Chapter 29-2

Once he was gone, Lex bolted for the elevator.  There was nothing left for here there, no personal trinkets to collect from her office, no one to say goodbye to.  As the doors slid open, she entered with her head down, only to realise there was already someone in there. Liesl gaped at Lex.  "Oh!  Lex, I heard, I'm so sorry-" "Don't."  Lex had only a shred of dignity left, and she tried to hold onto it as the elevator descended.  "MacNamara told me.  You both played me." Liesl shrugged, dropping the pretence.  "It wasn't deliberate, but I really like Ryan, sweetie.  Dicks before chicks, you know?" The doors dinged open and Lex fled, careening down Walker Street and into the unknown. *** The new apartment was the first thing to be repossessed, then both cars.  Lex had hoped she could hang onto the terrace house, but with all her personal loans and credit cards and phone debts, she didn't have a choice.  She filed for bankruptcy, and the bank gave her ten days to evacuate the property. She sold what she could of her designer clothes, the only asset she had left, and was abysmally disappointed by the paltry amount she received.  She'd spent tens of thousands of dollars on shoes and coats and dresses over the years, so much wasted income she'd never recover. After everything was packed or sold, Lex looked around the empty house.  She thought she might have been able to still sense Otis somehow - perhaps imagine him at the piano, or singing in the kitchen, but there was nothing except the shell of a house that wasn't a home without him. Her mother waited for her out the front as Lex locked the door and left the key in the mailbox.  "Goodness, darling!  Is that all you have?" Lex hefted her large backpack into the boot of the car and slumped into the seat.  "Yes." "But what about knickknacks?  Mementos?  Photo albums?" "I don't have any of that stuff, Mum."  Lex stared sullenly out the window, leaning against the cutting edge of the seatbelt.  She didn't have a choice but to call her mother, but that didn't mean she had to act happy about it.  "Where are we going?  This isn't the way to your place?" "Well, I've been meaning to say something, but... I thought you'd be more comfortable staying with your sister for a little while." Lex had thought she couldn't possibly sink any lower; she'd been wrong.  "Mum..." "Hear me out, darling.  Melinda has that lovely big house with a spare room, and she's said you can stay for as long as you need, as long as you help out with the kids and the housework." "Oh, cool.  Like her slave." "Alexandra, don't be like that!  I don't really have room at my flat, and besides, you and your sister-" "Half-sister." "-Could use some time to properly bond, don't you think?"  They stopped at traffic lights, and Lex's mum patted her leg comfortingly.  "I'm sure you'll love it, and you'll end up never wanting to leave." *** Lex lasted three days.  To be fair, it wasn't entirely her sister's fault, but Melinda didn't help things.  As soon as Lex arrived, Melinda put her to work in her sprawling house in a cheap Western Sydney suburb.  At first, Lex embraced the chores, keeping to herself and keeping her head down as she cleaned until she passed out in bed from exhaustion, too tired to even dream of Otis' broken face. But as the days passed, Melinda insisted on having conversations with Lex, and just like their discussions growing up, they always ended badly. "Alexandra, did you forget to separate the coloured laundry from the whites?" her sister said, entering the bathroom where Lex was scrubbing out the shower stall.  Melinda brandished a pale blue shirt at her.  "This is supposed to be white!" "Oh.  Sorry."  Lex had always sent her laundry out to be cleaned until Otis came along.  He was in charge of things like that. "Sorry?  Little sister, look at you!"  Melinda chortled condescendingly, looking down at where Lex knelt on the tiles.  "You're supposed to be the smart one, and you can't even sort washing!  No wonder you lost your fancy job."