Page 60 of Tore Up

The sound of a door closing was in the background, and I knew it was Carina coming to get her phone.

“I have to go,” I whispered. “See you tonight.”

Then, the phone call ended.

One lone tear rolled down my cheek, and I wiped it away, keeping my head down. I didn’t want to look at any of them. They had heard all our conversations already. Why they’d wanted to replay that one, I didn’t know. It was the one that hurt the most. The reason he was dead.

“What do you want?” Carina’s voice filled the room as another call played.

My other hand fisted in my lap as I dropped the one at my chest to cover it tightly.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Ares’s voice snarled.

“Not nearly as much as what’s wrong with you,” she repliedflippantly.

“She hasn’t done shit to you! Slicing her fucking tire so she had to walk in the goddamn heat to work was sadistic,” Ares shouted.

“Watching her with your little spy cam while she’s naked in the bathroom is disgusting, and I am pretty sure it’s, like, illegal or something,” Carina snapped at him.

“Why do you care about that?! You twisted bitch. Jesus, is it not enough that Nick ignores her? Or that Mom treats her like a fucking slave while you don’t do shit around the house? Goddamn, Carina, I want to strangle you sometimes.”

She let out a twinkling laugh I knew so well. “It’s fun to watch her try so hard. It gives me entertainment. Always so perfect, so helpful, so nice. It’s pathetic and annoying. If she only knew her brother was beating his dick to her tits and ass while she was so freaking prudish around the house.”

A hand flew to my mouth to cover the cry that I couldn’t hold back.

“It’s called modesty, you little slut,” he replied.

“Whatever,” she said. “Is there a point to this call other than to scold me for making your favorite sister’s life hard?”

I felt dirty. Knowing he’d watched me like that and what she’d said he did. My skin crawled.

“Tell Mom to call me. She’s not answering, and I need her to sign the lease on the house I found for y’all in Alabama.”

Carina made an excited squeal. “When are we moving?”

“It’s not available until mid-August. But that gives me time to get things set up.”

“Yes, heaven forbid you don’t have the incest casa ready to go for Little Miss Prudish to move into with you. Still don’t know how you will talk her into that one though. She’s still dating that guy. Borrowing my phone more and more to talk to him.”

“I have it under control,” he bit out. “Tell Mom to call me.”

The room went silent as the call ended.

“Please, no more,” I begged as my voice cracked with the horror suffocating me.

Keeping my eyes closed, I focused on my breathing. In and out. In and out. In and out.

“As difficult as that was to hear, it was a truth you needed to know. Telling you wasn’t going to be effective enough. Not when it’s family that you trusted.”

I heard him lay the iPad back on the desk. At least he wasn’t forcing me to listen to more. He had gotten his point across. I understood.

For the sake of my baby, I couldn’t have a connection to my family. Maybe, one day, when the boys were grown, it would be okay. I could know them then, but right now, I didn’t trust them.

Carina … I hadn’t realized how she felt about me. What had I done to make her dislike me so much? Was I really that annoying? That it caused her to do things like slashing my bike tire? How many things that I’d thought were bad luck had actually been Carina?

“Ares’s father was a man named Dusty Height. He died during his third stint in prison. His record shows that he couldn’t keep his dick out of preteen girls. When your stepmother found out she was pregnant with Ares, she went to the man who had gotten her pregnant to find he had been arrested for molesting two little girls in his apartment complex. She then met Nick Talley, who was looking for a mother for his infant daughter. They were married two weeks later. Ares was twelve months younger than you. Not sixteen.”

I cringed. I never wanted to hear his name again. I wished Linc would stop talking about him.

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