"It wasn't about me this time," Lucy snapped, though despite her sharp tone, she was careful with what she said. It would only have caused trouble, bringing Max into that whole mess, for everyone involved. What Penny had told her wasn't something she was about to take lightly, not when she'd been trusted with it and especially not when Penny'd been good enough to tell her about what happened with Jude in the first place. Were she more vindictive, she might have said it just to make Max angry at Jude, but that would have been in bad taste. She'd meant what she'd said the moment before, about Max being happy.

After that, she paused, her breathing heavy. The last thing she'd intended to happen that day was to get into an argument with her brother, and she was going to end it now, if she had any say in the matter. "And I'd do anything for you, Max," she sighed, her voice dropping considerably. "Anything, for you to be happy. And if that means letting you go..." She threw her hands up, in a gesture of defeat. "Well, it'll be better for the two of you without me around."