It all made sense.

Clary let out a heavy breath as she stared up at her ceiling. It was painted white, like most ceilings, but it was painted in long swirling strokes that created semi-circles and her eyes followed the swooping patterns, head not moving on the pillow as she searched out the glide of the paint within the scope of her vision.

She had obviously known that there was something more when she had heard Sebastian call her a cunt, and the way that he had said it.

But even though she was angry at Jace, and angry at the people in that room with Sebastian who had been there when he had been saying nasty things about her, she hadn't really processed that there had been anything quite so personal about her.

She had thought that maybe Sebastian was just saying that because Isabelle had told him that she didn't like her. She had thought that it was because she wasn't from their world and was a little stuck up, and because she was rich and because of the way she dressed and maybe because she was taking Jace's attention away from the rest of them.

But no.

It was because her father had made a deal to keep himself out of trouble and it had ended with Sebastian and Max going to jail.

Which Clary believed.

Everything that Jace and Celine and Stephen had told her, she believed.

She knew that she didn't agree with their points of view on everything, but she did believe it, she didn't doubt what they were saying.

Clary had things that she had wanted to say when they were at Jace's parents place, but even though she wasn't known for keeping her mouth shut when she had something on her mind, she wasn't an idiot, and she knew better than to interrupt with things that they didn't want to hear. And even though there had been things she wanted to say, wanted to ask, her brain had been completely scrambled and she would have had no way of knowing how to articulate all of them.

Like—maybe if Sebastian and Max hadn't been doing illegal things then they wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place.

Like maybe driven home the point that she had made about the best business decision. She knew Stephen had said that it wasn't just the fact that Valentine had chosen his business over them, that it was the fact he had lied; but the reason he had lied was to keep his business safe, so it all tied in together. She had seen Jace's expression, though, when she said what she had, and she knew that he didn't agree with what she had said.

And it was probably because he loved Sebastian and Max, and so it wasn't just a black-and-white business decision that was made.

But at the same time, she loved her father and her brother. They had...Strange relationships, different from what a lot of people had with their families, Clary knew that, and it was definitely different from what Jace had with his family and his good friends who he considered to be family. They were so close and they were tactile and they were so open about the way that they felt about each other. Clary couldn't remember the last time that her and her father had actually had an honest conversation, it wasn't as though he was home enough for her to feel comfortable talking to him about things that mattered to her. And with her brother—they had been really close when they were younger, because they were the only other steady presence they had. They had drifted apart over the years, although Clary had always thought that they still had a good relationship.

Until all of this unfolded.

And now she wondered what else there was that her brother had been keeping from her.

And she wondered how preoccupied she must have been to not know that any of this was happening when Jonathan had been living here with her last year.

Clary let out a sigh, breathing out heavily and whistling through her teeth as she closed her eyes and rubbed her hand over her face. She had no idea how to process all of this, because it was just so outside her realm of expertise and anything that she had ever dealt with before.

A few months ago, she'd never had someone that she considered a friend sleep with her boyfriend, but that had been more like something that a girl like her had to deal with, it felt more realistic—stupid high school drama. She had thought about it, she still had Kaelie at her side, and then she had let out some of her anger when Lydia had finally pushed her over the line. Part of her also wanted to do that to Jordan, to scratch up his face and pull at his hair, but she had honestly already moved on, she wasn't interested in getting into a fight with him because she didn't want him back. It had just been because Lydia had pissed her off that she had retaliated so much.

But drug arrests and blackmail and unregistered guns and prison sentences and revenge?

That wasn't something that had ever been on her radar!

And now she was thrown into the middle of this whole mess that had no idea how to untangle. And it wasn't just Jace—although that was definitely the biggest blow to her confidence and her heart—but it was Maia and Magnus as well. She didn't really have many friends, other than Simon and Kaelie, now that she had lost that casual friendship that she had with Lydia, and she had really enjoyed what she had with Maia and Magnus. She had liked the way it had felt so easy talking to them and how it felt as though they had been completely open and honest with her and as though they didn't expect anything from her.

It turned out that it had been the literal opposite.

Clary got up in her bed, scrubbing her hands over her face and tugging her fingers through her long hair, then she swung her legs back over the side of the bed and got up, walking over to the window and looking out. Her bedroom was in the front of the house and it looked over the street below, and she could look across the road and up slightly, to Simon's house. His bedroom was also at the front of his house and when they were younger, they used to have flashlights that they would switch on and off at each others rooms when they were meant to be asleep.

She thought about texting Simon, but honestly, she had literally just spun a tale of trust in Jace when he had shown up here this morning, even though he had obviously known that it had been Jace who had upset her in the first place.

She would feel like an idiot for going back just a couple of hours later and saying that she had actually been wrong that whole time.

The whole time.

There was a knock at Clary's bedroom door, but she didn't answer. It would be her mother, and she really didn't want to talk to her right now. The conversation could really go either way, although Clary was leaning more toward the way that her mother usually treated her, which was with mild interest but mainly distracted by her wine glass or whatever trip she was going on next. But it may also go in the overly concerned direction that she had displayed earlier, and while Clary might have loved that as a kid, she really didn't want it right now.

She just wanted to be left alone.

So Clary didn't say anything and she didn't go over to the door and open it. She listened to another knock and then there wasn't anymore after that, so she went back to staring out the window.

The afternoon turned into evening, and she still wasn't hungry, so she didn't leave her room. She showered and blow-dried her hair and then sat on her bed, watching an episode of A Discovery of Witches on the TV as she did her hair in two French braids. Then she moisturised her face and her legs and her arms and examined the healing wound on her lip in a hand mirror and then fell asleep.

Kaelie had known that something had been up with Clary for the past week or so, but she hadn't pushed it, and she still didn't know. When Clary showed up at school the next day, Kaelie linked her arm together with Clary and then walked into the courtyard with her. Her friend had been right, Lydia and Jordan had obviously decided to make their relationship public, deciding that enough time had passed since he and Clary had broken up that it wasn't such a big deal. Or maybe it was the fact that Clary had made it clear she had known about them the whole time and so Lydia had given up pretending to be classy.

"They're disgusting," Kaelie sniffed as she looked over to where Lydia was draped over Jordan in a tacky public display of affection.

"I agree," Aline piped up, because her and Helen had walked over to meet them. Clary noted that they were holding hands, fingers linked together, which wasn't something that she had ever noticed before, but maybe that was just her fault for not paying much attention to them.

"Are you okay?" Helen's voice was softer than the other two, but it still drew her attention. Clary looked over to where Lydia and Jordan were and she tilted her head to the side. She didn't like the pair of them together, but honestly, with everything else that was going on in her head, this just didn't seem important enough for her to waste her energy on.

"I'm fine," Clary responded. She wanted to ask why Aline and Helen were suddenly with them, when they had never hung around with them in the past, although she didn't mean it in a nasty way, just in a surprising way.

"Clary!" Came a call from behind them and Clary turned around to see Simon walking in their direction. He raised an eyebrow at Aline and Helen, although he flashed a smile at Helen, as though they knew each other, before looking back at Clary. "How was your weekend?" He asked her, keeping the wording open, although obviously referring to what had happened yesterday. Clary gritted her teeth together and swallowed hard.

"It was fine," she muttered, and was grateful when the bell for form room rang out. Simon obviously didn't believe her, but he didn't pull her up on it.

They went to class and they carried on their day as though it was any other day.

And Clary did the same thing the next day, and the day after, and the day after.

She kept her head down and didn't say much, but she appreciated the little circle of people that seemed to be surrounding her suddenly—not asking her about what was going on, but keeping her company and making her laugh occasionally. It turned out that Aline was actually quite funny, and Lindsey had started joining them at lunch breaks, even though she was two years younger than them.

Maia and Magnus both text her, multiple times.

Jace didn't.