Shayna had expected to leave her mother's house furious about being lied to, but instead, their talk had given her a lot to think about. And since her mother had insisted that Julian spend a few days with her, Shayna had the long drive home alone to spend thinking.
All this time she had been comparing her life to a life she thought she had been entitled to, but denied. She could look at Lucy, who grew up in a mansion with servants and think about how that could have been her life if her father had accepted her too. She imagined all the things she could have done if she had had Lucy's upbringing. She would tell herself that if she had grown up with those advantages she would have never taken them for granted. She could look at the choices that Lucy had made and tell herself that she could have done better if she had only been given the chance. But it never could have been her life, because Clifford Stuart never was her father.
She had spent so much time and effort trying to be perfect to show what she was capable of and to try to make up for the mistakes she had made in the past. She hated to admit when she was wrong.
