“Tell me how you really feel, Dahlia.” Mom storms across the kitchen to me.
“You’re the most ungrateful child I’ve ever known,” she continues. “I feed you, clothe you, pay for anything you need and want. You’re undermyroof and don’t have a job because you’re a lazy piece of shit.”
Rage ignites in my veins like a match striking the box. The lid I kept tightly shut over the years bursts open, and I can’t hold back all the things I’ve been dying to tell my mother.
“And you’re a self-centered, money-hungry bitch who slept with a married man and became his mistress!”
Mom grabs her chest, horror-stricken. “Who the hell do you think you are? My relationship with your father ismybusiness. So stay the hell out of it!”
She raises her hand to slap me. I duck to escape the blow but move too late. Her palm cracks against my cheek, the force whipping my head to the side. The side of my face throbs like a heartbeat, and tears sting my eyes. I pinch my lips together and touch the sensitive skin with my fingertips while I glare at my mom.
She stabs a finger at me and makes that stupid bulldog face that shows off her bottom teeth. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but it stops now.” She backs away, then stops to drive the figurative knife deeper in my chest. “You know what? I do know. You’re around Jaxon way too much, and he’s clearly rubbing off on you. If you have half a mind, you’ll stay away from that boy.”
I ball my fingers into tight fists by my sides. “Yeah, maybe he is rubbing off on me, but he’s taught me more about boundaries and sticking up for myself than you ever did. I’m not going with you. I’m staying here.”
“You’re coming with me whether you like it or not,” she says. “You want to know what the Reckoning is? Just ask your precious brother. He’ll know all about it and maybe then it will repel you from him.”
“The only person who repels me is you. You did this! Not me.” I put distance between her and me, but she doesn’t understand personal space and looks seconds away from beating the fuck out of me. “By the way, I didn’t have a little tantrum the other day. It was a mental break. Tantrums are what you’re good at.”
“Oh, please, Dahlia.” She waves her hand to dismiss everything I said. “You’ve always been the dramatic one. You wantthe attention. Well, guess what? You got it from everyone else, but I refuse to give in to your childish behavior. You broke something of mine that’s important, just out of spite, and I know those stitches on your arm are fake.”
“They are not.” I want to strangle that woman so bad. When this is over, I’m looking into places to live. I don’t know how I’ll get a place without a job, but there has to be something out there. I can’t do this shit anymore.
Mom rolls her eyes. “Stop it. You’re always lying.”
I tremble with rage and hold myself back from attacking her. Then something inside me snaps, and I relax my body. My face falls, and an icy demeanor takes over.
She notices the change and takes it as a win. She sniffs and turns, giving me her back as she returns to the stove.
“And you’re a creepy old hag who has a thing for my brother,” I say calmly.
Mom freezes. In a blink, she’s crossed the room and raised her hand to slap me again.
A flash of tan skin and black fabric knocks her away from me. I cover my mouth and stumble back into the seat I abandoned. Jaxon slams Mom onto the table. Her back smacks the surface with a loudthump, and the silverware and china clatter on the table.
“Get off me!” She grabs Jaxon’s arm...the arm he’s pressed against her throat to pin her down.
He ignores her and holds a large pocketknife to her throat. Leaning down, he bares his teeth. His eyes lose their light and become vacant as he blacks out.
I lunge at him and wrap my arms around his lean body. I mold myself against his side and tug him to get him off of my mom. He doesn’t budge and shoves his arm into her throat to quiet her screams.
“I warned you, Evelyn.” Jaxon’s voice deepens and is scratchy from his barely held together restraint. “I told youwe can find out together what would happen if you hurt her.”
She shouts for Dad as she struggles to get out of Jaxon’s hold. “Get your”—she sucks in a ragged breath—“hands off of me.”
The corners of Jaxon’s lips tip up in a humorless smile. “No.”
“Jaxon,” I murmur, and squeeze my arms around him.
“You’ve made her cry,” Jaxon growls. “Hit her. Ignored her. You’ve done a lot of things to Dahlia, and I’ve given you chance after chance over the years to change your ways.”
Mom whimpers and kicks her legs. Her feet weakly knock into me. Jaxon digs the knife’s blade into her neck, drawing a bead of blood.
“Jaxon, please.” I tug him again.
His smile broadens and his pupils dilate. “My father is gone. It’s just us, bitch. No one’s going to save you.”
A shiver rolls down my spine, and I suck in a breath as he drags the tip of the knife down mom’s throat to the top of her chest.
