Chapter 14 - The Bitter Truth
"How can you be so cruel?!" Brooke wailed, clawing at the asphalt. "We're your own flesh and blood! We made a mistake, okay?! We admitted it! What else do you want from us?!"
"You didn't make a mistake, Brooke," I said, pointing the hammer directly at her chest. "A mistake is spilling a glass of milk. You watched my pregnant wife starve for eight weeks. You laughed while Paige beat her until she bruised. When Nora collapsed in her own blood on my kitchen floor, your only concern was that the ambulance would cost too much of my money that you wanted for yourself."
Tessa hung her head, weeping silently into her hands. "We were just doing what Mom told us... Mom said Nora was trying to steal you from us..."
"You are grown women," I spat. "You made your choices. You chose to be parasites. You chose cruelty. And now you get to live with the consequences."
The screen door of the porch clicked open.
Nora walked out onto the wooden deck, carrying Maya in a floral baby wrap against her chest. She wore a clean linen dress, her hair pinned up, looking radiant, strong, and completely at peace.
She stood beside me on the porch, looking down at the two pathetic figures crying in the street. There was no anger on Nora’s face. There was only the cold, distant indifference one shows toward complete strangers.
"Is that... is that Maya?" Tessa whispered, her voice cracking as she stared at the baby. "Ryan, please... just let us hold our niece once. Just once."
"Get in your car," Nora said.
Her voice wasn't loud, but it had a weight of authority that cut straight through my sisters' hysterics.
"You spent two months telling me I was worthless," Nora said calmly. "You told me my child was a trap. You don't have a niece. You don't have a brother. You have the life you built for yourselves with your own hands. Now get off our street before my husband calls the sheriff."
Tessa stared at Nora, realizing for the first time that there was no crack in the armor, no weak point to manipulate, no guilt left to exploit. The bank of Ryan Mercer's unearned loyalty was permanently closed.
"You're dead inside, Ryan," Tessa muttered with bitter, impotent spite, wiping her nose with her dirty sleeve. "You're just like Dad."
"No," I replied with a cold, triumphant smile. "Dad ran away from his responsibilities. I am protecting mine."
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Tessa grabbed Brooke by the arm, dragging her off the pavement and shoving her into the passenger seat of the rusted sedan. The starter motor ground painfully three times before the engine finally fired up with a cloud of gray exhaust.
They backed down the street, turned the corner, and vanished from our lives forever.
