Page 84 of Shatter

He tosses a flirty wink towards my mother and it makes me sick to my stomach.

"What do you need from us?" Athena reaches over and holds Chris's hand in one of hers, as if my money didn't pay for her manicure.

"Just a copy of the final accounting. We'll play it off as a simple administrative error and submit it only a few years late. It shouldn't change anything for you."

"And we maintain access to everything," Athena drops her voice low, in case I'm listening. She wants to make sure she keeps all of my money, including going forward. God, I hate her.

She knows that I don't have access to any of those accounts. What little she gave me was always preloaded onto a card and had strict daily limits. I have no idea where the rest of it is, if it even exists to begin with. I was never privy to the conversations between her, my agent, and the production companies.

Mr. Richardson doesn't reply. So Athena doubles down. "She's still a child. If she were suddenly able to access millions, there's no telling what she would do. Best case scenario she'd blow it all in a year. Worst case scenario I'm sure she would overdose."

Mr. Richardson nods along. "Of course. We'll convince the court that it's still in her best interest to have her estate managed by people with her best interest at heart. I can't see a judge having any issue with that. We've all seen how child actors collapse in their twenties and start abusing substances."

I clench my hands into fists.

Harrison better know what he's doing, because this Mr. Richardson is starting to piss me off.

He presses to stand, shaking both of my parents' hands.

"I'll be in touch. You'll be served papers soon, I'm assuming, but you don't need to do anything with them. They're just setting a court date. Let me know once you have that date and we'll get together again to make sure we dot our Is and cross our Ts."

Athena is all gracious smiles and compliments and assurances that they'll do just that.

Before the front door closes, I sprint back to my bedroom and lock the door.

Fists pound on it a second later.

“Open this door!”

I jump, even though I knew it was coming.

My heart starts hammering - every instinct I’ve developed over twenty-five years telling me to unlock it. To apologize. To smooth this over before she gets angrier.

"No."

There's a beat of stunned silence before the pounding starts again.

"Excuse me?" Athena shrieks.

The doorknob rattles. Logically, I know they can't hurt me - not physically anyway. But I'm so used to her mind games. She's a master manipulator and I don't know if I'm mentally strong enough yet.

"Open the door, Melody."

"My name is Abby," I shout back, giddiness bubbling up every time I reclaim my real name.

"Oh, for God's sake." The exasperation in her voice feels like a trophy. "Open the door so we can have a conversation like adults."

"Oh, I'm an adult now?"

Then it's Chris's voice at the door. "Sweetheart, just open the door. Your mother is upset."

"Sounds like a personal problem," I quip back before slamming both hands over my mouth. I have never talked back to my mother like that before.

Harrison's wearing off on me.

"We're not discussing this through a closed door," my mother tries again.

"Then don't. Goodnight."