A/N: This is the first draft of House of Cards, as such, there may be typos, grammatical errors, or phrasing issues. I am more than happy for you to point them out to me, just don't be rude. I'll always accept constructive criticism.

  I will be posting one chapter a week here, but if you find the story on AO3, I will be uploading the chapters there as I finish them. :)

  Today. Fucking. Sucked.

  I lost my job. My car broke down. There’s a leak in my roof. Oh, and my cat ran away. I’d ask if it could get any worse, but I already knew the answer to that and I absolutely did not want to jinx it.

  My couch squeaked as I sank down into it, the threadbare material scratching against my bare arms.

  A vibration from my pocket had me pulling my phone out. A notification for a text message from my boyfriend.

  Oh thank god. If anyone could make me feel better, it’d be him. It took only a few seconds to unlock my phone and open his message.

  It took far longer to read the message and actually comprehend what it said.

  Matt: hey rory so i dont think its gonna work out i thought i could fall in lov with u but its been 2 yrs and i still dont feel the ?? so i figurd bettr to brake it off now rather than l8r. Sry

  The phone slipped from my fingers and I just stared at my hand. I hadn’t said it! I hadn’t actually said it! What the hell? What happened to bad news coming in threes? What else was going to go wrong?

  I wasn’t going to cry. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction, even if he couldn’t see me. I would know.

  Alcohol. I needed copious amounts of alcohol…that I don’t have. I’d polished off the st of it st weekend and hadn’t gone out to get more. It wasn’t a good idea to go get some now, no matter how much I wanted it. I’d need to save whatever money I had until I found another job.

  At least I didn’t have to worry about rent. My parents had wanted to buy me something far nicer than this, but I’d absolutely refused. I hadn’t wanted them buying me a pce at all, but when the tears had started to well up in mama’s eyes, I’d given in pretty quick. The tears had also dried up just as quick, but even then I’d known they were fake. I just hated to see her cry.

  That’s how I ended up here. I wasn’t in the best part of town, but it was far from the worst.

  Renting probably would have been better, at least then I wouldn’t have to deal with fixing the leak in my roof. I could just contact my ndlord and have them do it.

  I picked my phone back up, ignoring the text message still gring at me from the screen to check the time. It was 4:30. I had an hour before I needed to be at mama and papa’s for dinner.

  We did this every Friday. The entire family got together and ate like we were a normal, functioning family. At least, those of us in the country or not in jail. Times when we were actually all able to attend were far and few between. This happened to be one of those times. Which meant that I absolutely could not skip it.

  It would be nice to see my brothers though. It had been a while since I’d seen Ats. He’d just gotten out of prison, so I was really excited to see him.

  Orion had been out of the country for the st month, doing some sort of work for papa. I’m not entirely sure what it was, but it had seemed important.

  Mars and I saw each other every Friday though, same with my sister, Callisto. They both worked with mama, so they never sent them away.

  I’d need to start getting ready if I was going to be there on time. It didn’t take long, maybe twenty minutes before I was out the door and starting up my car.

  My parents lived outside of town and it took me just over an hour to get there, so I was te. That was fine though, they wouldn’t care. Mars probably wouldn’t even be there yet, he was always te.

  The rge wrought-iron gate opened by itself as I pulled up to it and I kept going. The driveway was a little over a mile long and the wn was kept well-manicured, but in a wild kind of way. There were explosions of color wherever I looked, and so many trees that I didn’t even know the names of.

  Their house was huge, and I really did miss living there. I missed having the maids and the cook and not having to worry about anything. At the same time, though, I liked my independence. I liked not having to answer to papa and tell him why I’d been out so te, or mama bothering me about marrying Matt.

  Shit. I was going to have to tell them that he broke up with me. Hopefully they woudn’t be disappointed.

  I parked the car and got out, heading up the white stone stairs. I didn’t bother knocking on the door, because mama and papa would absolutely have a go at me for thinking I wasn’t welcome inside whenever I wanted to be here. So, inside the house I went.

  Mama was bustling around somewhere, I could hear her talking to Nancy, the head of staff. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but it probably had to do with dinner.

  “Rory!”

  My sister came flying out of one of the side rooms like a hurricane as she wrapped her arms around me. I probably would have fallen over if she wasn’t a damn mountain and kept me from hitting the floor.

  If I didn’t know any better I’d be positive that mama had had an affair with a fucking giant or something to conceive Callisto. She was an inch over six feet and built like a damn Amazon.

  I tried to extract myself from her, but she refused to let me go. It was the usual song and dance. She wrapped me in a tight hug and wouldn’t let go until one of our other family members came and got her to let go.

  Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too much longer. I didn’t typically like being touched, but there was no way that I’d stop Calli from hugging me—not that it would work even if I asked her. She had a problem about personal space and knowing when to respect it.

  “Calli, you look like you’re squeezing the life out of our little princess.”

  I shared a look with my sister and she released me. I turned towards the voice and smiled at our youngest brother, Orion.

  He was only slightly taller than Callisto and had jet bck hair—hair that all of us kids except for Mars shared—and mama’s bright blue eyes. Tattoos peaked out of the colr of his shirt, and I knew that he was absolutely covered in them. He’d once joked that he was inked in pces I didn’t want to imagine.

  Ats stalked into the house, his green eyes hard and unfeeling. The moment he saw us though, his entire body rexed and his expression softened. I ducked past Orion, poking him in the side on my way past.

  Or, at least, that’s what I tried to do. Orion’s arm snaked out and snagged me around the waist to pull me into a hug.

  Yeah, not being touchy doesn’t really fly in this family.

  “Oh, there are my other babies,” my mother said as she whisked into the foyer of the house. She was tiny, compared to the rest of us, being five and a half feet.

  None of us had inherited her blonde hair, but Mars and Orion had gotten her eyes. Me, Ats, and and Callisto had gotten dad’s eyes and hair—though my sister’s hair was currently neon green.

  Mars was the only one of us that had red hair, a trait he’d gotten from Grandma Connie.

  “Hi Mama, is Mars already in there?” I inclined my head towards the door she’d come through. One that lead to the dining room.

  “He is, compining that you guys are taking so long he’s going to waste away into nothingness.” She chuckled and shook her head.

  Orion darted past me and scooped Mama into his arms, her feet dangling a few inches off the ground. She swatted at his arms, demanding to be put down.

  It was hard not to ugh, so I didn’t try to stop it. The youngest of our brood finally put her down and we all headed into the dining room.

  Papa was already sitting in his usual seat at the head of the table. I took my seat at his right side and Mama across from me. Mars was in his seat next to her and Orion sat next to him. Ats was on my other side and then Callisto next to him.

  “Finally! I was going to wither away into dust if you took any longer!” Mars draped dramatically in his chair. I rolled my eyes and smiled.

  This is what I needed after the day I’d had. My family surrounding me in their warmth and love. I knew Mama would ask how Matt was, and I dreaded that conversation. While they hadn’t picked him specifically, they had liked him. He’d been a member of one of the families under Papa, so they’d approved—if only barely.

  The cooks started bringing the food out and my eyes lit up with delight at the sight of fiorentina steak with roasted potatoes and focaccia bread. Hopefully there’d be geto or tiramisu for dessert.

  We ate in silence for a few minutes before Mama spoke up. “So, Rory, how are you and Matt? Do we hear wedding bells yet?”

  Rocks formed in my stomach and I stopped eating, pcing my fork on the napkin and taking a deep breath. I gnced up at her and released the breath.

  “He broke up with me.”

  All eating stopped and all eyes turned towards me.

  “What do you mean, ‘broke up with you’ principessa?” Papa asked, his emerald eyes narrowing at me.

  “Exactly what I said. He told me that he didn’t feel the spark and that he wasn’t going to try anymore, that it wasn’t worth it,” I said with a shrug.

  Okay, that wasn’t exactly what he said, but it was pretty close.

  The table erupted at once with all three of my brothers threatening various injuries and maiming on him. A simple look from Papa had them all quieting down.

  “Do you agree with his decision?” Papa asked me.

  I tilted my head to the side and then nodded. “I do. He’s a good man, but he was boring. There wasn’t anything there.”

  Papa nodded and then went back to his food as if there was nothing else to discuss.

  That was the good thing about him, he trusted my decision making. He knew that if something had needed to be done, I would have already done it, or set it in motion.

  The rest of dinner was just normal conversation and before I knew it, I was driving home and colpsing into bed with the st thought that I’d need to start looking for a new job in the morning.