A strangled sound rips from her lips as I wrap my hands around her scrawny neck and shove her back up against the wall. Having an additional six inches in height on her is helpful, and I revel in the panic splayed across her face as I lift her off the ground, still holding her by the neck while I push her forcefully against the wall. “You really are a stupid cunt, Cady. How many times have I told you not to spew crap about my mother? You know what I’m capable of. You know the things I have done. The things your husband has forced me to do. I could snap your neck right now, and I’m sorely tempted.”
“Thena?”
I curse internally as Arlo’s newly deep voice calls out from behind me. I have worked hard to hide this side of my life from him, and as much as I’d love to throttle this bitch until all the air leaves her lungs, I don’t think my brother would appreciate me strangling his mother in front of him.
Reluctantly, I let her go, and she slumps against the wall, sucking exaggerated lungsful of air down her greedy throat. A choking sound rips through the air as Cadance bends over, clutching her neck and gasping in an overly dramatic fashion.
I roll my eyes and count to ten in my head before turning around to face my brother.
“What’s going on?” Arlo asks, wearing a frown. He’s in sweatpants and a hoodie, and his hair is slightly damp. I’m guessing he’s just returned from his usual Saturday morning training session.
“It was just a minor disagreement. Nothing for you to worry about.” I smile as I walk toward my brother, the sound of my high heels clicking off the tiled floor competing with the choked sobbing sounds coming from the diva at my back.
“What did she do?” he asks in a low tone when I reach him.
“She was talking crap about my mom again.”
“You’re going to pay for this,” Cadance says over a sob as she shoves past me, still clutching her throat. “I’m telling your father.”
“Knock yourself out, Cady.” He won’t do anything except utter a half-hearted condemnation. Dad needs me, and while he uses Arlo to control me, he knows he won’t get me to do his bidding so easily if he forced me to bow to his vain, selfish, man-stealing whore of a wife. Especially after she insulted my mother to my face.
If I was Cadance, I’d be second-guessing the power I hold over my husband’s cock.
I grimace the instant the thought lands in my mind because eww.
“You should do it,” Arlo says, pulling me back into the moment.
“Do what?” I ask, brushing strands of messy blond hair out of his eyes.
“Kill her.”
My eyes widen at the calm way he said it and the intense look on his face. “She’s your mother.”
“I hate her.”
“Did she do something else?” I ask, wondering if he’s been concealing stuff from me. We talk or text every day when I’m in Boston, but it’s not the same as being here in the flesh. I try to make it home once a month, purely to see Arlo, but he’s in his sophomore year now, and he recently made varsity, which is a massive deal at fifteen. It’s the middle of football season, and he has practice and away games, and I don’t often see a lot of him if I am here.
So, I haven’t been around as much in person, and I’m wondering if shit is going down I know nothing about.
“No. She’s actually afraid of me now.” A devilish grin ghosts over his mouth and his big brown eyes glitter with pride.
Ice tiptoes up my spine. “Why?”
“She can’t physically push me around anymore.”
Arlo had a huge growth spurt last summer, and he looms over all of us now at six two. Not sure where he got his height from as dad is at least a couple inches under six feet and Cadance is only five four. I inherited my tall frame from my mom. Looking at old photo albums of her is like looking in the mirror at times. We have the same long blonde hair, blue eyes, and slim, statuesque build.
“What happened and why didn’t you tell me?”
He puffs out his chest. “You don’t need to look out for me, Thena. I’m not a kid anymore. I can look out for myself.”
I grip his shoulders, peering deep into his eyes, trying not to overreact. “You’re my little brother. My only brother. I will always look out for you.”
“Like I’ll always look out for you.” Steely determination washes over his face. “I know what he makes you do, and you don’t have to do it anymore. It’s not your responsibility. It’s mine. I’m the heir, and it’s time I stepped up.”
Horror engulfs my insides like flames pitching through my veins. “What the hell has happened?”
“Dad told me everything, and I’ve been to HQ. After football is over, I’ll begin my training and?—”
