Page 79 of Deviant

“What did I say, huh?” Aidan spits out just as angry. “What did I fucking say that was so fucking wrong, huh? That Mom, being on her deathbed, is all Nora’s doing? Well, guess what, E? It is. She wouldn’t have deteriorated this way if our sister wasn’t so goddamn selfish. I mean,accidentalsuicide? We all know what that really means. She killed herself because she couldn’t hack it. The pressure of possibly being selected for the games was just too much for her to take. We see it all the time, eighteen-year-olds taking the coward’s way out just before the Harvest Festival. She wasn’t special. She was just another statistic. You’re the one who put Nora on such a high pedestal that you refuse to see the truth. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if the true reason she killed herself was because she couldn’t live up to your high expectations anymore. So maybe it’s you I should really be blaming for our mother’s current condition.”

“Shut up, Aidan. Shut your goddamn mouth,” Elias threatens with gritted teeth, his hands balled into fists beside him.

“Fuck no,” Aidan counters defiantly. “I’m tired of always walking on eggshells in my own fucking home. Mom is dying. She’s dying. And you and I can’t deal with it anymore. The worst part in all of this is that if Nora was going to take the easy way out anyway, the least she could have done was let herself be selected so we could at least get paid. A hundred thousand dollars would have gone a long way to make Mom comfortable in her last days. You can thank your beloved sister that she’s not. Mom will continue to rot away in this dump until the day she dies.” Aidan then goes one step further and looks up at the heavens. “Way to go, Nora. Way to fucking go.” He snarls before putting his attention back on his older brother. “And if you had any fucking heart, you would have told Nora how the fuck your name never gets called when everyone knows that you’d be fucking perfect forThe Scourge.You would have saved us a world of hurt if you did. But if you didn’t share your secret with your precious Nora, then I’d be a fool to ever think you’d ever share it with me.”

Elias’s expression morphs from deadly to arrogant, and says, “You’re right. I’d never tell you.”

Aidan’s eyes flash with even more resentment as he counters, “I knew it. You’d really rather see me killed, huh?”

“Baby brother, if I had it my way, I’d kill you myself rather than sit back and watch some other motherfucker get so lucky,” Elias replies with that terrifying calm tone of his.

“Then come at me! Do it! Just fucking do it already! I dare you!”

“Don’t try me, Aidan.”

“Try you?! I want nothing to do with you. You’re an aberration—a freak of nature. Just breathing the same air as you makes me want to hurl. That’s how little I think of you.”

“Stop!” I shout, exhausted by their toxic alpha behavior.

It’s only after my loud outburst that they realize I’ve been standing here all this time, witnessing their cruel bickering.

“Rowen,” Aidan begins, his vile expression shifting to one I’m more familiar with—the docile and friendly mask he wears so well. “I didn’t see you there. How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” I reply sternly, unconvinced by the fake smile he throws my way.

The things he said about Nora were just too ugly to ever forgive or forget.

“I can explain—”

“Don’t talk. I don’t want to hear it,” I scold, not in the mood for any of his lies.

Where Aidan pretends to look repentant, Elias does not. He’s completely uncaring whether or not I heard him fight with his brother.

“Where’s your mother? Where’s Emily?” I ask, concerned more for her well-being than I am for her sons.

“In her room,” Elias explains. “Resting.”

“Don’t you mean dying?” Aidan interjects sharply.

I cross my eyes at Aidan and punch him in the shoulder as I bypass him to go and check on his mother.

Usually, I would be light on my feet, trying not to disturb her with my footsteps, but given the loud ruckus her sons were making, I figured if that didn’t wake her, nothing would. When I open her bedroom door, I find Emily sound asleep, her face a mere combination of skin and bones.

Aidan’s right. She’s been deteriorating faster than I could have possibly imagined. She looks so frail now, a ghost of the vibrant woman she once was.

A quick glance at her bedside table reveals enough medication to ensure she sleeps for most of the day and night.

This isn’t a life.

This… is death.

This house… is entrenched with it.

It’s a small mercy knowing Nora never saw her mother this way.

I, however, can’t say the same.

The guilt I carry on my shoulders feels like it has doubled in size and weight as all my doubts come rushing to the forefront of my mind.

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