“Come on, Sammy. We’re going to be late,” Sab calls out the window, a huge smile on her beautiful face. She’s basking in this—her little brother and her father traveling in the same limousine—and to a party, no less. We’re acting like a real family instead of enemies for a change. It’s something none of us are used to.
No, all I’ve ever had is Sabella and the grave of a mom I visited once a week to confess my sins to. But this…family…I can see why people want it, crave it so much. A mother, a father, a sister, a life that’s not about anger and violence, hate and rage, but maybe about love and laughter. The light instead of the dark.
I swallow and bury those pathetic thoughts down deep. That will never be me. I won’t let it.
I start walking to the limo, my shoes crunching over the gravel. I slide inside to play the part of loving brother and respectable son. I smile at Sab, and she hugs my arm. I catch Maxwell’s gaze on us, his look unrecognizable to me.
Perhaps there is an ounce of love there after all. A speck of pride trying to surface through all the years of bullshit he’s put us through. It doesn’t matter. It’s too late for any of that now.
I give him a tight smile and watch as he returns it tersely before looking at Sabella, pride in his eyes. What is it he said? She looks so much like our mother? I look across and smile at her, wishing I could see what he does. Know what he knows. But I can’t.
Maxwell Gunner destroyed every photograph of our mother.
He’s blotted her out of our lives like a bad memory. I’ve never seen what she looks like, and I never will. I can’t help but wonder how much of her he sees in me.
I hope it’s a lot.
I hope when I ruin him, he’ll see her ruining him too.
Because I can’t imagine anything could be more painful for him. And pain is my speciality.
“Oh, you brought him with you,” my grandmother says, not even trying to hide her distaste for me. She accepts Sabella—Sab worked damn hard over the years to win my grandmother’s acceptance—but me…well, she despises me. More so because I won’t play her bullshit game. “He’s not going to cause a scene, is he? I have the Mayor here tonight, and some friends from the pony club, Maxwell.”
“I won’t be any trouble. I promise,” I say with as much sincerity as I can muster.
She looks me up and down in disfavor. “Yes, well, I’ve heard that one before.”
She turns and walks away, and I try to hide my laughter as best I can.
Stupid old cunt.
She’s right, though. She has heard that one before. The only thing I enjoy more than pissing off Maxwell is embarrassing my grandmother. I got drunk at her sixtieth birthday and fucked her best friend’s niece in the cloakroom, making sure she climaxed loudly right in the middle of the speeches. That took some fucking skill, let me tell you, but I played that girl like the fucking Pied Piper.
But my favorite memory was at a charity fundraiser she held for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Not survivors, victims, and that was my first problem with her piece of shit charity event. The second being that the so-called victims were rich bitches who lost their fur coats to the storms.
My grandmother didn’t give a shit that people had lost lives, homes, their belongings. No, she cared that she and all her rich bitch friends had lost their fur coats.
“It’s not funny,” Sab says, elbowing me in the side.
I raise an eyebrow at her, realizing I must have been snickering to myself.
Maxwell’s already excused himself to talk to one of the local counselors, leaving us alone.
“You wanna drink?” I ask.
“Sammy,” she warns.
I hold up my hands innocently. “What? It’s just one little drink.”
“Fine,” she replies warily. “Champagne. I’m going to say hi to some friends.”
“I’ll bring it over,” I say.
I notice a piece of shit man-boy with more gel in his hair than is reasonably acceptable for someone his age staring at her. I glower at him until he looks away.
“Yeah, that’s right, fuck face,” I mutter, “look the fuck away.”
At the bar, I order a whisky sour and a glass of champagne with a curt nod before taking my time to look around the room. I haven’t seen Patience yet, but I know she’s here, somewhere. Hopefully, she won’t see me and try to run away like she did today. Otherwise, this task is going to be longwinded and annoying as fuck.
