephine towards the door to her wife’s office. She couldn’t really say she blamed her for being angry either, after all- she had quite probably pushed things way too far with her a very very long time ago.

Claudia’s cane wasn’t just good for shocking and terrifying slaves though, it also functioned as a set of keys for her- and her wife, letting Josie into her office with Chloe behind her, making sure to close the completely windowless door, blocking the way between her and the woman she once loved.

“Josie?” Chloe had been trying to break into this room for weeks, and now that she was here she was cursing herself for never realizing that Claudia’s keys were a part of her cane. “Why are we here?”

“I said I was going to punish you.” Josephine stepped behind her wife’s desk, now rifling through her drawers for something. “You’re here to be punished.”

“But, Ma’am-” Chloe swallowed nervously, more than slightly terrified to be in here without her master’s permission. “If you were going to hurt me, we could have done it in the cell.”

“But I’m not going to hurt you… I don’t like hurting people.” Josie frowned, pulling out a slightly familiar bag and setting it down on the desk. “I’m confiscating the dog.”

“You’re what?” Chloe backed up a step, squeezing the stuffed animal to her chest. “Poppy?”

“If that’s her name, yes.” Josephine tapped her foot impatiently. “Put her back in the bag where she came, she’s not yours.”

“But, Mistress-”

“N-now, Chloe!!” Josie huffed, really desperately trying to stay composed. “Put her on the table…”

She hated to do this again, especially so soon after getting her back, but she had to. She needed to do as she was told, so she followed Josie’s orders and she set Poppy down on the desk, as she was told.

“Thank you.” Josie smiled, picking up and opening the bag. “These are your things, right? The ones that came with you?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Chloe nodded, keeping her gaze fixed towards her feet. “At least I think so.”

“Good~!!” Josephine piped up, in an oddly cheerful manner. “Because if I’m not mistaken, that would mean these are yours too?”

Chloe looked up, watching her master’s wife pull out a pair of small pill bottles, clearly almost completely untouched and fully unopened. “May I see them?”

“Sure~” Josie smiled, setting them down on the desk for Chloe to pick up and take. “There’s instructions here too, yeah?”

“Y-yeah… just, gimme a sec?”

Chloe nodded nervously, turning the pill bottles over in her hands so that she could inspect the labels. These were hers alright, right down to the doses on the label. No wonder she had been struggling so hard for so long, she had been without them when she needed them.

Chloe was chasing her own tail.

That had always been her way of saying that she was on a downward mental spiral- when someone told her that she was chasing her own tail, she knew what that meant, it meant that she wasn’t acting right. She wasn’t okay.

She had always grappled with the realities of living with mental illness, so taking pills was nothing new to her. But that didn’t explain why she was chasing her own tail- she had been off of her pills since Candace had abducted her after all. She had dealt just fine without them back then, hadn’t she… Why was she struggling now?

Candace St. Clair…

She sank to her knees on the floor, staring at the name on the label- Candace St. Clair - that wasn’t her name. Her pill bottles didn’t read Sophia Cavalier like they were supposed to, these weren’t for her, these were for Candace.

But Candace didn’t have what Chloe had, she had other things going on, but she didn’t need these… not for herself at least.

“Why didn’t you let us know about these, Chloe?” Josephine scoffed, beginning to read the instructions out loud to herself and to the slave. “It says to give you the big one once in the morning and the little one twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.”

“I… I don’t know… I just-” Chloe began to feel tears rolling down her cheeks, her heart now squeezing inside of her chest. “I never thought I needed them… I didn’t think they were really mine…”

“What else would they be, Chloe?” Josephine frowned, more worried than upset. “If Candace left these for you, why didn’t you remember them?”

“B-because I didn’t know!! I never thought she really cared about me, not enough to actually give me my meds, b-but she slipped them into my food!! I didn’t know!!” Chloe clutched the pill bottles to her chest, now beginning to sob. “I didn’t think about them because I thought… I thought I was okay…”

“You’ve just been chasing your own tail.” Josephine crouched beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder to help balance her. “You’re going to be okay. You can take them now.”

“B-but, Master-”

“Please… for your sake and mine… I think I’m going to be able to handle you better if you’re in the right mind?”

Chloe bit her lip, looking up and giggling. “Yes, Ma’am… thank you…”

“I just don’t know why-” Josephine frowned, staring down at the notes in her hand. “I just don’t know why she never gave them to you, because your previous owner clearly did.”

“She did…” Chloe smiled, her heart warm at the thought of it. “She definitely did… I can feel the difference now.”

“She cared about you…” Josephine tried to reassure her. “Candace cared about you, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.” Chloe smiled, now wiping her own tears from her eyes as she looked up at the other woman. “Yeah, she did.”

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“Hey?” Leah gently sat down on the sofa, right next to the still sulking Candace. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah… I’m alright-” Candace sighed, smiling to her. “How was reuniting with your old high school friend?”

“I mean, it went fine until-” Leah started and stopped, sighing. “You didn’t mention your sister was getting a divorce.”

“I’m sorry.” Candace frowned. “Was I supposed to?”

“No, I mean… it’s not like your father cares it’s just- I know how it feels…”

“I’m sorry, Leah. I didn’t know until last night.”

“How are you and your sister anyways?” Leah swallowed nervously, staring Candace up and down in an attempt to make sure that she was alright. “I didn’t expect to see you here, I remember that she-”

“She fucked me in the bath, yeah.” Candace rolled her eyes, trying to block that out. “It was scary but… it was whatever. My mom can handle it, and so can I.”

“Is that what you’re telling yourself now?”

“I’m trying to be less like my dad, but… I don’t know if I can be more like my mom and be his heiress… I can’t have both.”

“Who says you need both?” Leah frowned, placing a hand on Candace’s shoulder- just like her mother used to. “Your mother was a lovely woman, but she’s not exactly a better role model than your father is.”

“Mommy was nothing like Daddy-”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” Leah stopped her. “I always loved your mom, she was amazing- especially for bringing you into my life. But I didn’t exactly get to where I am in life by being like her.”

“But you are like her, though…” Candace frowned, looking up into Leah’s eyes beside her. “You’ve always put everyone else before yourself. Me, my father, my mother, my sister, my brother, your husband… that’s what my mother was… someone who put everyone else before herself.”

“And look where that’s gotten me.” Leah frowned, her heart swelling. “I’ve lost everything Candace. My father, my mother, my sister… and most especially my husband. I’ve put everyone else before myself for my whole life, and I have absolutely nothing left to show for it.”

“Leah-”

“Don’t be like your mom, Candace.” She pleaded with her. “Don’t be like your father, but please- don’t be like your mother.”

“And why not- what’s wrong with being like my mother?”

“Your mother is dead, Candace.” Leah frowned, staring her straight in the eyes. “And you have no idea what happened to her, do you?”

“No…” Candace grinded her teeth together. “My father’s never told me-”

“Have you ever asked?” Leah broke eye contact, not ashamed to blink first. “Or have you been too much of a sweetheart to stand up to him?”

Candace paused, her heart aching in her chest as she thought it over.

Leah was right, she hadn’t asked, she had never thought to stand up to him… not even when she needed it the most.

“Leah?” Chloe followed Josephine out of her wife’s office, her teary eyes going wide as she looked up and saw Leah for the first time since she left her at the facility. “I… I wasn’t expecting to see you here, Ms. Watts…”

“Chloe?” Clearly Leah wasn’t expecting to see her here either, because when she did, she freaked. “What are you doing here, Chloe?”

“I live here, Ma’am.” Chloe smiled, giving her a small bow. “Master bought me from the facility~”

“Master?” Leah didn’t like where this was going. “Who’s your master?”

“Claudia.” Chloe tried to remain positive about it, her cheeks flushed bright pink. “Claudia’s my master now~”

“No…” Leah frowned, her delight in seeing Chloe again quickly overtaken with worry. “Candace how long have you known about this?”

“Is that really any of your business?” Candace folded her arms. “About two weeks now.”

“Just over~” Chloe corrected her, earning a low growl from Candace’s lips. “Sorry…”

The both of them tried desperately to focus on Leah and not on each other, while the other woman just seemed baffled by it all. “And you trust her with your sister… after what happened to the last slave she killed?”

“She’s my sister, of course I trust her. If she wants to protect Sophia, she can protect Sophia. If she wants her dead, that’s fine too. I don’t care.” Candace’s eyes slowly lowered, making sure not to look into those of the other girl as she spoke. “She made her decision.”

“Not that I should be trusted with decisions…” Chloe mumbled, doing the same. “If I may ask, what happened with the last slave?”

“It’s a long story…” Josephine frowned, waving at Leah from behind the other redhead. “Don’t ask questions like that in front of guests.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I’m sorry.” Chloe looked back at her, nervously nodding before turning towards Candace, accidentally catching the girl looking over at her. “I’m sorry…”

Candace blushed, looking Chloe in the eyes now, sensing that she was the one being spoken to. “What was that?”

“I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting. I realized that I haven’t really been in the right mind-” Her grip tightened around the pill bottles behind her back. “I don’t have the right to punish you, you’ve been punished enough already, and I’ve just been piling on top of it. I’m sorry for… being rude and mean to you since you’ve been here…”

Candace unfolded her arms, looking over at her with both skepticism and an open mind. “And?”

“And I forgive you… for everything that I can think to be upset about. I’m going to behave now… I promise.” This was hard for her to do, but now that she realized that she hadn’t been in her right mind, she was going to try and keep her temper down. That wasn’t to say that she thought Candace deserved to be respected again, she didn’t- she just deserved not to be beaten up on. “Whatever my new master decides is best for me, I’ll follow. I won’t disrespect you like I have been anymore…”

Chloe felt herself being nudged from behind, this time being prompted by Josephine. “And?”

“And I appreciate you coming around to check up on me…” Chloe rolled her eyes, grumbling it out at the other woman. “Thank you for… caring about me.”

“You’re welcome… Sophia.” Candace got caught on the name for a moment, before relenting. “And I’m always going to care about you, regardless of what you choose. So don’t expect me to stop checking up on you anytime soon.”

Leah squinted, now looking down at Candace on the sofa. “I thought you trusted your sister to take care of her?”

“Of course I do!!” Candace scoffed, now slowly standing up, pointing her body away from Chloe. “That doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop checking up on her, making sure she’s behaving for Claudia.”

“But you have to.” Leah frowned, one hand now on her hip, right where she kept her handgun. “You’re not allowed to see her anymore.”

Wait… what? Chloe shuffled nervously, slowly backing away from Leah’s gun- unsure of whether it was loaded or not, but knowing that the threat was pointed at her. It was definitely enough to scare her into shutting up.

“What do you mean not allowed ?” Candace smirked, shaking her head. “Sophia’s new master has placed no such restriction on her visiting hours- in fact, my sister and I are currently in the process of fixing our relationship~”

“That’s all fine and good, I guess. But it’s not your sister’s decision to make.” Leah furled her eyebrows, tapping the handle of her weapon to make sure Candace got the hint. “It’s your father’s.”

“What does father have to do with this?” Candace frowned, definitely understanding what her bodyguard was laying out in front of her. “I gave her up, didn’t I- since when wasn’t I allowed to see her anymore?”

“I would think that it’s implied Candace. Your father wanted her dead, remember?” Leah stared over Chloe’s head, right towards Josephine to make sure they all understood. “Your father only sent her back to the facility on the assumption that you were never going to see her again, and trust me- he never wants to see you two together again.”

“That’s preposterous-” Candace started at Leah, before being interrupted by Chloe.

“But it’s not… is it?” Chloe hung her head, staring down at her own bare feet. “Out of sight, out of mind. If I’m permanently away from you and your family, I’m as good as dead anyways…”

“And your father settled for as good as dead .” Leah frowned, now staring directly at Candace as she spoke. “But only because he couldn’t have the real deal.”

There was a cold empty silence after that. It was hard to argue with her when she said something like that, and neither Candace nor Chloe had the raw charisma to respond- not like Claudia did.

“But I need her, specifically. I have plans for her, and I can’t have anyone else… After all- how can I be expected to let anyone else get away with putting down my dear little sister’s ex-lover?” Claudia stood in the doorway between the sitting room and the ballroom. “I can’t be, that’s how~”

Everyone just stared at her, now knowing that they can’t argue with Claudia’s reasoning either- not after that tour de force of hers, but thankfully for them, Claudia wasn’t finished.

“Candace, sweetie. Zenna’s in her room right now. Be like your mommy and nanny my daughter for me, like you said last night~” She smiled, tapping her foot impatiently. “I will take care of Leah here, trust me.”

“Eugh, Claudia-”

“That’s an order.” If she could thump her cane she would, but she couldn’t. “Now go.”

“No.” Candace sat back down, crossing her arms at her chest in protest. “I’m not my mother. I’m not about to just get up and leave.”

“Be that way then, maybe I’ll keep it in mind~” Claudia watched her sister sit back down in annoyed turmoil, turning herself back to the matter at hand. She sighed, taking a moment to glance down at the controllers on her wrist. “I’ll have Darcey and Autumn try their hands at it in a moment, but first- what’s this about my father?”

“Your sister isn’t allowed to see Chloe anymore.” Leah answered, putting the gun away and gesturing down at Candace. “Your father doesn’t want to allow it. I just do as he says.”

“I see…” Claudia frowned, looking down at Chloe now. “And did he say anything about me being allowed to keep her?”

“He hasn’t said anything yet, no.” Leah crossed her arms at her chest. “But only because he doesn’t know yet…”

“Then allow me to be the one to tell him, please?” Claudia smiled, extending her hand just a little bit. “I’m sure I can talk him down from any decision too brash.”

“Then I’ll go too.” Candace smirked, staring her sister in the eyes as she challenged her. “Besides, I owe my sister that much… and if I can’t convince Daddy to do something, no one can~”

“Then it’s settled!!” Claudia taunted her in return. “We’ll take you to Daddy so that he can see just what a splendid little girl you’re being.”

“But not tonight.” Candace just looked away from her, standing up off of the couch and making her way towards the door. “Come on Leah, we’re leaving.”

Claudia groaned. “I didn’t say you could leave-”

“Because I didn’t ask.” Candace snapped back at her, pushing her way past Josephine, a nervous Chloe hiding behind her. “Come on, Leah. You can get back to my father’s side another day, drive me home.”

“I… didn’t drive.” Leah frowned, blushing ever so faintly. “I umm… sort of wrecked my ride a little bit ago-”

“Typical.” Candace wasn’t at all surprised. “But I need to get home, so you can drive mine.”

“Right now?” Leah was nothing if not good at following orders. “You trust me to drive?”

“I trust you with my life, Leah.” Candace sighed, pulling a set of keys from her purse and holding them out in her palm. “Now come on.”

Chloe nervously glanced at the keys in her hand from behind Josephine, having trained herself to notice key rattling- kind of like a cat, which she sort of hated. “Wait… those are mine.”

“What, that stupid little yellow thing that I had fished out and perfectly put back together, that one?” Candace rolled her eyes, trying to drill it into the girl’s head that it wasn’t her car anymore. “Who does that belong to again, do you know?”

Chloe felt her lungs fill to the brim with angry fire, having to force herself back down from snapping at her again. “You. It belongs to you now…”

“Right… I almost forgot that one was yours.” Leah chuckled, rolling her eyes. “Wait- you keep a crowbar in your trunk?”

“Well yeah?” Chloe answered. “Why- isn’t that normal?”

“I took the crowbar out the first chance I got.” Candace put her hands on her hips, turning away from the conversation. “I’ll be outside-”

“There’s a tire iron amongst the upholstery, a couple of bricks hidden under the seats, and a can of spray paint in the glovebox.” Chloe quickly stepped out from behind her master’s wife, opening the door to the vestibule for Candace before she could do it herself. “In case you want to disarm it any further…”

“Quite the rioter you have on your hands, Claudia.” Candace shrugged, stepping past Chloe, her bodyguard following shortly thereafter. “After you snuck your way inside of it the last time you came over, I think I might have to.”

“Yeah. I mean… it’s not like I’m going to be protesting anytime soon…” Chloe frowned, watching the other girl make her way outside without so much as saying goodbye to anyone. “T-take care, Candace…”

Now that Candace and Leah were gone- that just left Josephine, Chloe, and Claudia- and the family patriarch was clearly not very amused with her slave at the moment. “What did she just say- you snuck out of her house- under my nose?”

“I… that was two weeks ago, Ma’am… I-”

“You tried to escape? While we were at my sister’s house- you tried to escape me?”

Chloe couldn’t fight her. Chloe couldn’t fight her master, she was as good as dead. “I’m sorry, Master…”

Claudia only got angrier from there. “Why I ought to-”

“Claudia, stop.” Chloe felt a firm grasp from behind her as Josephine put both of her hands on the girl’s shoulders, snarling at her own wife- and Chloe’s master- to back off. “That’s not something you can punish her for.”

“Like hell it’s not!!” Claudia desperately wished she had her cane, because without it she hardly felt safe enough to step towards the slave that most likely still hated her, and the woman who did have the cane. “She’s my slave.”

“But she was your sister’s slave… and clearly Candace cared about her a lot if she went through the effort of keeping Chloe from escaping you, even when it would have come at no cost to her. Even if she did try to escape, your sister clearly stopped her- so if she cared enough to keep Chloe out of trouble, that means something.”

Claudia blushed, looking up at her wife with a nervous look on her face, slowly backing down. “If she cared about the girl so much, she would have taken better care of her-”

“She already took better care of her than you have been, Claudia.”

“In what ways can you possibly think that Candace was doing a better job than me?”

Josephine quickly let go of the girl, her voice only turning more stern as she opened up the bag of belongings that had come with Chloe, pulling out the notes that were left for taking care of the new slave. “Your sister left you a set of instructions on taking care of her… did you even read them?”

“I don’t need to read them, Josie.” Claudia felt like the idea of it was absurd anyways. “I know how the collars work, darling. I don’t need to read a set of instructions on how to operate a device that my mother designed, one that I’ve been using for years now.”

“Because it’s not just about the collar, look!!” Josephine held the slip out towards her, letting her wife take it right from her hands. “There’s more to it than that.”

Claudia swiped it from her wife’s hand, glaring down at Chloe as she did so, before turning away and flawlessly stepping towards her own seat. Even without her cane she was able to get there and sit down to read without issue.

So I was right… she doesn’t need the cane…

Chloe kept her head down. She had made the observation the first time she had met Claudia. She remembered thinking to herself that it was almost certainly for show, judging on how she walked perfectly fine without it . But apparently, Claudia hadn’t realized that.

So what… it’s all been in her head? She just keeps her cane for protection?

Claudia clearly wasn’t thinking of the cane or her arthritis right now, and as such… she was fine. At least physically, she was fine, but as she read the notes left to her by her sister, she was beginning to notice how she had been accidentally mistreating her new slave without even realizing it.

“See-” Josephine put her hand on her hip, looking over her wife condescendingly. “It’s not just the instructions to her collar, is it?”

“No.” Claudia frowned, snarling almost guiltily at herself. “I thought it was at the time-”

“So you saw the instructions for the collar, and you thought so highly of yourself that you didn’t even think to read the rest?”

“No, I guess I didn’t!!” Claudia tossed the instructions back at her wife. “There- I guess I didn’t, happy?”

“Oh, don’t throw a fit-”

“If she needed her prescriptions she should have asked!!”

“Don’t put this on her, Claudia.”

“She should have realized.”

“Your sister had been sneaking them into Chloe’s food for her, she didn’t know you were going to be different.”

“How is that supposed to be my problem?”

“Because if she’s going to belong to you, it’s your job to take care of her.”

“What, like you take care of your slaves?”

“I haven’t taken very good care of them in the past, but I’m going to do better now.”

“How does that make you better than me?”

“I didn’t say I was better than you.”

“But you implied it?”

“I did not!! That’s not my point!!”

“Then what is your point??”

“You need to do better, Claudia-”

“Don’t give me that, Josephine. I’m still doing a better job than you are.”

“But at least I’ve accepted that I’m not perfect- and I’m trying to do better.”

“For whose sake?? For whose sake are you trying to do better??”

“For our sake Claudia, I want to make things better.”

“If it weren’t for you, things would be fine-”

“If it weren’t for me, there wouldn’t be anything to make whole again, Claudia.”

“If your slaves love you so much more than I do, they wouldn’t have been so difficult to break in.”

“If I hadn’t bought us slaves, we wouldn’t have slaves at all…”

“I didn’t ask for you to buy me slaves.”

“They were anniversary gifts!!”

“Every year for the last four years, really??”

“Your father asked us to take Bella in-”

“Yeah well at least Zenna loves me enough to turn herself over to me-”

“And if it weren’t for me giving her the chance and arranging her to come belong to us, you would have turned her down- I had to convince you to give her a chance.”

“We didn’t need to give her a chance if you would have done your job and raised our daughter on your own like you told me you would, but instead you let her get attached to her nanny!!”

“Yeah well at least our daughter isn’t scared of me like she’s scared of you… so even if she does love Zenna the most, she still loves me more than she loves you, so clearly I’ve done SOMETHING right that you haven’t.”

Claudia gasped angrily, her eyes going wide at the implication that her daughter didn’t love her, and before she even realized she was doing it, she was raising her hand to strike her wife- moments away from actually doing it before she could stop herself.

But for however scary Claudia looked with her hand about to strike Josephine across the face like she was no better than a slave, her wife looked a lot more terrifying with Claudia’s cane in hand, staring her down as she raised it against her. “Try it… see what happens…”

Claudia nervously stared into those eyes built into her cane, taking a deep breath in and out before lowering her hand, instead choosing to violently pull the cane from Josie’s hands. “Give me that and I’ll show you what happens.”

“Please… I’m sorry…” Chloe was on her knees across the room from them, bawling her eyes out as she held her hands tight to her pointed ears, trying to block out the sounds. “Please… don’t hit me…”

As they took in the sight of her pain, both Claudia and Josephine sensed that they had made a mistake doing this in front of her. The two of them both decided it best to back down, ashamed of going at it while in the presence of a slave.

Chloe was clearly experiencing much more than just guilt, her fear compounded with her out of balance mental state had thrown her into an episode of panic. “I’ll be good now… please don’t fight… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

As much as Claudia wanted to accept her apology and forgive Chloe for trying to escape her, she knew the girl didn’t mean her words, she had no idea what she was saying. She was just having a meltdown, and Claudia knew that was partially her fault.

“I’ll give you your meds from now on…” Claudia sighed, hanging her head in defeat. “I don’t want you to feel like this just because I didn’t give you a couple of pills.”

“Th-thank you…” Chloe sniffled, taking her hands off of her ears and laying prostrate at her master’s feet. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s not your fault, Chloe. Really…” Josephine crouched next to her, helping her back up to her feet. “How about you go back to your room, you can be done for the day- okay?”

“Y-yes, Ma’am…” Chloe smiled, glancing over at Claudia beside her. “Is that okay, Master?”

“Yes.” Claudia frowned, nodding her head. “Just remember your meds from now on.”

“Yes, Master.” Chloe bowed. “Thank you, Master.”

She quickly headed out after Josephine handed her the bag back, eager to get away from them both. Chloe had grown up in a broken and dysfunctional home. Her parents weren’t just always fighting each other, they would hit each other just like Claudia almost did to her wife. Chloe was glad she hadn’t, because she knew what that led to.

She was about Lilian’s age when it happened, when the mother and father she hardly remembered got her taken away and put into foster care. Parents that raised their hands against each other without thinking about it would eventually always end up doing the same to their daughter… like Chloe’s parents had done to her.

“Hey…” Zenna patted her lap for the crying girl as she stepped into the room, making room for Chloe in bed with her. “Come here~”

Chloe just smiled, closing the door and rushing to the other woman’s side, letting Zenna coddle her like her own parents never would, digging just one thing out of the bag Josephine tossed her- that silly little stuffed dog that her foster mother had made for her. Because Claudia didn’t seem like the type of person who would welcome her back in open arms if she had tried to run away.

Chloe was absolutely done being one of Claudia’s drones, if she couldn’t accept her for her- she was going to escape- even if Claudia didn’t seem like the type of person who would welcome her back in open arms if she tried to run away like her foster mother had.

Because if it ever came to that, hopefully Candace would.

✶ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✶ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✶

“We never thought we’d grow up to be our parents, but here we are.” Claudia sighed, now sitting down peacefully next to her wife. “You don’t think Lilian would react the same way to us fighting, do you?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure I can tell how she feels about us anymore.” Josie was now the one nervously staring at the cane in her wife’s hands. “But there’s still one thing you have over your father.”

“Oh yeah?” Claudia chuckled, a big smile overtaking her face. “And what’s that?”

“You’ve never raped your own wife.” Josephine put a palm on Claudia’s shoulder, trying not to bring back painful memories. “How’s your hip doing?”

“My hip is fine. Horribly awfully fine.” Her grip tightened onto the cane, staring down that slimy gold little snake head. “I’ve been using it as a crutch without really needing it, haven’t I?”

“Well I don’t know, I only said it was a possibility, your arthritis seemed pretty real to me-”

“That’s because it was real to me. It was real back then, back in high school… with Zenna.”

“Maybe you really did outgrow it. You could see a doctor?”

“I’ve seen a doctor.”

“Not one of the family doctors, Claudia. My doctor. Doctor Julienne-”

“Renee, I know… She’s my mother’s doctor too, ironically.”

“It’s not ironic, Claudia. How do you think I got in with such a famous practitian?” Josephine gently ran her hand along Claudia’s bare thigh now. “When I came out, your mother put in a good word for me, remember?”

“I guess I’d forgotten.” She frowned, staring at the weapon in her hands. “About the only thing my mother’s ever done for me is taught me my sexuality is wrong and gave me this cane.”

“And you’ve been using that cane for the last twenty years…” Josie smiled, moving her right hand from Claudia’s shoulder to her cheek, brushing her dirty blonde hair out of the way so that she could see her face. “You’ve changed in the last two decades, and so has your mother…”

“But she didn’t change her ways for me .” Claudia turned her head towards her wife’s touch, gazing into her eyes with a rather vulnerable look on her face. “Candace isn’t even her daughter, but she changed her ways for her… why couldn’t she have done that for me? Why not me? What’s wrong with me?”

“I don’t think it’s like that honey, it’s not always a competition. I bet it’s not even about Candace.” She remained confident, smiling honestly. “I think it was just a matter of time- she’s always supported me, hasn’t she?”

“Yeah…” Claudia smiled back, nodding her head. “She always has…”

“When I came out as a woman, she didn’t just support me, she supported you too.” Josephine’s other hand left Claudia’s thigh, now grabbing one of her hands and holding it. “Supporting my transition is supporting your sexuality, Claudibear~”

“Claudibear…” She almost blushed, looking back down at the cane in her hands. “That’s something my nanny used to call me~”

“Your nanny…” Josephine was always nervous when she stared at that cane. “Candace’s mom?”

“She wasn’t just Candace’s mom.” Claudia frowned, admiring those eerily candescent red eyes built into the golden sockets of the device in her hand, the bright red that reminded Claudia of her. “She was my mom too.”

“Just like Zenna is to Lilian.” Josephine placed her hand over the head of the cane, blocking out that glow in its eyes. “Honey. We can’t separate them…”

“But we have to.” Claudia protested, slipping the cane from her wife’s palm, holding it close to herself for protection. “Because if Lilian stays here with me… she’s going to be just like me.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” Josephine retracted her hand, now frowning desperately. “What’s wrong with being like you?”

“I can’t tell you, you just have to trust me-” She hated those sad puppy eyes Josie had, but she just couldn’t say it. “I’m never going to forgive myself for it, Josie.”

“That’s why I need to know…” She pushed forward, giving her that same look. “Because if we’re going to fix this… we both need to be on the same page about whether this is something worth fixing.”

“And if it’s not worth fixing?”

“Then it’s not worth fixing…”

Claudia’s heart broke in her chest hearing her wife’s words. She really did want to fix what they had, but she didn’t know how. There was something that needed to change, but before she could fix anything, she needed to know what was broken.

“I’m going to figure this out, I promise. You just need to be patient, I just need time.” Claudia placed her hand on her own cheek, trying to recreate her wife’s touch. “Just leave this to me-”

“But I can help you, Claudia.” Josephine reached forward, putting her hand over Claudia’s, wanting in. “You don’t have to do everything alone.”

“But I have to- don’t you see?” Claudia was pleading with her now. “That’s why I need Chloe. If I want to regain my father’s trust- to prove to him that I can be the heiress- I need him to see what I’m capable of.”

“Is that why she’s here?” Josephine’s heart ached. “Or was it because she looked like me?”

“My plan has always been to prove myself. To prove to my father that my sister isn’t better than me. This is my only chance to do it, Josie.” She cast her cane aside for just this moment, grabbing her wife by both hands. “I can teach Candace to be like her mother, I can train her to be a drone like the other slaves-”

“You think your father is going to like that?” Josie shook her head, trying to get through to her. “How is forcing Candace back into being a slave like her mother going to make your father happy?”

“It’s not… that’s why Candace needs to want this. Daddy just needs to see that Candace belongs below me, like her mother-”

“But what about Chloe? What happens when he discovers Chloe?”

“Daddy wants her dead as zed, Josie… but if I can do this, I can save her.”

“Save her… how are you going to save her?”

“Because I can make her a drone too, I can show him that I’m better than my sister by doing something she never could… taming the dog. Taming Chloe.” Claudia gave her a wickedly eager smile. “I bought her from the facility to save her, and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing this for you.”

“For me?” Josephine bit down on her lower lip, keeping it from trembling. “How is this for me?”

“You’re my wife, Josephine. I’m the patriarch so that you don’t have to be… remember?” Claudia squeezed the other woman’s hands. “I work so that you don’t have to… not because I want to. But because one of us has to be that for us…”

“But is that what you want, Claudia?” She frowned, looking her in the eyes with honest skepticism and worry. “If you don’t want to work- what do you want?”

“This is what I want, because this is the way things need to be. This is what’s right… one of us on top, one of us on bottom. That’s how it’s supposed to be, it’s not what’s fun, but it’s what’s right.”

“Claudia… no…”

“I can either be the mother or the father, Josie. I can’t be both. I have to be my father because I can’t be my mother, I can’t be Alecia…”

She swiveled in place as she stood up, grabbing her cane on the way to her feet- not to help her walk, but to remind everyone who was in charge around here.

“I’ll have my way. I’ll have Candace, and I’ll have Chloe too. Even if I can’t have you.”

“You can have me if you want me, Claudia…” Josephine kept her eyes down, not trying to look up at her. “But not if you don’t want me…”

“There’s an order to things, if you want to be a part of this family, you need to fit into your place just like I fit into mine. If you want to be the woman of the house, you need to be the woman of the house, Josie.”

Thump . There it was, that confidence she’d been lacking all day, all of it flowing back into her as she heard that sweet sound again.

“If you want to be a mother, act like a mother. If you want to be a wife, act like a wife.” Claudia twirled her cane in her hand, reasserting herself. “But I didn’t sign on to being the man of this house while my woman lounges around and lets the slaves fulfill her role for her, just so that she could live a lavish life of sinful indulgence.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have married a drag queen…” Josephine stood up, refusing to even look at her wife as the two of them parted ways. “You’re chasing your own tail, Claudia.”

“Yes, I am. I am chasing my own tail.” Claudia stepped into her office as her wife stepped back into the ballroom. “And I’m going to catch it too.”

Claudia held her cane in hand as she headed inside, closing and locking the door behind her. She needed time to fix things. Her mother, her father, her nanny- she needed to speak with them. She needed to see them again.

The cupboard slid open, letting her into her private collection again for the first time in quite a while, a row of tapes all lined up side by side. The tapes she kept in here, the girls she collected, they were all just business- Claudia had no personal connection to any of them.

Except she did.

9293Z. 8928Z. 8332Z. 7790Z. 7161Z. 6113Z. 5261Z. 4019Z. 4600Z. 4188Z. 3540Z. 3032Z. 2841Z. 1726Z. 1648Z. 0972Z. 0454Z.

Those letters were there for a reason. The slaves who these numbers once belonged to were no longer around. These were Z tapes, for slaves who had already been put down, their numbers freed for later use.

Cyrus didn’t create the slave facility he ran, his mother did. The plantation was the same way, Josephine didn’t create the plantation, her mother did, she didn’t even run it. Claudia didn’t build the plantation- it was given to her, by her wife. Claudia ran that company of Josie’s so that her wife didn’t have to.

But there was one thing Claudia did create, something she had ownership over- the zed list.

0006Z- that was Bella. Claudia still missed Bella, but not like she missed Charlotte.

She plucked the parcel from its place, Charlotte’s parcel, #0001Z. It was all she had left of her now that she was gone, her mother’s former slave. Her. Claudia was the only person but her parents who knew that it was her.

So it was my mother who stole you from me, huh?

She brushed and blew off the dust, making sure that the tape was intact, if in need of rewinding. The tape had been played since the last time she watched it, of course it had. Charlotte had been hers, of course Lilith wanted to see it, this tape was all that was left of her.

She pried the tape from her chest, sliding it into the tape dock. Claudia kept a television and vcr here in her office for this explicit purpose, watching these tapes. The stars of these tapes were all slaves of course, and sometimes she got off to watching them, admittedly- they had become her favorite type of film. But sometimes, if the mood was right, especially when it came to Charlotte- she did end up falling asleep watching them.

Claudia wasn’t even sure if she had ever actually finished this tape, she had always either finished herself off or fallen asleep before it was over. It just so happened that tonight- she did both.

I’m sorry, mom…

The last thing Claudia remembered thinking before she did fall asleep was just how sorry she was, deciding it was best to take the controllers from her wrist and put them away for safekeeping, at least until she needed them- she didn’t trust herself to have them, not just yet. She couldn’t live with messing everything up all over again.

It was an accident…