Chapter Six #2
Hands suddenly grabbed and pulled me out. The world spun as I was tossed over Micah’s shoulder and carried out.
“Lilybug, finish your soup,” Alex called over his shoulder—standing side by side with Rhodes and Micah. “Daddies will be back in a bit to check on you.”
“Okay,” she chirped, not in the least bit concerned that her auntie was in for it.
“Guys? Micah!” I wiggled in his hold. “Okay, short people don’t like to be picked up! It’s one of our top five fears and dislikes!”
“Want to know what my top fear and dislike is?” Micah plopped me on my feet. In a blink he had me up against the wall, slamming his hands on either side of my face.
Before I could get a word out, Rhodes and Alex were right there—boxing me in on the left and right.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
“My worst fear is that my twisted and duplicitous wife will con our daughter into believing she’s the cool, fun parent, all so she can get full custody of her in the divorce—but plot twist that everyone saw coming—she only wants to use our child to drain us of every cent she can get in child support. ”
My eyes bugged. “Child support? Divorce?! What the hell are you talking about?”
“What the hell are you talking about!” Micah roared, blowing me back. “Enough with the doe-eyed, innocent act, Sue! For once, fucking enough!”
I shrunk back, eyes huge in face of his fury. My heart pounded a mile a minute, racing faster than the chill crawling up my spine—because I knew this rage.
This was the rage born from being played and manipulated by an evil, gleeful psycho who got off on fucking with your life, and making you look like the crazy one. It was the kind of rage that filled me just before the thought entered my mind that I could do it.
I could kill my sister, and not feel an ounce of guilt over it.
“Okay, okay, just slow down,” I breathed, putting my hands up in surrender. “Listen, I know I’ve done awful things to you. I’ve lied, I’ve messed you around, I blamed you for all of it, and I never took responsibility. Whatever resentment you have toward me, I’ve earned it.”
Rhodes’s lips peeled back from his teeth. “Oh, nice. We get Insincere Apologies and Fake Accountability Sue today. You haven’t brought this personality out in a while.”
I weathered his sarcasm with a hard face. “No, Rhodes. I’m not being insincere. I’m not being fake. This is the one hundred percent truth: I don’t want a divorce.”
Of course I didn’t want a fucking divorce! I can’t divorce men I’m not married to, and widowed men don’t get divorced in the first place!
“And I’m not going to fight you for custody, or demand child support, or anything like that,” I heard myself say. “I’ve got more than a sense that Soo Min Kim hasn’t been the world’s greatest mother.”
The three of them exchanged looks, trading disbelieving expressions.
“My point being,” I continued, “that if you’ve been her primary caregivers all this time, then you’re the ones who know what’s best for her. I’m not going to even think about getting in the way.”
Micah dropped his arms, stepping back. “Sue, what the hell is this? What are you saying? You’re the one who demanded the divorce.
You’re the one who said you wanted all four of us out by the end of next month.
You’re the one who said we were a couple of dickless wonders who couldn’t find your G-spot even if we put our empty heads together, and you were replacing us with a man who could get the job done. ”
I blew out a hard breath, stifling a scream. Hera’s sake! Even in death, I’m cleaning up after Sue’s cruelty! Why couldn’t that woman ever, for once, spare the jugular?
“I lied,” I dropped. “I didn’t mean any of that. I just said that to hurt you because I’m a childish, spiteful bitch that gets off on tormenting people for my own amusement.”
Three pairs of brows bounced up to their hairlines.
“There’s no affair. There’s no other man. I don’t want a divorce,” I said forcefully. “But... but I will tell you what I do want.”
Their expressions hardened.
“Here it is,” Alex scoffed. “Knew it was too good to be true.”
“Let me guess,” Rhodes added. “The cost of this amicable split will be a cool eight figures and—”
“I want you to take the manor,” I sliced in. “I’ll be the one to leave, and you three can stay here—live here—and raise Nari in her home.”
“I— Excuse me?” Micah blurted.
“The only thing I ask is that you buy me out of my share of the manor. Whatever the cost would’ve been if we sold it, give me a fourth of it and that’ll be more than fair.
” A thought occurred to me. “Well, also Omma’s personal things, her books, photo albums, and the rest. But otherwise, I don’t need anything else. ”
If I thought I shocked them before, it was nothing compared to the thrice astonishment looking back at me now.
“Buy you... out of your share of the manor?” Rhodes slowly repeated. “But it’s yours already. Why would you just give it to us for a fraction of the price?”
“Because you have to raise Nari here.”
“But why—”
“Because no mother should ever throw their child out of their home!” I shrieked, blowing them back. “This is her home! It’s her home! And Nari will leave when she’s ready, and not a minute sooner! Got it?”
“Yikes, we got it,” Micah grumbled—though his tone was ten times milder than when he tossed me against the wall.
“Okay.” My chest heaved, breaths coming hard. “Good. Then, just two more things. First, I know that things aren’t great between us and it’ll be awkward but, please, don’t ask me to move out until... until Omma...”
For the first time since I walked through the door, something approaching a real and kind emotion toward me crossed Rhodes’s face. “Sue, come on, of course you can stay with your mother until the end. We’re not monsters.”
I blinked rapidly, swallowing hard around the lump in my throat. “Okay... thank you.” Ducking my head, I dug in Sue’s bag. Lucky for me I was already holding it when they carried me out like a sack of potatoes. “Now, for my last request.” I took out the folder and handed it to them. “Here.”
Alex looked at the folder like it might bite him. He made no move to take it. “What’s that?”
“It’s the trust documents. I opened it today, transferred all of my money into it, and put you three in charge of it. It’s for Lily.”
Still cautious, Alex took it from me. Surprise sprouted color in his cheeks, drawing my eyes to those glass-cutter cheekbones. “The Silly Lily Fund? What the hell’s this?”
“What it is is nothing more than what Lily is owed. From her mother to her—that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
Yes, it was true. Like the big, dense, stupid softie I was, I transferred all of Sue’s money into an account for Lily.
I had no problem stealing from that evil succubus, but I did have a big problem with stealing from her daughter.
Now that Sue was gone, everything she had rightfully belonged to the child she left behind—and no amount of righteous rage could justify doing otherwise.
There you go, big sis. The last and only kind thing I’m owed you. Now you can continue frying in hell.
“Listen,” I rasped, “I know you don’t have to respect my wishes, but I called it the Silly Lily Fund because I hope you’ll use the money for all those silly, impractical things that young girls want growing up, but are always told are a waste of time and money.
“This house was always such a mausoleum,” I heard myself say. “The only time there was ever laughter or joy in these halls was when I was running around, playing with the staff’s kids, and even that ended at five o’clock.
“Did you know Omma made u—me justify every single item on my birthday and Christmas lists? Every single club or camp I wanted to join?” I burst out.
“Everything that wasn’t food, clothes, or academics had to be defended and justified.
Why do you need a kid’s salon set? Are you planning on being a hairdresser?
If you’re not going to be a hairdresser, why do you want to play around with fake hair when you should be studying to achieve your true goals? ”
I huffed a frustrated groan like I did all those times before. “Just don’t do that to her, okay? Don’t make her beg to have fun, or be a kid. Tell her she’s got forty thousand dollars’ worth of silliness to take advantage of in the next twelve years, so don’t use that money wisely.”
“We’re not going to tell her that,” Micah deadpanned, his lips quirked up into something resembling a smile.
“But what we’re also not going to do, and you can trust this, is raise Lily the way your mother raised you.
She’s going to be much happier than you were, Sue.
” His gaze pinned me through. “Because we’ve seen the result of what happens if she’s not. ”
I flinched, jerking back like he hit me. Micah meant that comment to hit Sue, but it struck me just as squarely. I grew up in the same house with the same parents, and I was a failure.
I was what you got when a family like mine chewed you up and spat you out.
“But,” Micah continued, tipping my chin up. “Why are you talking like this? Like you’re never going to see her again? Is that what you want?” he asked. “To walk out the door and out of her life, and never come bac—”
“No,” I barked, blurting it out before sense could stop me. “Of course, I don’t want that. I want to see her as often and as much as you’ll let me. I love her.”
The words were out of my mouth, and I knew they were true.
Frankly, I was always one of those people who made silly faces at babies in the grocery store, and volunteered at children’s homes during the holidays just to see their little faces light up when they opened their presents.
I loved every kid and baby I came across, but Lily was special from the moment I laid eyes on her.
This was the baby with my hair, my face, my unique eyes, and my last name.
The one I’d been waiting twenty-eight years to meet.
The one I so desperately wanted to have one day.
And I had already decided at our very first meeting that I’d be the best auntie this girl ever had—it wouldn’t even matter that I was her only one.
“I want to see her after everything is said and done,” I told them in a calmer tone. “But I understand that you three need to trust me with her first.”
Rhodes sighed, scrubbing his face. “Sue, come on, we’re not going to keep her—”
“You’re right,” Alex broke in, clamping a hand on Rhodes’s shoulder.
“You do need to earn our trust before there’s any thought of you having further contact with Lily after you leave.
You’ve treated our daughter like a nuisance since the first bout of morning sickness, and nothing’s changed since.
You’ve almost got her believing that it’s normal, or even right, for a child to beg and plead for her mother’s attention.
“You’re done fucking with her, Sue, and you’re done fucking with us.
You want trust, earn it,” he gritted. “And you start by putting everything you just said into writing.
No divorce, no child support, no alimony, and no staying here past the funeral.
Write it, sign it, and make eight copies for all of us, and our lawyers.
“Do it today, or we’ve got nothing more to talk about.”
I tipped my head. “I can do this today.” Pulling out Sue’s phone, I showed them the screen, and the recorder app. “Everything we said and all of my conditions, loud and clear for the lawyers to hear. I’ll send you guys a copy now.
“I want this to work,” I said. “I want us to live peacefully in this house until the end, and I want that for my mother. Omma was cold, strict, and unforgiving. She cared too much what outsiders thought and concerned herself more with looking like the perfect family than actually being one, but she was the mother I needed when it counted. So I’ll be here for her. .. when it counts.”
Micah, Rhodes, and Alex didn’t seem to know what to say to that, so they didn’t reply.
“I told work that Lily’s sick and I won’t be back,” Micah said as all three of them turned their back on me. “I’ve got her from here. You can go back to whatever you were doing, Sue.”
Dismissals didn’t get much clearer than that.
The three of them went toward Lily’s room, so I went the other way—heading for the east wing staircase that spilled out into the front room, and therefore the hallway that would take me to Omma.
If I was staying here and keeping up this charade for my mother, then I should be with my mother—spending as much time with her as time allowed.
My fingers glided along the railing, leading the way across the landing. I passed by the east wing hallway—the only part of the manor I’d yet to revisit since coming home.
I did not return to the corridor, but the corridor returned to me. Fractured memories of my bare feet on the red-carpeted floor. The lone flickering bulb with the dead bug stuck to it, flickering its shadowy little corpse on the wall like an omen. And the screams.
Always... the screams.
So many things were done in this house...
I turned away.
...but that was the only thing done right.