the kink club • luke hemmings ✔️

17. the one where she's daddy's favourite.

chapter seventeen:
the one where she's daddy's favourite.

"I'm just saying, Soph. You need to find yourself a man. A good man. A man who can sweep you off of your feet and give you butterflies in your stomach whenever he's around," my sister says, blowing on her nails as I roll my eyes at the video call displayed on the computer monitor. "I've found someone, and he's great! You should, too."

"Tell her," Luke mutters under his breath, his jaw clenched a little as he glares at the back of the laptop screen in front of him. "Tell her now."

"Not everyone wants or needs to be in a relationship, Poppy," I sigh, ignoring both of their statements completely. "Some people are perfectly happy the way they are,"

"Single?"

"Yes."

"Something that you aren't,"

"Well-"

"I just expected more from you, you know," she interjects. I resist the urge to end the call. "I mean, you've been away from home for a while now and Mom and Dad just always assumed it was because of some guy."

"Shouldn't you be planning a wedding?" I ask, wanting to divert her thoughts from my life to the one thing she was actually supposed to be talking to me about.

"Yes."

"Then why aren't you?"

"Because I've got people already doing that for me. No use in stressing yourself out with work when someone else can do it for you," she laughs, somewhat smugly.

My eyebrows furrow in confusion. "But it's your wedding."

"Indeed it is. Very smart point, my dear, it's a wonder why you dropped out of college," she jokes, though there's an edge to her voice that makes me wince.

Opposite me, Luke is sat with his arms crossed and an equally as unhappy look on his face. I can tell that what Poppy's saying isn't exactly sitting well with him.

"Tell her," he mouthes. I hesitate. "Or I will."

"So, what do you do now?" I ask my sister awkwardly, diverting my gaze from Luke and sending a quick apologetic one his way instead.

"Oh, I don't work."

At this, my ears perk up. The family favourite, unemployed? "What?" I ask, not sure if I'd heard her right. "What do you mean?"

"I don't have a job, Soph." Poppy says, carelessly looking at her fresh nail polish. I stay in my seat, confusion written all over my face. "I quit the law firm a while back."

"How the hell do you get by, then?" I ask, in complete disbelief.

Even Luke's looking at me with a raised eyebrow, knowing more than anyone how much my parents value Poppy over me because they believe she's their star child. I never used to blame them, and to some extent, I still don't. After all, I was the one who ran away from home, dropped out of Uni, lost my chances at an Accountancy degree and instead became flatmates with a bunch of girls and guys who more or less lived the exact same way as I did.

I wasn't like Poppy, which her rich house in the Hills and even richer lifestyle and ten times as rich fiancé. I didn't have any connections in the business world and god forbid I stepped foot into any court room to plead a client innocent when I knew they weren't.

I was just me; drop out, slight reject, and an apparent failure as the youngest daughter. That's what my dad called me before I packed my bags to live in New York and that's what he's been calling me ever since.