Condemned (Beauty And The Billionaire Geek Book 2) by E.E. Griffin

what I’m going to do.”
    “Zoe…”
    I hung up the phone and walked back around the yard to the front door. I felt tension grip my shoulders and stomach until I was numb. How could I get through a holiday weekend with my family like this?
    I went inside to find the living room had a few new items of furniture –– leather couches, a new coffee table, and a big screen TV hung from the wall. We’d had mostly crap stuff my entire life. Claire and Damien were apparently doing pretty well.
    There were turkey decorations around the kitchen and wrapped around the stairwell. The ancient oak dining room table still stood in the dining room off the kitchen. I instantly felt at home. I sunk into the couch next to Rose, but she climbed off and ran to her mom, crying. I clearly was not the baby whisperer right now.
    Bradly jumped up next to me and laid his fuzzy collie head on my lap. At least he remembered me. Claire came out of the kitchen holding Rose and sat on a love seat across the room, telling Rose it was Auntie Zoe. Rose didn’t seem to care or remember I’d been like a second mother to her just three months ago.
    “How is school?” Claire asked absently. Claire had had to give up school and possibly an amazing career in design to come take care of me. Now she had Rose. Going back to school was pretty much out of the question living in a town like Leggetville.
    She’d managed to make things work, but it had been a struggle for her. She was effectively stuck in this town for the rest of her life. Claire seemed perfectly happy to be a young mom with her new boyfriend Damien taking care of so much for her. I didn’t know if I could be the same way. Claire and I were very different people.
    “School is going pretty well. It’s boring though. You don’t really get to study what you want for a long time.”
    “It’ll get better. You can do anything you put your mind to, Zoe. You’ve always been that way.”
    “Thanks, Claire.”
    I slept in my old room that night, but it had completely new furniture. Damien had moved in, and they’d done a lot of work on the house since I’d been gone.
    In the morning, Regan showed up looking amazing. She had the same psychologist I’d met in the mental hospital with her. Everyone embraced on the front porch while the rain began to brake from the hazy sky.
    They came inside. I was so full of questions, I almost forgot about the mess my life was in. I helped Claire and Damien in the kitchen while the football game played on the huge flat screen in the living room.
    We set the table with mom’s old china and arranged bouquets of fall flowers Damien had bought. Rose sat in her high chair and we passed around the perfectly roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, fresh biscuits, green beans, and all the fixings.
    Claire and Damien made an awesome teem in the kitchen and dinner tasted amazing. I learned that Regan’s psychologist had stopped seeing her “officially” as her doctor and had avoided losing his license. Currently, she was living in his townhouse in Ukiah.
    “I started playing piano again,” Regan told me. Her wild red hair had been tamed into soft waves that flowed down her back. Her blazing green eyes that so often held contempt and violence, now looked clear and full of passion when she talked about music. “I’ve been playing small concerts locally, but I have an agent who wants to take me national, even international.”
    Regan had always been a piano prodigy, but her bipolar disorder had kept her from going to college. When she really broke down, it had driven her to drug addiction and suicide attempts.
    I felt so glad Regan had gotten her life back together. It was hard to lose a sister to mental illness. Seeing Regan across the holiday table, looking chic and groomed to perfection, I was amazed she’d ever had so many problems.
    After dinner, we sat around the living room watching movies on Netflix. It made me feel jealous that Rose went to Regan so easily now but