Page 129 of Fracture

“You think you’re my family?” I chuckle, shaking my head. “When have you ever acted like my family, huh?”

“I was a good mother,” she insists, fighting against Dylan’s hand. “I lost my way after your father died, that’s all. I loved him so much. Losing him destroyed me, Levi. You have to understand that.”

“Don’t you dare bring my father into this.” I train the gun on her. “Don’t you fucking take his name in your mouth. He’d be standing right here next to me if he was still alive.”

She clenches her eyes shut, her lips quivering. “Don’t say that.”

“He’d be fucking disgusted by you, by what you’ve become.” I jerk the gun at the ledger as she opens her eyes. “These names, that’s all of them?”

She nods, Dylan’s hand around her throat impeding her movement. “That’s all of them, every single one.”

“Was it your idea?” Dylan asks.

Her eyes flash up to him, and her lashes flutter, the column of her throat shifting in his hand as she tries to swallow.

“I-I just… I mean, Harold had been doing it for-”

Dylan yanks her head forward again and smashes it back against the wooden frame of her chair, and Gloria lets out a strangled cry. Oswald’s hands ball into fists on the table, but he doesn’t try to move, his eyes flickering to me and the gun for a moment.

“I asked if it was your fucking idea, you sick fucking hag.” Dylan snarls into Gloria’s face, his expression a mask of sheer rage.

“I-I knew what he’d been doing to Stella,” she stammers, trying to push away Dylan’s arm weakly. “He’d been taking pictures of her for years, her mother knew about it for Pete’s sake.”

“I’m going to ask you one last time.” Dylan withdraws the knife from the holster at his waist, and drags the tip of the blade along Gloria’s cheek. She whimpers and squeezes her eyes shut. “And if you don’t answer me, I’m going to do what I just did to your fucking secretary, and spill your insides all over your fucking filet mignon. Now,answer me.”

“It was my idea!” Gloria cries, her voice strained by horror as Dylan digs the knife into her cheek, drawing a stream of blood that mingles with the tears pouring from her eyes. “It was my idea! I know it was wrong, but Harold, he was power hungry, he wanted more, always more, and what I gave him wasn’t enough. He told me that. Do you have any idea how humiliating it was to be married to someone more obsessed with his daughter than his wife?”

“You sick bitch,” I say, revulsion curdling at the back of my throat. “So this was just a grudge for you because you married a fucking pedophile? Instead of helping Stella, you punished her?”

“You have no idea what it’s like to get older!” My mother screeches at me, slapping hard at Dylan’s arm. “You have no idea what it’s like to become invisible! Stella was so beautiful, and everyone loved her. You think I didn’t see your face at my wedding?” She sneers at me, writhing in Dylan’s grip. “I knew you were in love with her for years, I could see it. Sneaking into her room to sleep with her, don’t think I didn’t know!”

“I never touched her like that, not once.” The gun is shaking in my hands, my rage barely contained. “I held her throughher nightmares, the nightmaresyou caused, you twisted fucking monster.”

“She wasdrugged, she had no idea it was even happening!”

At these words, Dylan’s eyes widen, pools of black and white rage, and he slams a fist into my mother’s stomach. She lets out a hollow howl, sucking in a breath as her eyes bug out of her head. Oswald cries out in protest, trying to dart out of his chair, but I slam the gun into his temple. He sags against the edge of the chair, putting a hand to the blood running down the side of his face, losing his balance and crashing to the floor.

Gloria starts crying in earnest now, her panic seeming to peak as Dylan releases her and steps back from her. She watches me approach slowly, the gun gripped in my hand, and she shakes her head.

“Levi, please,” she murmurs, hands gripping the chair. “Please, baby boy, I’m your mama. I love you.”

“I don’t need your kind of love.” I raise the gun to point it at her face. “I don’t need anyone like you anywhere near me. You’re evil.”

“Levi, please, please.”

“Levi, get down!” Dylan’s voice tears me out of the moment and I drop into a crouch, turning to see Dylan charging across the room at the man who’s appeared in the doorway with a gun in his hand, pointing directly at me.

The man aims at Dylan, and fires, the shot flying past Dylan as he tackles the man around his middle and sends them both tumbling to the ground. Dylan’s fists rain down on the man, who lifts his arms in defense, twisting his arm to smash the gun into the side of Dylan’s face.

Dylan recoils for a moment, but it’s long enough for the man to land a strike to Dylan’s side and get the drop on him, rolling Dylan onto his back and straddling him. He raises his weapon, but stops when I cock the gun against the back of his skull.

“Drop it, fucker.”

The man lifts his hands slowly, dropping the gun to the floor with a clatter.

“Now, get up slowly.” I keep the gun trained on him as he climbs off Dylan and rises to his feet. “Turn around.”

The man faces me, his face locked in a sneer as he looks me up and down.

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