I wasn’t sure how I was still standing, because I was certain the world beneath my feet had tilted. I could still hear them moaning, the bed creaking when I peeked into his room. Even now, I could feel my soul fracture as it dawned on me what I had discovered.
Caesar might as well have tossed my heart into a meat shredder.
Even now, as she relayed to me that he had fled, she remained smug.
"Cat got your tongue?" I asked. The amusement dancing in her eyes made my throat tighten. I couldn’t find the words. The pain was still too raw.
Charlotte walked past me, facing the rest of them.
"I told you she’d see reason. She’s all bark, no bite."
"Sweet!" someone said. Maybe Ajax, maybe Gerald. My ears were still ringing. Everything felt far away, like I was watching it happen from underwater.
"The shop will clear the transfer by Friday," Aunty Agnes said briskly, already in planning mode. "We’ll split it clean. Twenty-five each."
"Wait, wait," Charlotte interrupted, twirling a strand of hair. "We can’t not give her anything. She’s dramatic. People will ask questions if she suddenly disappears from the scene without a dime."
"True," Uncle Gerald agreed. "She might throw another tantrum. Or worse, start talking to the press."
"Fine," Agnes sighed like it was a chore. "Ten percent. She can keep ten."
"Isn’t that much?" Charlotte grumbled, glancing at me. "You know I have a little one coming," her voice turned soft and my chest constricted painfully. "Why not eight?"
"No, but I think we should raise the upkeep to $3k."
They all hummed in agreement.
My body stayed still, but my mind curled in on itself.
Ten percent. Of my money.
Like I was a pet they’d agreed to feed.
My mouth opened, then closed again. No words came. My voice was somewhere deep, buried under the betrayal, under the image of them, Caesar’s hands on her skin, the sound of her moaning where I used to sleep.
Charlotte’s baby bump shifted as she sat beside Ajax, rubbing it like a trophy.
I felt hollow. Gutted. Like my soul had been pawned off in pieces.
Ten percent. So people wouldn’t suspect.
They weren’t even stealing.
They were strategizing.
I was standing in a room full of wolves.
And fuck, was I exhausted. I ran my hands through my hair. Even the breath I took to calm myself was tainted by the poison they had brought into my home, back into my life.
When I opened my mouth and finally found my tongue, it was laughter that bubbled out.
Sharp. Crooked. Unhinged.
They all turned. Charlotte flinched.
I clutched my sides as the laugh tore out of me, harsh and breathless, like it was trying to crawl its way out of my ribcage.
"What’s so fucking funny?" Charlotte demanded, crossing her arms.
"You," I wheezed, still half-laughing, half-bleeding rage. "I mean, you, Charlotte."
She stiffened. "I didn’t think. I did."
"Oh, honey." I wiped a fake tear with the back of my hand. "You slept with my boyfriend. Got knocked up. Sabotaged your own sister just to end up—wait for it—abandoned."
Her nostrils flared. "He didn’t abandon me."
"Right," I snorted. "He just vanished. Like your common sense. I don’t believe you even ever had one to begin with."
"Watch your fucking mouth, girl!" my aunty snarled.
My eyes narrowed on her, gazes clashing so hard I swear the air sparked.
"No," I said, voice low, razor-sharp. "You watch yours. You think because I kept quiet, I was dense? Nah. I was trying to be decent for my mother’s sake. So now I am going to make myself exponentially clear. Never in your miserable lives will you touch my money."
The silence landed like an anvil. You could have heard a pin drop. The source of this content ɪs NoveI~Fire.net
"What?" Charlotte shrieked. "You can’t do that to me. It’s your fault I am —"
"You are so pathetic," I cut her off.
Her mouth gaped open like a fish, but I simply turned to the rest of them. My words were plain enough.
"You can’t just kick us out. We are..." Ajax’s voice deepened, the way it did when he thought he could intimidate.
"Losers," I completed for him. "You heard me the first time. Get out."
"Your kids." I countered. They were innocent in all of this, but I had goals to be met. I had to accomplish everything I had worked for. If not, every win would have been for nothing.
A scream startled everyone.
Charlotte. Of course.
"I will tell them!" she yelled in my face.
This time, I was genuinely surprised. "What?"
"I know what you have been hiding. I have proof."
Then it clicked. Why she had been in my room for so long.
Everyone looked puzzled as my sister and I kept tense eye contact.
Her lips curled into a smirk. "Just share the money and your secret is safe with me."
My response was a whip as I tossed caution to the wind.
Charlotte’s face crumbled before she shoved her hand into her hoodie pocket and retrieved the picture that stayed locked in a box for a reason.
She flipped it. Golden eyes beneath thick brows, dark hair that framed a tan face.
The face of my nightmares.
The goal of all of this.
Gasps ripped out of their throats as she exposed it.
"You can’t be serious," my aunty gasped. "You kept a picture of... him?"
My sister’s face was a mask of triumph as the room seemed to cave in on itself.
A whisper in the wind.
A whistle before impact.
Ajax swung for my face with a closed fist, with enough force to cave in my skull.
Time seemed to slow. The inside of my wrist burned. My ears picked up the sound of all their beating hearts. My skin buzzed with the vibration traveling through the air. I felt my eyes narrow on a hundred things at once. I noticed a speck of dust on my brother’s eyelash.
My hand shot out in an instant, wrapping around his fist, tight. What came next happened in a single fluid motion.
First I ducked, grabbed his assaulting fist and twisted, then stepped forward before hurling him into the wall at full strength.
The moment he hit the wall with a thud, the pictures falling off and onto his head, my eyes widened.
Gasps of shock and fear rippled through the room, everyone watching with their hands over their mouths.
I twisted my arm. My eyes darted to the crescent tattoo. My heart launched against my ribs, knocking the wind out of me at what I was seeing. It was glowing silver.
My head snapped up when someone let out a piercing wail.
Of course, it was Charlotte.
Her finger pointed at my face. Her brow wide in horror so visceral I could taste it.
"Your eyes!" she shrieked. "Your e-eyes are red. Th-they’re glo-glowing!" she stuttered, taking a step back. The others followed suit. Even Ajax, still partly incapacitated, scrambled back away from me.
"What the hell are you?" my aunty asked, step after step back.
Like hell I knew. But it was better to pretend my eyes didn’t glow when I looked too hard in the mirror.
They scattered like roaches.
Chairs scraped the tiles. Furniture clattered. Feet thudded across the floor. Someone knocked over the flower vase—I think it was Gerald—and water pooled like fresh blood beneath the shattered glass. Even Ajax got up with a grimace but limped to the door behind Aunt Agnes, who was scrambling to get her kids out.
I just stood there, heart rattling.
Charlotte fumbled with the door, her fingers shaking, mouth still twisted in that wail. She was crying, I realized. Big wet tears dragged mascara down her cheeks like punishment. Her hand landed on the knob...
But it wasn’t out of hesitation. It was terror.
Ajax, slumped against the wall, went corpse-white. His eyes bulged, like he’d just seen the Reaper tap him on the shoulder.
"What now?" I muttered, half-exasperated, half-ready to toss someone else into drywall.
Charlotte took a full step back. Her knees knocked.
That’s when I saw it.
A long, dark barrel pressed against her temple like a whisper of death.
Behind her stood five men. All armed.
They were dressed in black. Nothing fancy, but the kind of black that didn’t need drama to scare you. Tactical boots. Gloved hands. Empty eyes.
The man in front had a scar that ran from his left brow across his eye and down to his jaw, like some divine punishment.
He smiled, just slightly.
"Where is my money, Brooks?"