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“Summer? You’re late, dinner isn’t ready!” Mom called out, sounding angry.
“I’m hungry. How dare you be late! What were you doing? Flirting with someone?” Marianne shrieked.
“Yeah, let me get in the door,” I muttered. My happiness, which had lasted all afternoon from the picnic, was rapidly fading. It couldn’t do much else with this pair.
“Get your lazy ass in here and put dinner on,” Mom screeched.
Angrily, I gritted my teeth. “I’m taking my coat off, or isn’t that allowed?” I asked sweetly.
A dread silence fell from the kitchen, and I wished I’d kept my mouth shut.
“Are you back chatting me?” Mom demanded.
“No. But at least let me get my coat off.”
I’d worked a twelve-hour day, arriving at the garden centre at six this morning, and it was now just gone six at night. Brian was shutting the centre as he did every evening. I should have been home an hour ago, but I’d been taking an order for Ezra, who’d been very happy with the previous order.
Of course, the two harpies wouldn’t have got off their asses and started a meal. Not when they had Cinderella at their beck and call.
As I strode towards the kitchen, I realised that there’d not been a reply from my last comment. I walked in and saw Mom and Marianne sitting at the breakfast bar with eyes narrowed. In front of them were martinis. Clearly, they’d been able to make them.
“What did you say?” Mom hissed.
“Mom, I’ve worked twelve hours and just got home. You hadn’t even let me take my coat off before making demands. Yet, here you and Marianne sit with drinks. Couldn’t one of you have started dinner?”
That was a mistake. I never usually answered back, but somehow, that picnic today had given me some self-confidence. Mom thought she’d beaten that out of me years ago, and she had. But Slick’s interest made me feel good, and I’d been revelling in it.
“How dare you! I brought you into this world, fed and clothed you for eighteen years until you stood on your own two feet. And you deny making me a simple dinner?” Mom exploded.
“You didn’t feed and clothe me. Dad did.”
Marianne sucked in a deep breath. “What disrespect to show your mother! You’re such an ungrateful child. Everything we did for you as a youngster, and listen to you now,” she snapped.
“What you did?” I asked, putting the coffeemaker on.
“Look at her. Of course Summer’s putting her own needs before ours. So damn selfish,” Marianne taunted.
I bit my tongue hard. Ezra’s new order flashed through my mind, and I imagined the profit from it. Money that would finally let me live the life I wanted. Freedom from the wicked witches.
I grabbed the three steaks from the fridge that I had put in there to defrost yesterday. The cake that I’d made last night had been eaten, and the two greedy pigs hadn’t saved me a slice. In pure silence, I put the steaks on to cook and began gathering ingredients to make a pasta salad.
“I don’t want that,” Mom said snidely. Her tone bit deep.
My anger flared. “Then make your own fucking dinner!” I shrieked and flung the items in my hand at the pair of them.
Both looked shocked, but not as much as me. I hadn’t lost my temper in years, and the only thing I could think of was… I’d finally had enough.
“I beg your pardon,” Mom said in a tone of voice that I knew very well.
My sudden flare of anger faded, and my shoulders slumped.
“Pick this mess up right now. Get the laundry and drying done. The towels need folding, and the bathroom needs a scrub. In the meantime, put dinner on,” Mom hissed.
Marianne smirked, which fired back up my flagging temper.
“Get off your asses and do it yourselves. I work twelve-hour shifts while you sit here day in, day out and do nothing. Not a single damn thing!”
“You ungrateful ingrate!” Mom screamed, causing me to flinch.
