"You shouldn't be here. You're not helping me. You're just making everything so much worse." Zinnia moved to face her.

"I'm saving you from yourself."

"I don't need a hero. I'm fine by myself."

"Obviously, you're not." Did Ellie really need to rattle off a list of reasons Zinnia needed rescuing? The evidence was as clear as day.

"Would you listen to someone other than yourself for once in your life?" Zinnia shot at her. "How selfish are you?"

"I'm not selfish! I care about you, and it's because I care that I can't let you do whatever this is. What would Freesia say if she saw you doing this, huh?" Her name came out of her mouth without thinking.

Zinnia became quiet, voice at a whisper. "...So now's when you want to bring her up? What's next, you're going to tell me it's my fault she's gone?"

"We know whose fault it is." Ellie spoke tersely.

"Hers, so how dare you bring her up to me!"

"Hers? You're joking." Her anger must've been clouding her judgment.

"I'm not joking. You're the one that jokes around all day," Zinnia said. "Do you think I don't see you parading around with your dog and that pig like nothing matters to you, like nothing ever happened to all of us?"

"Like nothing happened..." Ellie had to chew her words over in disbelief. "What's wrong with you? Not a day goes by where I don't think about her. I'm trying to find her while you're just here, just here doing drugs and acting like nothing's happened." The outrage on Zinnia's face only spurred her on to talk more. "Yeah, it's you that acts like life's gone back to normal. It's not normal, it's not normal at all!"

"How can you say that? She's not out there. If she was, she would've come back by now." Zinnia wrapped her arms around herself. "She wouldn't have left me. It doesn't make any sense."

"I know she's still out there."

"Don't use her as your excuse for what you're doing. It's insulting." Zinnia added, "disgusting, actually."

"Is she yours for whatever you're doing here? Because if anyone's doing anything disgusting, it's you."

"She devastated our family. What she did made me have to do this, and no, I'm not a drug addict. Get that through your thick skull. I'm doing what I have to do."

"And what's that?"

"Dammit, I'm running drugs for these people, so if you're going to raid them or ruin them or whatever you want to do, you're going to ruin us too." Zinnia loosened her hold of herself. "And no, I don't take anything other than what's prescribed to me. I already told you it's cheaper here."

The room spun. Ellie had to palm the floor to keep from falling. "You're...what?" Maybe she had heard her wrong. Zinnia, studious front-of-the-class Zinnia, couldn't be a drug dealer.

"You get to escape into the woods and ignore everything that's going on here at home. That's great for you, but I don't have that luxury. No one does aside from you."

"I wouldn't call it an escape," Ellie defended. "But if you want to think of it that way, it's better than slinking off over here and pretending you're some tough gutter girl when you're clearly not. The old you would've never done this."

"The old me never had to."

"You don't have to! I can help you. I can pay them off, make whatever you're doing into your last run for them. All you needed to do was ask me for help, Zinnia."

"Help me by leaving us alone." Zinnia was on the verge of tears.

Ellie's stomach turned. Flustered, she tried to redirect their conversation. Anything to keep her from bursting out into full-on sobs. "Why don't you come with me the next time I go to the woods? It'll help get your mind off of things. Kinda like a mini-vacation. We could all use a break sometimes."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Zinnia blew out a puff of air at that, a short bitter note.

Someone knocked. Ellie looked up, and saw Noemi saunter into the room. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said, definitely aware that she was.

"No. We're going home now. We're done here." Zinnia got up. Ellie stood up with a little less grace.

"Heiress, do you mind if I talk to Z real quick? I don't wanna hold you guys up or anything."

"Go ahead. I'll wait in the foyer."

Noemi grinned. "Heh, if you wanna call our hallway that, then, sure. Wait in the foyer, Heiress dear."

Ellie left them alone, going to the front door. She leaned against a wall, not sure what to think of what she'd heard. Zinnia resorting to doing this was so unlike her that it made Ellie's head hurt. Was this Ellie's fault too? Did she cause this to happen? Something heavy ached in her chest.

Things were bad enough for Zinnia as it was. Ellie couldn't just rip the bandage off of her problem by alerting her mother to this. If Noemi's threats were to be believed, a lot of people would be affected. Could she deal with the weight of everything falling?

An untreated wound was doomed to fester, and that's what she'd be doing if she ignored what was going on. Something bad could happen to Zinnia. She could try selling to the wrong people, or someone else could attack this likely opium den for whatever reason and she'd get caught up in a knife fight.

How fast would they abandon Zinnia if something bad happened? That guy didn't have a problem pushing her around earlier. He didn't seem like he'd lay his life down on the line for her. And Noemi didn't look like the type of woman who was above using any of them as a meat shield if she had to.

This wasn't safe. They weren't good people.

But if she told... There was more than Zinnia to think about, and even Zinnia herself was practically begging Ellie to keep her mouth shut. What if they went after her family? Who knew what they were capable of?

Ellie was snapped out of her thoughts by Zinnia joining her at the door. Zinnia sucked in her bottom lip, her eyes glowering. Ellie asked her, "are you okay?"

She was honest with her. "No, I'm not. Let's go." Zinnia led them out the door.

They didn't talk the rest of the way home.

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A/N: The latest chapter of Redwood Crossing, Chapter 17, is out now on the main site. Voting will end this Monday at 11:59 PM EST. Visit the main site to vote now.

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Next post on RRL will be Chapter 10.