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Another step. “Oh, definitely. But, you know what?” I stopped when I stood before her, flashing her a set of pearly whites. “Being evil is just so much fun. You should try it sometime. I have the feeling you’d enjoy it.”
Her nostrils flared. Brianna was pissed, that much was obvious, and I found it so funny. “I’m supposed to be your plaything. I’m supposed to help keep you out of trouble—” At the mention of that, something shifted on my face, which she picked up on instantly. She laughed. “Did you think I was here just as a present or something? No, I’m supposed to be your conscience or some shit. I’m supposed to distract you enough to make you not want to kill. That’s a lot of pressure to put on someone, you know.”
The smile fell off my face. “Did my uncle tell you that?”Having Brianna know the full truth was… not something I’d expected.
“Yeah,” Brianna said. “He did, and based on the look on your face, he kept that part a secret from you. Maybe your uncle has more secrets than you think.” She turned away from me at that, walking toward the window and gazing outside.
Now it was my turn to say, “Bullshit. He tells me everything.” And he did. Alistair had no reason to lie to me. None. We shared everything together. We knew every part of each other, even the dark, damaged parts the world would put to death.
But, I had sensed something was off about him just now. Was there more to this she wasn’t saying?
“Does he?” She didn’t even glance away from the window when she asked it, and the tone of her voice was suspicious… and that, in turn, made me wonder.
Goddamn it. Was this girl playing mind games with me, or was she being serious?
Either way, she was pissing me off. I flexed my hands, wanting to stride over to her, grab her, and make her tell me the truth. But, in doing so, I’d give away the fact that she’d ticked me off, that she’d managed to worm her way beneath my skin.
In the end, I didn’t go to her. I simply turned around and stormed out of her room, leaving her be.
I didn’t know if she was speaking the truth about my uncle, if Alistair kept secrets from me or not. Either way, it didn’t matter. Two of us could play games. The pitying thing was… she wasn’t going to like my game.
Chapter Seventeen – Brianna
My mom didn’t get home from the gallery until after dinner—which was fine. I took my dinner to my room anyways. Like hell would I sit there with Alistair and Gareth and pretend nothing at all was wrong.
Everythingin this house was wrong. Everything. Gareth. Alistair. His marriage to my mom. The things Montgomery money had swept under the rug. My head spun when I thought about it all, which was why I was doing my best not to think about it.
That became impossible when my mom came into my room without so much as knocking. She had a small paper bag in her hands, and she walked over to my bed, where I sat, struggling to focus on the math homework I’d neglected all weekend, for obvious reasons.
My mom looked the same as she always did. Put together perfectly, not a hair out of place. Her skin was tanner, which made her light blue eyes pop. She wore a knee-length skirt and a flowery blouse, and her hair was pulled back in a sophisticated low clip on the back of her head.
She was forty years old, but the way she held herself, how she talked… you’d never know it. That’s the thing with my mom: she was always in denial about something, whether it was her age, our current situation—which, until recently, involved a tiny apartment because that’s all she could afford in the city—or her failed first marriage.
Me. She was always in denial of me.
“How’s the gallery?” I asked, pointedly not asking about her honeymoon. Why would I ask about something that was, apparently, a farce? I wondered if she knew her new husband was a crazy psychopath who apparently had a thing for his new stepdaughter.
I think my mom’s brain would explode if I told her what we did earlier. Not going to lie, a part of me did want to tell her simply to hurt her. She’d never been motherly her whole life, never really loved me. It was a shitty thing to do to a kid, to blame them for everything, to treat them like a drain on your life, never showing them any affection whatsoever.
“Some degenerate broke in and spray-painted everywhere,” she muttered with a huff, walking around the outskirts of my room, taking in the whole room before she turned to look at me. A tight smile was on her face, the kind of smile that told me she’d rather be anywhere but here.
Ditto.
“They wore a mask and gloves, so the police probably won’t be able to find them, whoever it was,” she went on, approaching me on the bed. “You aren’t going to ask about the honeymoon? That’s a little rude, don’t you think, Brianna?”
I mimicked my mom’s smile. “How was your honeymoon?” The boredom in my voice was evident, and it made her frown at me.
“It was lovely, until Alistair said we had to come back here early,” she huffed. “He felt guilty leaving you two alone.” She tossed down the bag. “That’s for you, by the way.”
Pushing my textbook aside, I reached for the bag, slow to unroll it and pull out the single item within. A beautiful conch shell, a little bigger than the size of my hand.
Color me shocked. I didn’t think my mom would get anything for me while she was away, living the life. “Thank you,” I said.
But my mom shook her head. “Alistair wanted to get you something, so you can thank him.” Her way of telling me, if it had been up to her, she wouldn’t have gotten me anything. Then again, if it had been solely up to her, I’d bet they never would’ve come back in the first place.
“I will,” I told her, my fingers curling around the shell harder. I had some ruthless, vicious thoughts right then. Did my mom love Alistair? Would she be hurt that I’d slept with him and enjoyed the hell out of it, or would she be more afraid of losing her grip on the life she’d always wanted? Was Alistair a side thought to this whole thing, and it was the money taking up priority number one in her head? It definitely couldn’t be me, her only child. She’d made that clear from the day I was born.
My mom let out a short chuckle, and then she turned away to leave.
