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“Call Jase, Cara. He has a strong mask but he’s slowly dying inside. He needs you guys.” I don’t mention the baby because there must be a reason she hasn’t told us yet. Someone knocks, and I groan. “I have to go, baby. Just remember what I said please.” She calls out my name louder, but I hang up. I delete her number and take the first step of my new life.
I come around the corner of the dining room and moans reach my ears. Seriously, this is a small gathering. My dad couldn’t bang the maid later? I leave whoever it is to it and walk into the dining room. My dad greets me with a glass of scotch and I freeze, taking in account who is in this room and who is missing. Jase is in the corner sulking, my mother is keeping Peony occupied and my dad is discussing something with Penny’s father. The only ones missing are the maid, Penny, and Rich, the guy who was sleeping with my dad. Still don’t understand why he is here, but whatever. I down the scotch and take a seat near the door, wondering who will return.
A few minutes pass and the maid, Mandy, has made an appearance. She seemed frazzled but her uniform is still impeccable. Jase comes and takes the seat beside me. “What are you doing over here by yourself? Peony and mom are starting to talk.”
I laugh at that and sip my new scotch that Mandy poured for me a few minutes ago. I glance his way and take in the bags under his eyes and the scruff on his face.
“Do you believe in guardian angels?” I ask him and he looks back at me as if I’ve lost the plot. Ha, maybe I have. But I have to think if Penny is seriously banging Rich right now during our engagement dinner, then someone above must be looking out for me. I open my mouth to explain when the doors open and lo and behold, Penny and Rich walk in.
I stand up and start to clap loudly. Everyone in the room turns my way. Penny pauses and a flash of fear passes over her face, but it’s gone too soon and her stepford mask is firmly back in place.
“East, darling, why are you clapping?” she asks. I snort and start to laugh. Soon tears are falling from my eyes and I give her the first genuine smile in years. I look up to the ceiling and yell.
“Thank you!” Okay, now I really have lost the plot. I spin around in a circle and point at everyone until I have all of their attention.
“This little bitch here is cheating on me. She couldn’t even keep it in her pants long enough to get through our engagement dinner,” I scoff and Peony dramatically gasps.
“Penelope, how could you? You have worked so hard to snag a Hawthorne.” She coughs after she realizes what she reveals, but I just shrug. It’s not like I didn’t know she’s just a gold digging bitch.
“Are you kidding me right now?” she squeals. “How the hell is it cheating when you haven’t touched me in months? All you ever do is finger me on occasion. I am twenty-three years old, not eighty East! I need sex. I love sex.”
I snort and look at her father who seems to have turned red in embarrassment. I clap my hands again and take a short bow.
“Wedding is off. Blackmail me all you want, bitch. I’m out.” I give Jase a pointed look but he seems to be in his own head. He’ll follow me shortly I’m sure. I slam the dining room doors open and ignore my father screaming after me, as I escape out the front door.
He made his own bed, he can fucking lie in it.
Jase
East storms out the door and full out chaos ensues. Penny charges at my dad screaming at him about how this isn’t over, and he will pay for this. He laughs and pulls a gun out of the small drawer in the hutch where his prized liquors sit. Before Penny can get another word out of her mouth, he shoots her in the head, then turns the gun on Rich, shooting him in the chest.
I duck in the corner and Peony starts screaming, before rushing to her daughter. So much blood. The sight makes me flashback to the day I found Lay on his kitchen floor. Someone screaming in my face brings me back to the present. I glance down to the cold steel in my hands. My father is in my face looking psychotic. He slaps me across the face.
“Snap out of it boy!” he roars, spit flying from his mouth. “You will take the fall for this. Your record is squeaky clean and we will have you out on bail within hours, understand?” I nod then freeze. Wait, what?
“You want me to admit to shooting two people in cold blood. Have you lost your mind?” I snap and he jolts back away from me. “I have taken years of your abuse and the shit you've pulled with East this past year. I should put this gun to your head and shoot you right now,” I growl and he backs away farther. Sirens sound outside and my mother rushes over to me. She takes the gun from my hand and wipes it down with the scarf she had wrapped around her neck. I gasp at the bruises covering her throat and she gives me a sad smile.
“I love you sweet boy,” she whispers, firing the gun at my dad’s chest. His jaw drops and he watches as the blood seeps through his white shirt. Penny’s parents are crying. Peony is a mess, screaming and covered in her daughter’s blood, while her husband rocks Penny’s lifeless body.
I sit here as the police rush in and try to take my mother. The maid runs in and gives them her phone. I guess she recorded it all after Penny started yelling. I stand and walk slowly over to the police officer in charge.
“He wanted me to take the fall. He went psychotic. My mother protected me and everyone that’s still breathing in this room.”
He looks me in the eye and gives me a shoulder squeeze.
“I understand, son, but it’s protocol that we bring her down to the station. We will also need you to make an appearance so don’t leave the state.”
My mother shuffles over to me with her hands cuffed behind her back. “I don’t regret it, baby. Your father was a truly horrible man. I tried to protect you boys as best I could from his sickness. I know about the blackmail. Go to your brother. Go get your girl. She seems like a lovely woman. Go, be free.” The officer grabs her arm, and leads her from the room. I take one more glance at my father dead on the floor, as they cover him with a sheet. Then I walk out into the heat and enjoy the sun on my face for the first time in a long time.
e
We walk into the Kippa Nu house, and it’s like a shrine to Penny. I snort and avoid the weeping girls. All sycophants, the lot of them. They don’t realize they should be celebrating. They're free now. We follow Ella up the steps and to the top floor where Penny’s room sits. The door is locked but Xavier steps forward, picking the lock. I don’t know why he’s here. This dirt doesn’t concern him anymore, but he insisted. Connor came as well. They aren’t thrilled about East and I coming to Nashville with them later tonight, but when East told us he talked to Cara and she said to come to her...their attitudes changed real quick.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” East groans in impatience, pulling Xavier back then kicking the door hard, splintering the wood. “There, now let’s get this shit over with. We have a flight to catch,” he says with a huge grin on his face. You wouldn’t know that just two weeks ago our father shot and killed two people and our mother killed him in the end.
She’s currently on house arrest until her trial. But I know it was self defense. He was abusing her for years. Even Penny’s parents are helping to get her case dismissed. She has been under my dad’s terror long enough. She shouldn’t have to suffer after his death too.
Ella pushes me aside and moves to the closet. She digs around for a few minutes then finds a hidden panel behind a row of designer dresses. My eyes bulge and Xavier gasps dramatically.Holy fuck!
