Page 58 of Doctor Grump

Alarm spiked through me. The entire room was a mess, with cabinets torn open, drawers emptied, and the couch upended. It was like a hurricane had ripped through here and torn everything apart.

No, not a hurricane.It seemed our string of bad luck had continued. Mom and Patricia hadn’t been home much yesterday, which meant it was prime time for a robbery.

Before I registered what I was doing, I pulled out my phone and dialed 911. My heart raced as I waited for it to connect, and I ran my eyes over other details, trying to memorize as much as I could.

“Hello, 911. What's your emergency?"

“Hi, I think we’ve been robbed.”

“What’s your address, ma’am?”

“It’s—" I was about to give her the details when something cold and heavy touched my neck.

I screamed instinctively but choked it off when the metal dug deeper, deep enough to hurt.

“Shut up,” a darkly familiar voice said. “Before I shut you up myself.”

Fear skittered down my spine, robbing me of my voice. The person continued, “You messed up, cousin. I didn’t plan on killing you today, but you have a way of showing up at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Shock stole the rest of my voice as my brain finally recognized the voice. It only rendered me more confused as I turned around to stare at the last person I expected to see. “Bella?”

My cousin stood there with an annoyed expression, holding a gun pointed right to my face. The sight of it had me freezing in my step, but Bella heaved a heavy sigh like this whole thing was just an annoyance.

“Yes, it’s me,” she said. “And it seems you’re out of luck.”

I stared at her stupidly, struggling to make sense of what was going on. I could barely recognize her. Outwardly, she probably looked the same, but her expression, her aura. There was nothing remaining of the kind, caring cousin I had coffee with.

All that was left was a woman who looked annoyed as she nonchalantly held a gun to my face.

“You really should have stayed where you were, Pipes,” she said with a wry smile. “I didn’t plan on doing this myself.”

“But…doing what?” I racked my brain, trying to make sense of what was going on. “What’s going on? Why are you…?”Why do you have that?

“Why am I what?” She smirked. “Why am I at your house, or why am I holding a gun to your head? Because the answer is kind of a long one.”

“Both.” I guess it was the shock that gave me the boldness to ask, even with a gun pointed right at me. Strangely enough, I wasn’t scared of my cousin yet. Rather, I was more confused as hell. Bella was pointing a gun at me. I almost laughed at how ludicrous it sounded. I suppose my emotions hadn’t caught up with the reality yet.

Bella seemed to consider my question for some time before shrugging. “Oh, what the heck. I might as well tell you what’s going on. I mean, you should at least know why you’re going to die.”

Die?“You're going to kill me?” Laughter bubbled up my throat.

Bella frowned. “Yes, I am. And I don’t see why that’s so funny.”

“Sorry, it’s just…I don’t know what’s happening.”

“Well, then I’ll tell you.” She brushed a strand of hair off her face. “I guess it started when I was young, born as the second daughter of the second son of the great Santorini family. Dad, Grandma, and everyone let us know from birth how important that name was, how important we were, and how much we were better than everyone else who didn’t have that surname. They tell you that so many times that you start to believe it.”

I hadn’t remembered my childhood quite like that, but I guess I was spared from it since we were not from Judith’s blood.

“But as good as the Santorini name was, my family was low on the totem pole,” she continued. “As much as Judith liked to play that game where whichever of her sons achieved the most would inherit the most, we all knew she was going to give most of her wealth to her first son. The better Santorini. And everyone knew it too.” She gave me a funny look.

“You know, I always felt some kind of kinship with you, both of us being inferior Santorini. But you know what’s even worse than having your branch ostracized by Judith? It’s to have my father being the second born. To know that Frederick stole half my father’s ideas, presented it as his own, and got to impress Judith enough to be named heir of her business. To know that Judith probably turned a blind eye to his cheating because Frederick was the firstborn.” Anger twisted her features into an ugly mask. “It sucks that a circumstance of birth was all that separated us from getting everything we wanted.And Judith always made it clear that only one member of the family would inherit the majority of her fortune while the rest of us had to just starve with mere fragments. And I have to tell you…I’m not very good at starving.”

“I never knew all of this was going on,” I said quietly.

“That’s because you don’t pay attention,” Bella snapped. “You live in a world where everything is sunshine and rainbows, and you’re okay with counting pennies and getting by on utter mediocrity.” Disgust dripped from her tone. “Doing menial jobs just to get by. I always wondered how you weren’t embarrassed by that.”

“Because I don’t mind working,” I said. “Because I don’t think I’m better than people just because I’m a Santorini.”

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