Corinne turns back toward me and when she speaks it’s in a light almost dreamy voice. “You know I used to want children of my own. I wanted to secure my future with your father, but then I watched your stupid mother die in the middle of her bed giving birth toyouand there wentthatidea.”
I flinch.
“You asked what I wanted,” Corinne says quietly to Archie. “All I wanted was security. To be safe and happy and now… I have nothing.”
“That’s not true,” I say before I can stop myself. “You had Daddy for years and this house and…andus. How could you have done this to Margot and the boys and me?”
It sounds pathetic, even to my ears but I still wasn’t expecting her to laugh, a real laugh, rich as butter.
“How?” she laughs again. “Because I hate all of you. Your pathetic brothers, your miserable sister. You stole my youth. Ruined my life. Your father was supposed to take care of me, instead, he died and left me in this mess.”
She waves her hand around as though she’s sitting in a garbage heap instead of at a mahogany table in a gorgeous manor house and I realize that she and Mr. Parker are the same. Life is never enough for them. Nothing is. Their eyes are always fixed on the horizon, their mouths open, consuming everything, tasting nothing.
“Then stay in this mess,” I tell my ex-stepmother. “It’s all yours.”
I turn away from her in disgust.
“We need to go,” I say to Archie and Bill. “We need to get to the compound and—”
“You’re a stubborn disobedient whore,” Corinne says, and I hear the alcohol slur in her voice. “I should have sent your Zia away. She corrupted you.”
I ignore her and focus on Archie and Bill. “Should we take a different car? Corinne’s Bugatti or—”
“I let Parker’s men into the house to attack her.”
The blow lands with a dull thud, obliterating every other thought. I turn back to the shadow of my stepmother. “You…what?”
Corinne laughs, her fake tinkling laugh. “After your father died, Teresa offered to take you. To adopt you or let you live in her house. I refused, not because I loved you but because I knew you were my golden goose. My way out of this shithole.”
“You’re soawful,” I say, pressing a hand to my chest. “You’re just the meanest, worst person.”
Another thin laugh. “Maybe. But you don’t need to worry about revenge darlingdaughter. Parker has already taken care of that.”
In a swift motion, she pulls the veil away from her face.
“Fuck off,” Archie says.
Bill takes a step backward. “Christ.”
There are three thick, black lines running down Corinne’s forehead, more lines under her eyes, lines across her cheeks. My friend Elisa once dressed up as a witch for Halloween and she drew the same lines across her face with eyeliner to make it look saggy and prematurely aged. I blink, wondering if Parker attacked Corinne with a Sharpie or something and then I see that every line is surrounded by angry red flesh. The same marks I had after Adriano gave me my tattoo.
My stomach turns. “He didn’t…?”
“He did,” Corinne says, touching the puffy line running from her nose to her ear. “That’s what I get for helping him. He’s destroyed me.”
I bend at the knees, about to puke on the ground like Emilia. Archie or Bill grabs me by the back of my bulletproof vest and holds me up. “Let’s get out of here.”
“He wanted you so badly, January,” Corinne says quietly. “I thought if I helped him kill your boyfriends, he’d forgive me. I was…wrong.”
All my rage floods away like water down a storm drain. I want to say something to express my pity, my sorrow, but looking into her cold blue eyes I see that it wouldn’t matter. She would hate me more for trying to be nice to her.
“Give me those keys,” Bill says roughly. “We’re letting your other stepkids out before we go.”
Corinne snatches up the keys next to her tumbler. “No. I think I might listen to them scream and cry a bit more. Maybe a few days shitting in their bedrooms will make them feel the way I do.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Archie says. “Hand over the keys or—”
She cackles, the lines on her face flexing grotesquely. “You’ll kill me, you inbred idiot?”
