I felt hollow. Artificial. I wasn't real. Nothing was real anymore. The tears started then. Quiet tears. Silent tears. My "Daddy tears."Jay glanced do...n for a split second and right back up at Daddy again. The silence stretched on.Finally, Jay said: "I will require one additional thing." Not one cent!" Daddy screamed, spittle spraying across the desk, his face crimson. I've never seen Daddy that mad.Jay acted as if he hadn't spoken at all. "You, sir, have the power ruin any man you wish. I. When I can. Not full time or anything.’‘You just enjoy it.’He has to swallow hard once more. ‘Yes.’ And nods, as if the gesture will somehow expand a sentence yet again pathetically short, hopelessly inadequate. ‘Me too.’ She straightens up. Smiles at him. ‘There aren’t many places like this. Away from it all.’‘I hope it never changes.’ With a small sense of triumph, he realises he’s still able to string words together. To manage consecutive sentences, even. ‘Be a shame, this ever stopped being. ‘Shelley, look.’ There was an urgency to his tone as he stooped slightly, pointing to the bottom right hand corner of the picture. ‘See that? Tell me what you think it says.’ Melissa’s breath caught in her throat. Show time. And when both turned to peer down at her over the balcony rail, she forced a smile. ‘Everything okay?’ ‘These paintings,’ the man said after a pause. ‘This one of the girl in the tree-house.’ He waved back at the portrait they’d just been studying and the pictures either. We could both get jobs with him, and make enough money to get by.", she said with a giant smile on her face."How much money are we talking about?" Not that it matters, but, he would start us off around $40,000/yr. I am still Daddy's little girl and I usually get what I want." My head started spinning again. "And the nice thing is that we can work from home. Although the commute wouldn't be totally terrible, it would be a lot to do on a daily basis, so, we can just do our work from home." Wow,.