Chapter 6 - The Toxic Sister

"You really thought you could outsmart Dad, little brother?" Tabitha asked, stepping over the groaning guard on the floor.

I fought against the guard pinning me down, driving my elbow hard into his kidney. He grunted, loosening his grip just enough for me to gasp for air.

"Tabitha, she's your niece!" I spat, blood filling my mouth from a cut inside my lip. "She has Sarah’s blood!"

"Sarah was a sanctimonious interloper who stole this family's rightful equity," Tabitha replied, her voice dripping with venomous calm. She walked toward the closed bathroom door. "And this little brat is just an anchor dragging down our bottom line."

"Don't touch that door!" I roared, throwing all my weight to the side and flipping the guard over my hip.

I scrambled to my feet, but Tabitha didn't even flinch. She raised the canister in her hand. It wasn't an inhaler. It was a high-grade industrial solvent spray.

"Do you know what happens to an asthmatic lung when exposed to concentrated aerosolized acetone, Austin?" Tabitha whispered, tapping the nozzle against the door frame. "It triggers a refractory bronchospasm. No albuterol can reverse it. The medical examiner will just call it a tragic, acute asthma attack brought on by parental neglect and substandard living conditions in an abandoned cabin."

"You're a sick psychopath," I panted, keeping my hands raised, calculating the distance between us. Six feet. Too far if she had her finger on the trigger.

"I’m a businesswoman," she sneered.

She turned the nozzle toward the gap beneath the bathroom door and pressed down.

"NO!"

I lunged forward, ignoring the guard grabbing at my ankles. I caught Tabitha’s wrist, twisting it violently until bone snapped with a sickening pop.

Tabitha shrieked in agony, dropping the can.

I kicked the solvent away across the floor, ripped the bathroom door open, and scooped Juniper into my arms. She was coughing violently, the faint chemical smell already irritating her airways.

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"Hang on to my neck, baby!" I shouted.

I charged out the back door into the pouring rain, leaving Tabitha screaming curses into the dark woods.