Rules of Lying (Jane Dough Series) by Stephie Smith Page A

two options,” I said, “and you all must know what they are: sell the house or clean up the yard. Before the fine comes due. And I’m not selling the house.”
    “Why not?” asked Marci. “Mr. Carlson said they offered you much more than its value. What’s the problem?”
    Mr. Carlson? Mr. Carlson had been talking to my family? Well, that just burned me up. My financial affairs should be confidential, and as the president of a bank, Carlson ought to have known better.
    “Now, Jane,” said Nicole, “don’t get upset over Mr. Carlson calling us in to meet with him. The poor man is just trying to do what he thinks is best for you.”
    “He called you in to discuss my business?” I blew out my breath and counted to ten.
    “We really wanted you to make a success of this place, Janie, but you just haven’t been able to do that, have you?” Katherine asked in her I’m the big sister and though I hate it that I’m always right, I really do know so much more than you voice. And she called me Janie to make me feel like a kid again, one who didn’t know what all adults knew. “We warned you that you were biting off more than you could chew by buying this place, but you didn’t listen to us, did you?”
    I gritted my teeth because if I didn’t, there was a good chance they would take a giant chunk out of Katherine when I lunged at her, as I might do any minute.
    Sure, I knew they thought I’d been foolish to buy the house, but not because they’d told me so. In my family there is an unspoken but virulent rule that if the truth is negative, it should only be said behind one’s back. The trick is in how to get the person to hear what was said behind her back, because otherwise, what was the point of saying it? Sometimes the news is delivered with an accidentally forwarded email. Other times they spread the news around until some poor fool, mistakenly assuming it’s common knowledge, inadvertently drops the bomb. In my case, they made sure I overheard the conversation as they were having it; there hadn’t been enough time to set somebody else up.
    I hadn’t really cared since I didn’t expect anything different. The only thing that would have surprised me was if they’d voiced their concerns out in the open, to my face.
    “I’m not moving,” I repeated, this time with a growl. “I love this house. I love what I’ve done with the inside, and I love what I will do with the outside eventually. If Mr. Carlson really had my best interests at heart, he would help me find another solution or he would talk the board into giving me more time. So don’t you dare sit there and tell me he’s only looking out for me. Because he isn’t.
    “Just look around at this place and think back to when I first moved in, the condition of everything then.” I took in my surroundings with pride. From the new oak floors to the warmly painted walls that were a deep yellow glaze above the white chair rail paired with wainscoting below, to the trimmed-out windows and doors … it was all mine and all a result of my hard work. And Mark’s and Sue’s, though Sue had done more cheerleading than work. It irked me that my family would expect me to give up my house just so their problem regarding me and the unwanted publicity would go away.
    “And now that I’m finally getting things the way I want them, Mr. Carlson comes along and wants to buy my house. Well, that’s just too bad. He’s not getting it!”
    “If you’re sure you won’t sell,” said Nicole, “then we’re prepared to give you whatever amount of money it takes so you can hire some men to clean up your yard. Even if we have to borrow the money.”
    “Nope. That’s never gonna happen.” No matter how quickly I paid the money back, they would never let me—or anyone else—forget about it. In twenty years they would still be speaking in hushed tones about that situation with Jane and by then the financial hardship they’d endured would have reached monumental