Page 137 of Never You

“What’s wrong? What did she do?” I ask, resting my chin on her dyed black hair.

“You get back here, young lady!” My mother reduces her pace to a prance when she becomes aware of our presence, her neck long and her shoulders straight in her black blazer. Her frantic stance changes to the calculated one I grew up with, composed and with a loveless look in her gray eyes.

“Stop being so ridiculous, Della.” She reaches for my sister, calculated, yet vigorously enough to let a strand of her tight up brown hair sweep forward and in her face.

“Hold up!” Finn jumps in front of her, towering above her. “What’s going on, mother?” He straightens his back, making every inch of his length count.

My mother takes a step back, a little startled by the defensive posture of her oldest. She pulls her skirt straight, lifting her chin in the air. “Nothing! We’re just having a discussion.”

Bullshit.

My mother doesn’t have discussions. She has announcements.

“A discussion about what,mother?” My anger is reaching a boiling point, and I want to erupt like a damn volcano just looking at my mother’s sour face.

She looks flawless on the outside, the picture perfect politician’s wife, with her hair up in a perfect knot and wearing a black designer outfit that’s probably highly overpriced. Thedisdain is dripping from every ounce of her body, and for the first time in my life, I see her for what she really is to me.

Nothing.

She bore me, but other than that, I have no clue who this person is.

“Jensen,” Finn warns, keeping his focus on our mother’s blue eyes, which are now shooting daggers at all her children instead of just me. “Speak, mother.”

She pulls her head back, a frown creasing her Botox-filled face.

“Excuse me?” she snorts. “You do not get to talk to me like that, Finn Jensen.”

“I’m thirty-one years old,Kathleen. I can speak to you however I want.”

Her eyes widen simultaneously with her mouth. “Watch your mouth, Finn, or I will–”

“You will what?” he barks.

He takes a step forward, and she automatically takes another step back, swallowing her surprise away. “Force me into an arranged marriage like you’ve been doing with Jared? Or whatever you just threaten Della with?”

She looks past Finn, locking her eyes with mine. They narrow, and her lips curl into a smile that doesn’t match her eyes. “You.” She points at me. “This is all your fault.”

I’m adopted. I have to be. My mind refuses to believe I come from a woman this evil. That her blood is running through my veins. It just can’t be.

She ominously takes a step closer, and quickly, I push Della behind my back, protecting her from my mother’s grasp.

“You think I believed that bullshit agreement this morning? I know you better than that, Jared James. I knew you were not going to keep your end of our agreement. Always the rebel. A thorn in my eye. If you would’ve just done what you were told,your sister wouldn’t have to pick up where you left off! You’re a selfish little bastard!”

“I’ma selfish bastard?” I shout, finally giving my rage free rein. “Everything I’ve fucking done is for this fucked up family! Because you and Dad won’t stop until he’s the fucking president! You two don’t give a shit about us. We’re nothing more than your damn pawns! Did you ever care for us once?!”

I already know the answer, but it still hurts when she has the guts to speak the words out loud. When she finally completely shows the true darkness of her soul.

“Lower your goddamn voice!” Her eyes survey the street and I snicker without even a fraction of humor.

“That’s what you care about,mother? If the neighbors will hear? You’re pathetic.”

All her children are here, standing before her telling her she fucking failed big time as a parent, yet what the public will think is still her top priority.

“I didn’t carry and push out three children for them to fuck up everything your father and I planned for! You were supposed to complete the picture! Not break it!”

Her icy eyes grow dark while the heat flushes the fair skin of her cheeks. She snaps her mouth shut, realizing what she just confessed, and we all just stare at her, completely fazed.

Wow.

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