AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Because first… I fucking hated cats.
Second… He wanted to call me pussy.
And third… He just wanted to torture me before I could sleep. This was the side of my shite-faced brother that no-one else saw.
“Oh…fuck you,” I said once more, just in case I had the power to curse him, grabbing the damn slippers, marching to the windows and yanking them open before throwing the slippers towards the trees.
Taking a deep breath, I moved back to my empty bed, not at all caring about the sheets… I wasn’t going to sleep in that damn cat nirvana, but I wasn’t going to lose any more sleep trying to set up my room. There were people in this house for that, and they were going to do it once I woke up. How very Callahan, I thought, tossing my arms behind my back. But I was a Callahan… I didn’t wake up to that fact only because of Ethan or what had happened in Boston. Ethan didn’t force me to come back, he manipulated me into remembering who I was under the well-mannered mask I put on, the real reason I’d become a doctor… I enjoyed the feeling of having someone’s life in my hands. They lived because of me…some died because of me…the rapists, child molesters, abusers, even one serial killer and the son of a dictator. Doctors weren’t supposed to judge; they weren’t supposed to care who their patients were… I didn’t subscribe to that kind of bullshit. If a monster crossed my path, I’d hunt it down and kill it. I didn’t think I was a hero. I didn’t have some code. They disgusted me.
When I left Chicago, I couldn’t see the difference between my family and them. In all honesty, the line was slim. No one had ever raped or molested anyone…but had children died because of us? Yes. Did we harm others? Yes. But the difference was we didn’t seek to. The blood on our hands came from those who sought to cut us first.
Seeing Ethan bleeding and Ivy weeping reminded me that I didn’t need to be a doctor to have control over someone’s life… As a Callahan, everyone else’s life was already at our discretion. We had that type of power in our blood.
Rolling on to my side I closed my eyes for all of one moment when all of sudden—
KNOCK.
KNOCK.
Are you bloody shitting me?
KNOCK.
KNOCK.
“Sir—”
“If you knock on or open that door, I will throw you from my window, order someone to pick you up and throw out one more time, and you will then be buried with cat slippers on your feet… NOTHING ELSE, JUST CAT SLIPPERS!”
I was going insane. I was back here not even a full day, and I was losing my mind.
I waited a moment, but luckily someone was still sane and left me the fuck alone—
RING!
My eyes snapped open and I rolled over, looking at my cellphone as it flashed on the bedside table. Doing my best to stay calm, I reached over and picked up, answering as un-murderous as possible.
“Dr. Callahan speaking,” I said out of habit.
“Your sister requested that a maid deliver your clothes for the day—”
“As I have not yet slept, my day has not yet started. So tell my sister, O’Phelan, I am not in need of—”
“With all due respect, Sir,” he cut me off, not sounding like he had any motherfucking respect, “your sister made it clear that this was non-negotiable. She said to tell you that if you refused to cooperate, she’d set your room on fire…again. She also said I should remind you that if you think of leaving, she will find you and set that place on fire, but only if Ethan does not find you first.”
“Funny how you managed to say that so eloquently, without hesitation, and with all due respect to me,” I sneered, gripping on to the phone tighter.
Unnerved, he replied, “I am simply the messenger, Sir.”
“Don’t you know it’s usually the messengers that die first? That’s where the saying ‘don’t shoot the messenger,’ comes from…the fact they were often shot.”
“So the warning is not for the messenger, but the person doing the shooting… After all, how well did it turn out for those that didn’t have anyone to bring them important information?” He didn’t say that…Dona did, suddenly appearing on the line.
“Sister dearest,” I said sweetly.
“Yes, brother dear,” she said, even more sweetly, her voice rising to an annoyingly high pitch.
“Do you know what I’ve been doing since I returned home?” I asked her, already getting up out of bed.
