Maybe this is where I turn truly insane.
Or maybe the human psyche can only take so much damage before it rejects, instead of accepts, anything new.
Whatever mechanism of self-protection my mind has chosen to employ, the laughter is uncontrollable. A lifetime of trauma spilling over in the weirdest way as tears of laughter stream down my face from how insanely fucked all of this is.
How Randall has tried for more than eight years to track me down, and he finally does on the same day that his one and only threat becomes invalid.
“I can’t!” I scream, one arm waving in front of my face as I’m doubled over laughing, and that just throws him even more.
“Angel, stop, you’re freaking me out!” He pushes my shoulder, trying to nudge me out of my fit of hysterics, but it doesn’t work.
Through the laughter, I manage to speak. “Do you believe in cosmic karma, big brother?”
He just stares at me, absolutely lost. It takes a minute, but I manage to sober up, standing straight, knife still in hand, ready if I need it.
“There hasn’t been any money this entire time, Randall. You didn’t believe Mom, and you’ve wasted all these years trying to out me for something I never even had. I donated what was left of it to charity before you ever evenknewthat it existed. That’s where Dad’s legacy belongs. Doing some good to those who were harmed. Not supporting your habit.”
“You’re lying,” he says through clenched teeth.
“Look around,” I offer. “Do you see a stash of money? Designer things I might’ve bought with it? No. I used part of it on an education, part of it on this van, to get the hell away from where we came from, and then I gave the rest away. I’ve been supporting Mom with my earnings since I was nineteen, Randall, and living on the change that’s leftover. Because you’ve kept her trapped in the only shitty job she can get back home, and it’s not enough to keep the heat on. But now she’s free!”
I giggle again and there’s fear in his eyes when he realizes there’s nothing but truth to what I’m saying. Or that might just be at how absolutely insane I appear.
He pulls back an arm, holding his fist by his head, but he’s not gonna hit me. This is him trying one last threat in case I’m really sitting on another 10K he could take as a consolation prize.
I twirl the knife between my fingers behind my back, praying I don’t have to use it.
Where is the help I sent out a silent plea for? Come on, universe. Today’s the day you can start looking out for me. Any time, now.
With all the menace I can muster, I speak low and slow. “You’re going to leave, Randall. I don’t care where you go, but you’re going to leave and never come back. Don’t reach out to me, or to Mom, ever again. Is that clear?”
His face contorts into something even more unattractive than his usual expression. “And what are you going to do about it if I don’t?” he asks.
He remembers the tiny, doll-like, fragile girl he grew up with. Today he’s meeting the fierce woman who’s spent nearly a decade planning for this moment. Self-defense is only the backup plan. The real goal is to crush the hope he’s been holding onto, scare him off for good so Mom and I are both finally free, then turn him over to the law. The closer I get to that finish line,the steadier my breaths are coming, the stronger my stance, and the firmer my voice.
“I’m going to do what Mom should’ve done years ago. Get law enforcement involved. File charges. You gotta be close to your third strike now, how’s life behind bars sound? Scrawny boy like you, you’d make a real nice bottom for some whole cell block to pass around. You don’t get lockjaw easy, do you? These country boys out here are hung thick.”
One of my forearms swings up to demonstrate. His face drains of the little color it had to start, and I smirk.
“I’ll be a good sister just this once and warn you, my attorney is even scarier than the copsoryour next prison daddy. And if all that’s not enough to keep you away…”
My hand comes out from behind my back, four-inch blade glinting in the under-cabinet lighting.
That shit really does go with everything, I’m glad I splurged on it for Van Gogh. Soft lighting that enhances every mood. Including vengeance.
He does a double take, maybe not believing his eyes.
“I’ll make sure you never bother anyone again myself.” My grin curls up, letting more of my crazy out for him to see.
Randall backs up now, genuine terror on his face.
Knife-Wielding Psycho Carves Up Anyone in the Way.
I wonder if my brother is recalling the same headlines I am, seeing them reimagined in reference to us instead of my father.
I might never actually do it, but he doesn’t need to know that.
Stepping forward, pushing him to the door with every breath, I murmur one last threat. “Don’t fuck with me. Don’t come near me or Mom ever again, and you can go.”
