Page 3 of Beautiful Beast

“What the fuck did you do?” he hisses as he stares down at the glass. His face increasingly reddens the more upset he gets. A vein always appears in his head. It’s impressive how fast it comes on. A part of me hopes that vein will pop in his head, killing him.

Then Nadia and I would be on our own, and we’d be allowed to live our lives for ourselves.

But that’s a fool’s dream because even if my father dies, Nadia and I will never be allowed to live our own lives. We’d be forced to move in with a distant male relative until we were married. That’s the way of life within the Bratva. Men rule the world, and women are subservient. Women don’t have a voice. Women don’t have anything, as my father has reminded me on countless occasions.

I stare down at the glass. “I accidently knocked it over. It’s not a big deal. Just have Carmen clean it up.” Carmen is our housekeeper. Maid and cook, too. She pretty much keeps everything running since my mom died.

“You’re the one who did this.Youclean it up.”

“Fine,” I mutter, walking over to the closet and grabbing the broom.

“You’re always so irresponsible. Can’t you ever get your act together?”

“It’s just one glass. We have many more.” I sweep it up into the dustpan.

“It’s not about the glass, Anya!”

His shout makes me stand up straight. My father has a tendency to shout, but this feels different. There’s a more frantic energy to him today.

“Then what’s it about?”

“It’s about how you’ve been a pain in my ass for so long. I’m sick of it. You’re always so defiant. You always talk back to me. A good Bratva girl knows her manners, and you have none.”

“That’s because I don’t show respect to people who don’t respect me.”

He snaps his fingers and points at me. “That’s what I’m talking about. That right there. That … attitude. I fucking hate it.”

“What’s going on?” Nadia asks in her soft voice as she enters the kitchen.

“What’s going on is that your sister made a mess again.”

Nadia glances at me with wide eyes. She has a doe-like quality to her. Large eyes, brown hair, petite nose. Whereas I’m a more striking beauty with my red hair and blue eyes. You’d never know we were sisters, given how different we look.

I have our mother’s red hair and my father’s nose, but Nadia only has our mother’s eyes. It’s something our father has commented on before.

The fact that Nadia doesn’t look like him one bit.

“It’s just some glass,” I say, getting the last bit of it and throwing it into the trash.

“It’s not just some glass! You need to learn etiquette, Anya. You’ll need it if you’re going to make me proud.”

“Make you proud how?” I put the broom away and brush past him toward the kitchen table. I was in the middle of eating pancakes when I hit my cup.

“You’re going to finally serve your purpose,” he says with an indulgent smile. It’s a weird look on him. He rarely smiles.

Nadia sits beside me, her spine ramrod straight. Around our father, she never relaxes. I’ve joked that the only good thing about our father is that it’s helped her perfect her posture.

“What purpose?” I ask around a mouthful of pancake.

“Don’t eat with your fucking mouth open,” he hisses.

“Why not? It’s just you and Nadia.” I purposely take another large bite and chew it noisily, which only pisses him off even more. I think it’s pretty funny.

“You will show me respect.” Grabbing my arm, he hauls me from my seat. I should’ve seen the slap coming, but it still surprises me.

I gasp at the impact. Nadia gasps, too, but doesn’t tell our father to stop. I don’t blame her. Telling our father to stop being an asshole is pointless.

“I’ll do it again if you don’t stop with this attitude,” he threatens.

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