Page 229 of Obsession

A few seconds of silence followed as my breath caught and I looked at my dad, expecting him to tell me he was joking, but he didn’t.

“You’re kidding, right?”

He was serious, she was serious. No one was joking.

“What?!”

I raised my voice this time, realizing what he had just told me as I felt my legs weaken, and it wasn’t just a feeling, because soon my knees buckled.

I tried to regain my balance before my father caught me. Wait for the explanation, my mind reassured me, even though I was about to explode.

“Your first wife?!” I repeated, giving him a criminal look I couldn’t control.

This was worse than I’d expected, worse than anything.

“Katherine, please, listen to us…”

“You shut up!” I let out, yelling at the woman standing in front of us.

It had been too good to believe that an experience like this would have a happy ending.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I yelled again, unable to calm down, and immediately heard footsteps behind me as someone joined us in the living room.

“Mom, what’s going on?”

I froze.

I couldn’t turn around to put a face to the voice, but I already knew who it belonged to. That sound was a migraine that wouldn’t leave me alone.

The voice came closer and the hair on my head stood up as if I’d been electrocuted when I saw Amber next to me. Her hair was a mess, her makeup was ruined and running down her chin, and her eyes were red from crying.

Wake up, abandoned princess, we have problems.

“Mom, what are they doing here?” she screamed, looking at my father with the same anger as she looked at me.

So she already knew him.

Everything soon fell into place in my head, making me dizzy. Amber Wrise… first wife… no, she couldn’t be…

“Dad, please tell me she’s not my stepsister!” I gritted my teeth, panting and trying to keep my balance.

As soon as the words left my mouth, Amber seemed to throw up in her head.

“Yes, Katherine. Amber and you are stepsisters and you are both my daughters.

“I am not your daughter! Don’t you dare ever call me that again, you motherfucker!” Amber roared deafeningly.

Her mother scolded her to calm down.

I was aware that the news was causing me to overreact, but I couldn’t control it. I gripped my hair, wishing I could scream out my anger.

“Please, let me explain…”

“Explain what? That you abandoned me before I was born? That you abandoned my mother and ran off with a whore?”

I exploded.

Like in our first psychology class when I snapped the pencil in half, without realizing my actions and without Harris around to stop me, I turned and slapped her across the face.

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