Chapter 4

Looking at my mother's face, I felt my stomach turn over and over.

Before I could get a word out, the phone she'd set on the nightstand buzzed.

It was a video call from my brother, Hubert.

She answered fast. He was lounging back in the leather seat of his brand-new Porsche, chewing tobacco, his whole face soured with impatience.

"Mom, did you get the money out of her or not?"

"I still have to get this car wrapped, redo the interior and the seats. All of it comes to tens of thousands more. My girl says if I don't get it done, she won't sign the papers with me!"

"My sister's leg is basically done for anyway. Might as well have her hand over whatever's left so I can cover this."

"She's not gonna just sit there and watch her own brother stay single his whole life, is she?"

Hearing all this, I shook with rage from head to toe.

This was the "adorable" good son they were always talking about.

My mother shot me an awkward glance and hurried to coax the screen.

"Hubert, don't get worked up, Mom's talking it over with your sister right now. She's your blood, how could she leave you hanging?"

She hung up, turned to me, and her eyes went red all over again.

"Katie, you heard him. Your brother's backed into a corner, he's got no other choice."

"We're family, we don't keep accounts against each other. You and Hubert both came out of my own body, back of the hand or palm, it's all my flesh. How could Mom not love you?"

"It's just, as the older sister, caring for your brother is your duty to begin with! Your company must have paid you some kind of settlement, right?"

That line, "caring for your brother is your duty," was the one I couldn't hold the anger down for anymore, and the tears came down in great heavy drops.

I screamed at her, out of control.

"What do you mean it's my duty to begin with?"

"My whole life you made me give way to him. But where exactly is Hubert the little one? He's only three months younger than me!"

"We're the same age, and just because he's a boy, you set him up like some ancestor to worship!"

"And me, your own daughter, I'm supposed to deserve getting every drop of blood sucked out of me?"

"My leg is nearly ruined, and you're still eyeing the settlement money?!"

I was so worked up that I jerked hard against the injury in my right leg.

Pain tore through the break in the bone.

I sucked in a sharp breath and clamped both hands over my right leg.

My whole body curled up on the bed in agony, cold sweat soaking through my back in an instant.

Watching me writhe like I wanted to die, my father fixed his stare on my broken, casted leg.

His eyes darted, and then he said to my mother, vicious.

"Woman, I say this dead girl's heart went wild a long time ago. She's turned against us, she'll never be tamed."

"She's definitely still got money on her, she just won't give it to Hubert."

"In that case, let's finish what we started and break her other leg too! Then we'll be able to squeeze the money out of her for sure."

My head snapped up. I couldn't believe those words came out of my own father.

He kept on to my mother.

"That'll stop her always wanting to run, always wanting to leave us!"

"Break her legs for good, and she'll never be able to leave us again. From now on she stays put in the hometown, washing our clothes and cooking our meals, looking after us into old age!"

"Then we find some old man willing to pay a big gift for her and marry her off, and there's Hubert's bride money sorted!"

The second he finished, he didn't hesitate at all. He turned, strode into the bathroom, and came out swinging a mop.

My mother jumped, and tugged at his sleeve.

"Oh, Clint, isn't this too hard on her? We did raise her, after all……"

"Out of my way! You and your soft woman's heart! Today I'm going to cripple this ungrateful girl for good!"

He flung my mother off, raised the mop high, and brought it down hard on my good left leg.

"Bang! "

"Ahh——!"

The crack of the mop and my scream went up at the same time, the fierce pain shooting through my whole body like a current.

"I'll teach you to run! I'll teach you to hide the settlement from your brother!"

My father roared, his face twisted, and lifted the mop again and again, smashing it down on me.

"Ahh! Help… somebody help…"

I rolled across the bed, screaming from the pain.

Just as my father's eyes went bloodshot and he raised the mop high, ready to throw everything he had into the ninth blow.

"Bang." The wooden door was kicked open from the outside.