“So, they haven’t axed you yet?”
Roxanne, decked out in a trendy flowery blouse and tight fitting yoga pants, eyed me up and down with undisguised malice as I walked into the house.
“No.”
I tried to walk past her and hide in my room, but she blocked me.
“Are you screwing the boss?” she demanded, her evil smile widening.
“Roxanne!”
“Are you?”
“Of course not,” I snapped, appalled. “I work an honest job.”
“Yeah, right.” Roxanne gave me yet another one of those searching up and down looks from her narrowed eyes. “You aren’t smart enough, Hayley. Remember how you got fired from waitressing when you spilled coffee all over a customer and burned him?”
I gaped. “I was sixteen! It was my first job, jeez.”
“You’ve gotten older, but that doesn’t mean you’ve improved any.”
My repressed anger and hurt, suppressed for more years than I remember, surged to the surface. Perhaps because of Willow’s kindness, her odd pep talk, and the fact that I receiveda generous bonus during my first week of employment, I gained a little self-confidence. Enough anyway to hurl my pent-up emotions back at her.
“What have Ieverdone to you?” I shrieked, spittle flecking my lips. “All my life you’ve put me down, called me stupid, hated me. I’m your damnsister, Roxanne.Blood.Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
In shock, Roxanne blinked and took a small step backward. “You took Mom’s and Dad’s love from me.”
“I didn’t ask to be born, you bitch.” I leaned toward her, my fists clenched. “You were four years old when I came along.Four. If Mom and Dad didn’t love you, then maybe you should look inside yourself for the reason why.”
Her suddenly thinned lips warned me in time. She lifted her arm to swing her open hand at my face. Though I’ve never defended myself in a physical altercation in my life, I instinctively blocked the slap. As her arm fell away, I planted both of my fists into her shoulders and pushed.
Roxanne stumbled back with a cry of surprise. She didn’t fall, but her awkward flailing to keep her balance brought a satisfied chuckle from me.
“How dare you,” she cried. “You pushed me.”
“Damn right I did.” I paced into her territorial bubble and smiled grimly. “Next time you try to hit me, I’ll do more than push you. I’ll face plant you into the dirt.”
My satisfaction grew a fraction when she flinched. As did my self-confidence. I’d never stood up for myself before. I never had the sand. Where this courage came from, I truly didn’t know.
But it came just in time.
“Get out of my house,” she screamed. “Now. I hate you. I never want to see your ugly face again.”
I shrugged even as my stomach trembled with the familiar fear. I had no place to go. Alaric’s bonus check sat in my bank, but I had not yet put the deposit on the apartment I’d picked to rent. The management needed my first and last month’s rent as well, and it all had to come from my first paycheck. That wouldn’t arrive for three more days.
“I said I’d move,” I replied, forcing calm into my voice. “When I got paid.”
“I don’t care.”
Roxanne visibly trembled as she stalked across her expensive living room to a side table and grabbed her cigarettes and lighter. She lit up, her hands shaking. In seeing that, I caught a glimpse of her own vulnerability and lack of confidence. Was her perpetual abuse a front to conceal her own lack of self-worth?
The insight offered me a chance to rethink what I knew of her. Even so, I pushed that aside for the moment. “By the time you get a court order to evict me, I’ll be gone.”
She snapped a savage glare in my direction. “I don’t need a court order. I’ll just call the cops.”
“Sorry, sweet sister, but you agreed to let me live here. This is my home, as well as yours. The cops can’t legally drag me out.”
I suspect the steadiness of my voice, the knowledge I presented, gave Roxanne pause. She smoked her cigarette, not looking at me. Instead, she stared vacantly into space. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, though her face was usually easy to read.
