Chapter 8
Maya
I need out of this mansion.
Out. Out. Fucking out.
As if waking up to find my sister’s husband in my bed, his thick cock wedged between my ass cheeks and his subtle snores vibrating against my neck wasn’t bad enough... the worst part? I enjoyed it.
When I opened my eyes this morning, all I wanted to do was press myself back against him.
I wanted to grind and dance my hips all around his dick until he erupted right between my cheeks.
Like a cheating, desperate slut. And then, barely an hour later, I had to sit at the dining table and look my sister straight in the eyes, with her husband sitting right next to me, acting completely unbothered as we had our breakfast.
To make my shitty morning even shittier, my third and only remaining job dropped me today. Any lingering hope of actually saving money and escaping this hellhole in the near future has become completely negligible. I am officially broke, stranded, and entirely at his mercy.
What have I turned into? What the fuck have I become?
I just wish Valeria had never met Graham.
None of this would have happened. I wouldn’t be developing these sick feelings for my sister’s husband.
I know I’m not innocent—not by a long shot.
But some depraved part of me still blames Valeria for all of this.
If she hadn’t been so cruel to me all this time, if she hadn’t broken me every chance she got since we were teenagers, I wouldn’t be starving enough to lick attention from bloodied knives.
Because every single time she says I’m nothing, her husband looks at me like I’m his entire world.
And when she tells me I’m unattractive, her husband’s dick points at me.
Never at her. When she screams that I’m unworthy, her husband fusses over me as he treats the wounds she inflicts during her many psychotic breakdowns.
It’s both of their faults that I’m turning into a villain, just as much as it is mine. So fuck them, and honestly, fuck me too.
Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.
She walks toward me in all her glory. I’m currently sitting on the cold concrete of the backyard, petting a couple of stray cats that wander near the edge of the estate.
I’m still in my pajamas, my face completely bare, wearing the clean bandage on my head that her husband personally changed for me this morning.
She bashes my head in because of her husband’s obsession with me, and he kneels at my feet to tend to the wounds, giving me more of his attention.
The toxic cycle just continues, turning faster and faster.
But the biggest loser in the end will always be me.
The clack-clack-clack of her heels grows louder as she struts across the stone.
Diamonds flicker on every single inch of her exposed skin, even on her anklets.
She’s wearing a white silk dress that perfectly hugs the body she busts her ass at the gym for.
The only crack in her flawless facade is her swollen, bloodshot eyes from crying all night.
Because her fucking husband slept in my bed, not in hers.
The first greeting I get from her is a slap. I instantly taste the metallic tang of blood pooling in my mouth. I spit the crimson fluid out onto the concrete. The cat I was petting lets out a frightened hiss before darting away into the bushes. Traitor.
I don’t say a single word, because what the fuck can I even say?
“Good morning, dear sister,” she sneers.
I lean my head back and spit more blood onto the stone.
“No words for me this morning?”
I shake my head, the shame eating away at my stomach like acid.
It’s her fault. It’s her fucking fault. She’s making me hate myself more by the second because I went from being her helpless victim to a monster just like her.
Even though I don’t outwardly show Graham that I want any of this, I know he can feel it.
He knows I secretly thrive on the fact that he’s feeding me the attention he denies her, showing her that I’m not fucking nothing.
She’s the one who is nothing now.
Then, in a move so completely uncharacteristic of the pristine Valeria, she drops to her knees. She sits right there on the dirty concrete beside me, completely ruining her white silk dress in the mud. Fuck. This is bad.
“What do you want, Valeria?” I ask, trying to control the tremor in my voice.
“To know what my husband’s dick feels like,” she chuckles.
She has every fucking right to be angry. Yet, a sick part of me is happy. Yes. Feel the jealousy. Feel like you will never, ever be enough for him—just like how you made me feel my entire life.
“I don’t know, Valeria,” I lie, keeping my eyes fixed on the concrete. “Just because he slept in my room doesn’t mean we had sex.”
We didn’t have sex. But I knew exactly how huge and rock-hard his dick felt, because it was nestled tightly in between my ass cheeks.
“Mmhmm,” she hums. “I can’t believe you still have the fucking audacity to talk back to me.”
I shrug, staring at the blood drying on the stone between us. She’s right. I do have the audacity. But she’s the one who asked.
“Do you know why I hate you so fucking much, Maya?”
I hold my breath, fighting back the tears. Yes. Yes. I have wanted to know the answer to that question my entire life. My voice is barely a whisper. “Why?”
Valeria scoffs as if I’ve just said the most ridiculous thing in the world. “Do you remember your first boyfriend? Nile?”
Nile. Yes. The first boyfriend I ever had, back when I was thirteen. The boy who broke my heart. The boy she slept with.
“You mean the one you stole from me?” I fire back.
Valeria laughs, and laughs, and fucking laughs. It sends a wave of goosebumps erupting all over my skin. I am truly, deeply scared of the woman sitting in the mud next to me.
“Stole from you?” She finally cuts her laughter short. “Oh, Maya… you mean the boyfriend who raped me?”
Everything inside me stills.
I try to force my lungs to expand, but nothing materializes. It’s like there is no oxygen left in the entire world.
“No,” I whisper, shaking my head frantically. “No, no… that’s not true. You slept with him because you fucking hate me. You did it to show me I’ll never be enough for anybody. To prove that they all want you and I’m just a nobody. That’s what you do!”
“Why the fuck would I go after a skinny, zitty fourteen-year-old boy, Maya?” she spits. “Have you ever actually asked yourself that question? Why would I want him?”
I feel like I’m drowning. The pain and the confusion swell until I can’t contain them. I scream back at her. “And Jonathan?! Did he rape you too??”
“No.” Valeria’s expression turns terrifyingly serene. A singular tear slips from her eye, tracing a wet path down her cheek before disappearing past the collar of her dress. “No, Maya. Him, I slept with.”
I can’t fucking breathe. Oh god, I can’t breathe.
“In my head, I just wanted to rewind the past,” she whispers, looking right through me. “I wanted to know what it would have felt like if that prick you let into our house hadn't stolen my virginity. I wanted to see what it would have been like if it was my choice, Maya. But it didn't work.”
She twists her beautiful hair up into a bun, and even while retelling the horrors of her past—ones I apparently caused—she still looks beautiful.
“You ruin everything,” she rasps. “You stole everything from me. My peace of mind. My body. My safety. You brought that monster into my life, and now you’re stealing my husband too.”
Valeria lunges forward, screaming right into my face. "You brought a fucking rapist into our home, Maya! Our mom died birthing you! You have always been nothing but a parasite on this family!"
I back away on my hands and knees. "Please, no... not this. Don't say that, Valeria. Please don't say that."
"Don't say what?!" she shrieks as she advances on me in the mud. "That I got my virginity stolen by a prick you let into somewhere that should have been safe for me?! That you turned me into this? Someone who goes from man to man, your boyfriends included, just to numb the pain?"
Her eyes are vacant. "Or should I not say that our mother died birthing you? Or no, maybe the truth is that Dad couldn't even stand the sight of you, so we spent our entire miserable lives being shuffled between aunts and grandparents?! Your very existence ruined everything for me!"
The yard spins out of control around me. I lurch to the side to puke right into the dirt. My own vomit splatters against my bare feet.
Valeria is right. How could I have been so incredibly blind for all these years? How did I not notice? How did I not realize that the true villain in this story was me all along?
"I'm sorry," I choke out through the tears. "I didn't know, Valeria... I swear to God, I didn't know."
She lets out a hiss. "You want me to forgive you?"
I nod desperately. "Please. Please, Valeria."
Despite everything, I still crave a relationship between us. Like normal sisters. I want her to forgive me.
"Then leave me the fuck alone!" she growls. "I finally found something that can make up for all the shit I've been through! Leave it to me! Leave! Leave! Leave!"
She keeps screaming the word over and over, crawling over my body in the mud. She buries both of her hands into my hair, bringing her face inches from mine as she screams directly into my mouth. "Just leave me the fuck alone! Leave me alone!"
She shakes my head against the stone over and over. But the hatred in my chest completely drains out.
Slowly, I raise my hands and lift them to her face. I cradle her cheeks gently between my palms, my thumbs wiping at the dirt there. It is the first time I've touched her like a sister in years.
"I'm sorry," I choke out. "I'm so sorry, Valeria. I'll leave. I promise... I promise I'll leave."