The stick came down.
A sharp cry escaped Alexa as the first strike landed, her body recoiling instantly as she tried to curl away, but Juliet didn’t stop there. The next strike followed almost immediately, then another, each one landing with controlled force as if every blow Clara had ever given her was now being returned without hesitation.
Alexa scrambled back against the couch, tears streaming down her face as she tried to shield herself, her sobs breaking into panicked pleas as she pressed herself into the corner.
“Mom!” she cried helplessly. “Mom, make her stop!”
Clara let out a strangled scream and rushed forward in panic. “Juliet! Stop this!”
She reached for the stick, but Juliet shoved her away without even turning to look at her, the movement firm enough to send Clara stumbling back several steps as she nearly lost her footing.
Only when her arm began to ache did Juliet finally stop.
The room fell into a heavy silence broken only by Alexa’s sobs and Clara’s uneven breathing.
Juliet lowered the stick slowly, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm now as she turned to face Clara. Whatever warmth had once existed in her eyes was gone completely, replaced by something empty and cold, something that no longer recognized the people in front of her.
Her gaze locked onto Clara’s.
A strange chill seemed to settle over the room, as if even the air had gone still.
“I always thought you were my family.”
A faint, bitter laugh slipped from Juliet’s lips as she slowly shook her head, her expression carrying a quiet disbelief that came from years of misplaced trust.
“But now I know the truth. You never loved me.”
Clara’s face drained of color as Juliet took a slow step forward, her voice calm but edged with something unshakable, something that had finally snapped into place.
“Everything was always about what I could do for you,” she continued evenly. “The deals I brought in. The connections I made. The money and benefits I gave this family.”
A faint curl touched her lips, not warmth.
“You never cared about me.”
She held Clara’s gaze without blinking, as if she were looking at a stranger standing in front of her now, not someone who was supposed to be family.
“You only cared about what I could give you.”
Clara stiffened as though every muscle in her body had been locked in place at once. For a brief moment, she could only stare at Juliet in disbelief, as if she were seeing someone unfamiliar standing in front of her. This was still the same girl who had once endured everything in silence, who had never once fought back.
Yet now, Juliet’s gaze was different—sharp, burning, as if it could strip away every lie Clara had ever hidden behind. That realization made Clara instinctively part her lips to defend herself, though the words never truly formed.
But Juliet didn’t give her the space to recover.
Her breathing turned uneven with fury as she stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Her eyes didn’t waver for even a second, locked onto Clara with a cold intensity that made the air feel heavier. Her fingers curled tightly at her sides, trembling slightly from the force of everything she had been holding back, the faint marks of earlier pain still visible on her arm. When she finally spoke, her voice was laced with something dangerously sharp.
“You have no right to hit me. You’re not my family.”
Her chest rose and fell more quickly now, emotion breaking through the restraint she had always forced on herself.
“You can all die in a ditch for all I care. And from this moment on—if any of you ever dare to contact me again for anything inyour damn life, I will make sure your existence turns into a living hell.”
Before Clara could even gather a response, Juliet’s hand lifted sharply. She seized the stick and flung it back with force. It cut through the air and struck near Clara’s face, making her recoil instantly. Clara stumbled back, eyes wide, her expression frozen in shock as if the person standing before her was no longer someone she recognized at all.
Silence swallowed the room for a brief, suffocating moment.
Juliet didn’t wait for it to break. Her jaw tightened, still trembling with restrained rage, and she turned sharply on her heel. Without sparing a single glance at Clara or Alexa, she stormed out of the house. Her footsteps were fast and heavy, each one echoing the weight of everything she had just ripped out of herself.
