“What are you talking about?” I frown. “You’ve waited long enough for what?”
She releases a sound very close to a snarl. “To finally prove that I’m better than Iris. That I deserve more than she ever did.”
I feel like I’m getting whiplash with her burst of anger. “You’re doing this because of my mom? I thought you two were friends.”
Aubrey clenches her jaw and her cheeks flush. “Friends? No. Never friends.”
I stare at her, disbelief buzzing through my veins.
“That’s not what my mom said,” I push back. “She said you were close in college.”
Aubrey gives a soft, dismissive sound under her breath. “Your mother talks too much.” Her fingers tap lightly against the stack of papers. “Now, we’re wasting time. You’re going to sign those documents.”
My gaze flicks down, then back up at her.
“No,” I reply firmly.
Leon lets out a short, jagged laugh beside me.
“See?” he says, gesturing wildly with the knife. “This is what I told you would happen.”
“Leon…” Aubrey warns.
“No,” he snaps, sitting forward. “She needs to understand why this had to happen.”
“Leon!” Aubrey’s tone sharpens.
“You people ruined everything,” he continues, turning to me and ignoring his mom completely now. “You and your perfect family. Your perfect business. Everyone always talks about Holloway like it’s fucking untouchable.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I say, my voice shaking despite my effort to stay calm.
Leon laughs again, harsher this time.
“Of course you don’t. You’ve never had to fight for anything in your life!”
“That’s enough!” Aubrey’s voice cuts through the room like a blade.
Leon falls silent immediately, though his chest is still heaving.
“Why Holloway?” I demand. “Why my family?”
Aubrey exhales slowly, like I’m an inconvenience she’s reluctantly decided to entertain.
“I have no interest in explaining,” she says flatly.
“Well, if you expect me to sign anything, you’re going to have to do better than waving a knife around,” I snap, rage beginning to overshadow the terror I’m feeling.
Leon shifts beside me again, but Aubrey raises a hand without even looking at him. He stills. She focuses her attention back to me.
“So entitled and demanding,” she sighs. “Just like your mother.”
“What did she ever do to you?” I demand to know.
Aubrey’s lips press together. For a moment I think she’s going to ignore me. Then she groans, clearly irritated that she’s even indulging this conversation.
“She had everything,” Aubrey hisses. “The grades, the friends, and the attention. Then she married your father, a rich, respected, and powerful man who could give her everything. It didn’t matter to her thatImet him first. That I fell in love with him the moment I saw him. Your mother didn’t care. She decided she wanted him, so she snatched him up for herself. Now, I’m going to take everything from her, and you’re going to help me.”
What the fuck? My father? I almost laugh out loud, this is so absurd. Like some overdramatic soap opera.
