The price of privilege

ONE- The Arrangements Brenda's POV The shattering noise causes me to whimper in fear. Tears fill my eyes, my cheeks redden. I purse my lips together and hold my head down as I hear familiar footsteps trailing towards my direction. I gulp a lump down my throat, my entire body shakes. I put my hands over my ears and shut my eyes close for a brief moment. "BRENDA!!!!" A familiar masculine voice yells with so much rage and anger laced in his tone. I stagger backward until my back is against the wall. I snap my eyes open and they come in contact with the monster shaped in a human form, my father. "DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME CALL YOUR NAME?" He yells running a hand through his hair in frustration. The rage twinkling in his hazel eyes cause me to grind my teeth and sweat profusely. I try to force the right words out of my mouth but I am too scared to even utter a single word. Just the sight of my father scares me. My eyes dart towards his right hand and i notice the bottle of tequila clutched tight to his hand. "WHERE IS MY MONEY!!" Dad yells, he walks towards me and grabs me by the neck. His grip on my neck is tight causing me to choke out a small cry. "WHERE IS MY MONEY YOU STUPID CHILD!" My father exclaims, he lets go off his grip on neck and his fists land on my face. I wince in pain and spit out blood from the pressure of his fist colliding with my teeth. "I took it." A calm voice mumbles from behind. I look up to gaze at my brother Dave, his head is cowered and his shoulders are slumped in defeat. "No, no, no." I hastily say. "I was the one who took it. I needed it to cook. Dave and I haven't had anything since morning dad and we were starving. I thought it would be nice if we cooked something delicious, there's leftovers in the kitchen for you." I cry out. Dad scoffs at my reply, he c***s his head towards my direction and raises a brow at me in disbelief. My heart races fast and i tremble with sobs as I imagine what dad's next action would be. "What did I just hear you say?" Dad asks in a calmer yet deadly tone. I know he heard me clearly but just chose to pretend like he did not so I do not bother repeating myself the second time. I just shut my eyes close and wait for his next move but surprisingly for me, I hear a loud thud causing me to j******f the floor in fear. I flutter my eyes open and I see dad's body lying carelessly on the floor. My mouth opens wide, i gasp and freeze on a spot as I stare at Dave with wide eyes. His clutches a piece of wood tight and his body shakes in fear. "Dave, what did you just do?" I ask staggering backward and clutching my chest tight. "He is okay. He is still breathing. He only passed out for a brief moment. I could not watch him beat you up for something that is obviously none of your fault. I took the money Brenda, you should have just told him that." Dave snaps at me. I scoff, if I had told him then Dave would be dead by now. I release a heavy sigh of relief and brush past Dave with my lips curled into a frown. I don't know what Dave used the money for but I had to cover up for him. I would rather take the beating than watch my younger brother suffer. "You need to stop!" Dave yells at me causing me to freeze in my steps. I turn around to gaze at Dave with my brows arched at him. "Stop what? Saving you?" I pause to choke out a bitter laughter and shake my head at him. "You are the one who needs to stop taking his money! Let him do whatever he wants with it Dave. You know the kind of person he is, you know what happens when his money goes missing. Can you just stop?" I cry out. My breath is shaky and hitched. I bite my lower lips to hold back the tears that threaten to fall from my eyes. Dave runs a hand through his hair in frustration. He rubs his temple and paces the room with a scowl on his face. "What do we do now? He is going to wake up any moment from now and you know what he will do after that. What about mum? Should we try calling mum? Maybe she can talk to him?" Dave asks. His face becomes hot and red, his hands are shaky. "You know mum's shift does not end till midnight. We need to think of something else by ourselves. We need to leave Dave." I say. Dave scrunches his brows at me in confusion, his eyes squint towards my direction in deeper confusion. "Leave?" Dave repeats in an uneasy tone. I nod my head in agreement. I have been planning this for a long while, I planned to move to New York with Dave, somewhere far away from dad. As much as I do not want to leave mum alone with this horrible man, I do not have much of a choice, Dave and i need to leave and start afresh. I already talked to Katherine, my best friend and she agreed to let us stay with her until I am able to get a stable job in New York. I have already done a few virtual interviews for different companies in the city, all I await is their response. "You think dad is just going to let us leave?" Dave asks with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed at me. "I have that under control. I already booked our flights and all, we are leaving tonight." I reply. "Tell me how you have it under control Brenda. What do you plan to do?" Dave does not seem to believe me, he inclines his head and whispers something to himself. I dig my hands into my pocket and fetch out a white substance wrapped into a small piece of paper. Dave scrunches his brows at the direction of my hand with eyes wide open. I nod my head and say "The only way is to drug him. We can leave the house tonight. We will find somewhere to lay our head until the next day." I do not expect him to be convinced about any of this. All of this must still be shocking to him but it is something I have been planning for a long while. "Think about it." I say and with that, I slowly walk out of the house. My neck still hurts from my dad's tight grip on my neck. I wince in pain and hold back the tears that threaten to fall from my eyes. I have been holding my tears so I do not appear weak in front of my brother. He needs me to be strong, I need to be strong to survive all of this. Now, I just need to see mum and discuss everything with her. I know she is going to understand everything, she knows dad perfectly. She knows the man she married and I know she must regret marrying a monster like him. Each day she keeps reminding me not to make the mistake of marrying out of money. She said the only reason she ever married dad in the first place was because of the money he had. Well, that was before he lost all his money to gambling. My family is a mess. My dad is abusive to us and my mum. He gambles and mingles with dangerous people. The real reason why I want to run away with Dave is because I eavesdropped on dad's conversation with someone a few days ago. Apparently, we will be losing the house all as a result to dad's dangerous gambling. It is why I had to make a quick move to contact Katherine about it and with the help of her, I was able to process our flight tickets to New York city. Mum does not know about it yet and that is why I am headed to the restaurant where she works. I have to see her and explain everything to her. As I get closer to the restaurant, I notice a crowd of people gathered around the entrance door. They make whispering noises and police cars are parked around every corner of the restaurant. I scrunch my brows in confusion and my heart skips a beat as I take a few steps closer to get a perfect view of the pandemonium. A few police officers step outside of the restaurant with mum besides them with handcuffs around her wrist. "Mum!" I yell dashing towards her and the police officers. "You must be Miss Brenda, daughter to Samantha Thompson." A female officers says. I nod my head hastily. "Your mother is under arrest for the murder of Mrs Valentina Santoro."