Chapter 3
641 Words
I looked up at Richard and Gloria and said nothing. Of course you've heard that voice.
Ethan was the face of one of the country's leading enterprises. He'd spoken at major events across the country. It was just a shame I couldn't say so right now. But I was certain that when they finally learned the truth, the look on their faces would be worth every second of waiting.
Jenna waved it off. "Dad, Mom, you're probably just misremembering. She grew up in the countryside. There's no way she runs in the same circles as us. Besides, the pendant is a liability. I don't want her poor relatives showing up and causing trouble for the family."
She gave me a strange little smile. Then she raised the pendant and smashed it against the floor.
The c***k was sharp and final. The glass pendant exploded into fragments.
My vision contracted. Something tore open in my chest.
That pendant. Mother Agnes had left it to me. It was the only thing I had of her.
I tried to push myself up and couldn't. I stayed on the floor.
Richard and Gloria had noticed.
Their voices turned cold. "Don't get any ideas, Vera. You're a Laine now. The sooner you cut ties with those people from the countryside, the better. You nearly gave us a heart attack today. You could have killed your sister."
Jenna let her eyes fill on cue. "Dad, Mom, don't blame her. It's my fault. I was too hard on her. I don't want her punished. Just a few days alone to reflect, that's all."
She nodded to the servants, and they carried me upstairs.
Richard and Gloria watched with warm, satisfied expressions. "Jenna has always been the reasonable one."
Every instinct I had screamed at me to be afraid.
Jenna wasn't letting this go. She would never let this go.
And then the floor disappeared beneath me. Someone threw me down the stairs.
Several sharp cracks. My bones breaking.
The pain was so complete that I lost consciousness before I could make a sound.
Before the dark took me, I saw my own feet, bent at angles they were never meant to bend.
In the dream, I was back at Maplewood Home, sitting in the yard with Biscuit in my lap. Then a stranger came running and snatched her up, and no matter how much I called, she didn't look back as she was carried away in a cage.
I jolted awake to find Jenna sitting across from me, Biscuit tucked under her arm, her smile soft and pleasant as ever.
"I saw your dog in a photo on the pendant, so I had someone bring her up from the countryside for you. She's a decent size, so I thought she might make a nice meal for the household staff. You don't mind, do you?"
She kept smiling as she spoke, but her eyes were something else entirely. Biscuit was pinned under her grip, tail tucked, whimpering quietly.
She was asking me to save her.
I tightened my hand into a fist. "What do you want?"
Jenna didn't answer that. Instead, she spoke about my injuries, almost conversationally. "Right now it's just broken bones. I'd like to make that permanent. The cover story is already in place: your dog got out, and you fell down the stairs again trying to find her. Simple enough, don't you think?"
I stared at the slight curve of her mouth and felt something in me that wanted to tear her apart with my bare hands.
On the television, a news segment was running about the Sullivan Corporation's search for their missing heiress. I had no time left to waste.
Biscuit had clearly been drugged. She could barely move, and I watched Jenna's hand close around her a little tighter.
"I'll jump."
Jenna smiled.
- Writer
