Page 100 of Crybaby

He could have used any other phrase, but son? Fuck him. That is just another blow.

“The time for talking has come and gone,” I reply, taking my gun off Darcie and aiming it at Walter.

I have both guns trained on the Beckett men—my brother and father.

“Do you want to confess your sins to the good people?” I ask Carson, who suddenly pales.

“You’re fucking crazy! Shoot him!” he bellows at the security flanking the stage. But they don’t have a clear shot.

“No!” Walter screams, and I know the men will listen to him.

He knows I’m not bluffing. “Augustine, we’ll work something out. Now, please put the gun down.”

“How about no? Something your wife clearly doesn’t know how to say.”

Theresa howls while I grin.

“You’re angry. I can see that. Let me help you.”

“What gave it away?” I quip, but the question is rhetorical as I pistol-whip Carson. “I don’t want your help, fuck you very much.”

“Please, don’t hurt him. Take me instead.” He pats his chest, like a hero, swooping in to save the day.

But he’s missed the memo.

“Don’t you get it?” I question, rolling my eyes theatrically. “Hurting him hurts you. Win-win.”

“What did I ever do to you?” Carson has the gall to ask.

Darcie is about to slap him, but God strike me down, she can’t. She needs to look like the victim for this to work.

So swallowing my disgust, I slap her cheek—hard, so hard she stumbles back, cradling her reddening cheek.

“Oh, that poor girl,” someone in the crowd says. “She was brainwashed.”

“He held her against her will.”

“He made her do it.”

“Is it Stockholm syndrome?”

These are all the mutterings I hear amongst the crowd. Darcie hears them too and shakes her head. She pleads I stop this, but she knows I’ll shoot her in the kneecap if she takes another step.

So she stays put—for now.

“You did nothing to me other than being an annoying fuckass,” I reply with a shrug. “But what you did to others—” And I whistle. “The worse thing, however, is what yourfatherdid.”

The interest of the crowd is piqued because, who doesn’t love a scandal?

I don’t have time to dally, so I nod at Gunter, the AV nerd I paid one thousand dollars to, to fuck shit up. And it’s time to fuck shit up to biblical proportions.

Behind me, the screen flashes with the first piece of incriminating evidence I found in Walter’s office. The guests read it, and it takes a minute, but when they read over the crimes Carson committed and was never held accountable for, they soon understand where this is headed.

Page after page flashes before them as I air the DA’s dirty laundry.

“Eileen’s son is in jail for that crime, but it was Carson all along? And the DA knew?” I hear someone utter in disgust.

Walter gasps, but that soon turns to horror when he realizes I found what else was hidden away in his secret stash.

---