Page 22 of Love Defies Us

My brother Axel and I don’t ever get along—ever. He’s always been carefree and gets everything handed to him whereas I had to work myself to the bone. He’s not lazy, but he’s not a hard worker either. He does the bare minimum. He looks more like my dad. I don’t look anything like our father. I have all my characteristics from my mom. But Axel is a spitting imagine of him. Same thick lips. Same bushy eyebrows. Same body structure. Bulky like the Hulk. And his skin is tan like Dad. The only difference between them is Axel’s eye color is seafoam green and his thick hair is charcoal like Mom’s hair.

He’s five years older than me and works in the marketing department of the record label.

He doesn’t speak to me as the maid places his lobster and fillet mignon and mashed potatoes in front of him. His demeanor is like Mom’s. Composed and stern.

My father sits at one end of the table and my mother sits at the other. Both of them don’t even spare each other a glance.

Their relationship is colder than Antarctica and they are distant, like they live separate lives. I can’t imagine staying married to someone over thirty years and not loving them. In public, they put up a front as if their love is like a Disney fairytale, but behind closed doors their love is like a Greek mythology tragic. Their relationship is more toxic than a waste dump. They won’t get a divorce because they are so worried about how they would look around their peers.The old joys of being a Bennett.

“Sit up straight, Sadie. No slouching at the table.” My mom’s tone is stern.

A black potato-sack dress covers her body. She looks as if she’s wearing an oversized pillowcase and she wears her hair blown out.

My mom has always been hard on me, always criticizing me for everything I do. From eating, to the way I talk, and the way I act.

“I’m not slouching,” I shoot back, and I stare at my food; I’m not even hungry.

Why would I even have an appetite while being around her? So she can scold me for the way I hold a damn spoon or fork?

“No talk back as well.”

I huff out a breath. This shit is getting old real quick.

My family eats in eerie silence and I can’t take it anymore, so I tap my foot under the table. But not loud enough for them to hear it.

“Have you cleared up the mess in the marketing department?” My dad’s tone is dry as he speaks to Axel.

“Yeah, ” my brother answers. My dad always treats me like I don’t work there. I always feel like a third wheel around them.

“You’re not going to eat, dear?” my mother asks.

For the love of God. Stop nitpicking. Next family dinner, I’m going come up with an excuse not to show up.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You could at least eat your asparagus. Julia worked so hard on our meals,” she says between bites. Julia is my parents’ chef; she’s been working for them since I was in diapers.

“I’ll tell her, I’m sorry.”

My mother bites her lips every time I disobey her, but I’m grown now, she can’t ground me like she did when I was a child for not eating.

“I have made my decision on who will fulfill my duties as CEO,” my dad says and instinctively my eyes glue to him. He sits up straighter and looks between my brother and me. “Axel will take my place.”

He slaps him on the back and my mother claps her hands. My throat becomes drier than a drought, and I grip the edge of the table, digging my fingers into the wood. The air in my lungs seizes and my heart beats into a frenzy. This. Is. Bullshit.

“Are you fucking serious?” I stand up from the table. “I worked my ass off to get here. I worked as the CEO, when you were sick with the flu. I sit at every board meeting; I even got my degree in business with a minor in finance, and you give it to him.” I grind my molars, tilting my nose to Axel. ”He doesn’t have a degree or anything,” I keep going, I’m on a roll. “And he gets the job because he has a dick between his legs.”

Normally, I can contain my emotions, but I explode like a Mentos candy inside a Coke. All the stuff I’ve held inside pours out onto the table.

Dad slams his hand on the table. “Sit down,” he grits out.

Reluctantly, I do. I fucking do. Like an obedient dog

Everyone’s eyes are on me. My mother’s lips turn down in disgust and pity plays on Axel’s face.

“You don’t need to run a business, you’re a Caldwell woman. You find a wealthy man to marry and stop this foolishness you’re doing at your dad’s job.” Her words smack me in the face.

I’m more than a trophy wife. I’m more than a toy to sit on a shelf and be admired. Right now, I want Felix. It’s strange for me to think of him in the midst of this chaos, but he’s the only one that treats me like a human being, like I matter. Besides Jasper.

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