Page 130 of Kade

I kept listening.

Oooh. Some understanding was happening. She’d been brainwashed by this other guy, someone that Mom and Pop hurt. That made sense. I mean, that sucked, but it made a bit more sense how someone who was my mom’s sister was such a cunty bitch.

Part three of the showdown was when Brinna explained the evilness of her evil plans.

Turns out, there used to be a secret society. Mom and Dad blew it up. Go ‘rents.

They set up the Godfather Brainwashee Guy to take the fall, who was sent to prison because he was a serial rapist. The HBOTC was in denial of that fact, but it seemed legit to me. If someone’s going to brainwash someone all their life, I mean, hello, that’s just another form of grooming.

The big twist was that another secret society was erected.

Pause for laughter. I just said erected.

The new secret society was better, more elite, more powerful, and they changed some rules. They were all about blackmailing first and not holding information to blackmail later. That part didn’t make sense, but I’m sure if someone was in that old secret society, that’d make sense to them. The bottom line was that a lot of blackmailing was happening. The new secret society was worse than the first.

If I was hearing that right? Most things are worse the second time around.

Oh. Whoa. They were behind why Grandpa Garrett couldn’t see my mom. That made sense. He knew about them and when they wanted to hurt my mom and dad, Grandpa Garrett put his foot down. He said no, sirree. They countered with, ‘Oh, so we can’t hurt your daughter?Fine. Then you can’t see her either.’

So not cool.

The new secret society sounded like assholes. Then again, anyone who was in a secret society would be an asshole. I’m sure it was a requirement.

That sucked for Mom. It bothered her that her bio dad never reached out. His heart seemed to be in the right place. If we took this new one down, Grandpa Garrett could come around again. Mom would be happy to see him.

The new secret society was added to my list.

PEOPLE, PLACES, OR THINGS FOR DESTRUCTION:

Traine’s a-hole dad

HBOTC (new leader) Brinna

New secret society

That’d keep me busy the rest of high school, but they were still talking.

Aaannnddd, my fingers hit the bottom of the popcorn bag. I ran out of my snack. I might need to grab some more—

“Maddy.”

Err.Screech. Say what?

All thoughts of going for more popcorn was abandoned because the HBOTC just said my name.

I turned around so I could press my ear to the vent to make sure I didn’t miss anything. She was bringing me into this.

---