Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
It had occurred to me to call my brother first, but then he would insist on fighting this battle for me. He would want to protect me, but I needed to do this myself. To prove to myself that I could.
Then I would finally make the choices for my life myself.
“What are you doing here?” Mother screeched the second I opened the door. Her heels clacked across the marble floor as she stomped her way toward me. “You were told to remain where you were until I got this entire mess cleaned up. Do you know how much damage you did? Do you think I can just snap my fingers and sweep all of it under the rug? You have almost destroyed this family.”
“I’m not the one that’s destroying this family,” I said, keeping my chin held high and ignoring the tremble of fear in my gut.
“Excuse me?” Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits as she gave me an opportunity to retract my words.
Instead, I took the envelopes out of my purse and threw them at her feet. The evidence of her betrayal.
I didn’t know what I expected. Regret, maybe some flash of guilt over her face when she realized I knew what she had done. I should have known better.
Only people who had a heart could ever feel regret.
“You!” She stared at me, her face twisting into a grotesque mask of malice. "It was you? You had the audacity to steal from me? Where’s the rest of it?”
“That’s what you have to say for yourself?” I yelled. For the first time in my life, I raised my voice at my mother. “You kept this from me. I got into every single one of those—”
My words were cut off when her hand slammed across my face, her nails raking down my cheek.
“I will have your head for this! You insolent little bitch! Where is the rest of it? Where is the money? The files! You will return those files to me immediately or I swear to God, I will—”
“You will what?” I asked, cupping my cheek quickly before dropping my hand and fisting it at my side. “You already took the only thing from me that ever mattered. What else do you think you can do?”
“I can do so much worse.” She tilted her head back and laughed. “I can make your life so miserable. You will be an outcast once I tell everyone how much of a disappointment you are. The failed art student who couldn’t get into a program, even at a state university, with your father’s name and my money. I will show the world how you are my greatest failing.”
“No one will believe you, especially with those letters of acceptance,” I sneered. “No one listens to you anymore anyway, no one respects you anymore. You have no standing in society.”
“They’ll believe me when I tell them the truth, that you are nothing better than a common whore. I will destroy you.”
“You will do no such thing. If you’re so concerned about this family, how would that look? And if they think I’m a whore, then all any of them are going to say is I’m exactly like my mother. The woman who had her husband raise her bastard son and tried to hide it under the rug. Do you think people are going to believe you? That you can throw me under the bus and regain your standing? If I go down, you’re coming with me.”
Her hand flew again, catching the side of my jaw, but I didn’t care. Standing up to her felt so good. It felt overdue. If she knew about me and Thomas, then she was going to make my life hell, anyway. There was no reason not to push her further. Maybe if she destroyed me, if I was no longer of any use, she would leave me alone.
“I know about the gardener. I know you were sleeping with him, I can tell—”
“Yeah, I did. I was stupidly acting out, and I thought I was in love. Then I found out that you were paying him to fuck you since the summer he turned sixteen. You can call me a whore, but then you like to fuck underage boys,” I fired back with so much conviction in my words that it felt like spitting venom.
There was a small part of me that was grateful that she only knew about Raul. If she knew about Thomas, then she would have the upper hand. That would destroy me and him. I didn’t care about me anymore, but he had suffered enough at her hand.
She let out a scream and lunged for me. Her nails were out in front of her like claws poised to tear into my skin.
I grabbed her wrists and held them back from me, but there was nothing I could do. With more strength than should have been possible for a lady of the Upper East Side, she pushed me to the floor, my head smacking into the marble tile. She was on me in a second, pinning me down, her hands raking over my face slap after slap. I could taste the blood filling my mouth and no matter how I tried to lift my arms to shield my face, I couldn’t stop the barrage of her practically clawed hands attacking me.