Cold sweat engulfs me.
This wasn't the plan. Yes, there might have been no plan to begin with in the first place.
BUT , this was not a part of any plan that I would've cooked up anyway.
I've already learned the hard way that mistakes in this world, though committed not out of malice, but foolishness, had dire consequences and my great ass did exactly that.
Aiden trails behind father and enters the mansion almost in a clumsy lazy fashion, but I stayed back. Petrified.
I need to get back to the ring, at least before any one else could get to it.
After more than just a few steps, Aiden realised the absence of footsteps that should have been in pace with his. He swirls around sharply and with a baffled expression on his face mouths,
"Get in Dummy!"
Every nerve in my body screams at me to turn on my heels and fucking run, memories of the former consequences of the happiness meter bleeding my throat dry.
But the odds that I would survive on the streets fictional world, and mind you a quite diabolical one, were definitely not in my favour either.
So, I did what any smart girl with a sense of self-preservation would have done. I obeyed
Pretty ring, wait for me
With slow measured steps, I stepped in to the verandah and then followed my new family into the living hall. My head having a mind of its own as it scurried up all the possible maneuver, excuses, scenarios, to retrieve what I had lost, to undo what I had done.
Outside though, my expression remained that of subtle confidence.
"Where were the two of you?", father asks as he sat himself on the luxuriant brown plush couch.
"Lily's mom had met with an accident, and we just were out to support her and help her", Aiden blurted out as though the words were fighting at the tip of his tongue from long hours
"Did she ask for help?", Father firmly asks as he looks Aiden in the eye, like predator eyeing its prey
"No, but as close acquaintances, I believe It was our duty to comfort her father", Aiden argued bluntly
I almost choke on the certainty of his shammy, pretty words.
Acquaintances, Duty? You sure know how to please your father, don't you Aiden?
"Comfort?", Father muses, as if tasting the word that was nothing but bitter and poison to him.
"Yes, and—", Aiden is silenced by the lift of father's palm
Father then stands up straighter, take both of us by surprise, his voice falls a few octaves, certainly much colder, "She is not your acquaintance Aiden, she is a liability, and you don't 'comfort' or 'help' your liabilities"
Aiden's gaze simmers with rage threatening to explode, but Father pays no heed to it. He continues calm and cold, "If Lily needed monetary aid, she can always approach me, though I very well ought to believe our debts were fairly repaid when she was given purchase in this house for the past 17 years", breaking eye contact he snarls, "A liability if left unchecked doesn't take long to become a burden pulling down everyone in it wake".
For a while everything is still, Aiden's fury stretching the air around us to its maximum restraint.
But father loved tempting monsters, didn't he? So, he did.
He snatched his gaze and fixated it right on me, his lips didn't twitch, but his eyes told me everything that I didn't want to know, "Right, Genny?"
He knows. He fucking knows that I paid the hospital bills for Lily's mom. He was just fucking with us the whole damn time.
But sweet little Aiden, now the monster, didn't realise that.
Of course, and here I thought he understood his father's game.
Hence walking right into our dearest father's tiny trap, he utters exasperated with bared teeth with a almost a smug lilt as if he thought he was winning the game, "Actually, father, Genny here paid the hospital bills herself. Guess we didn't need your 'monetary aid' after all"
Funny how anger can provoke you into voluntarily surrendering your head to the guillotine without raising a single finger.
Worse, without you knowing it.
I swear my whole existence wanted to facepalm so bad, wanted to slap some sense into my sweet little brother's head, but now I refused to flinch. Refused to break. So, I did not do a thing, did not show a thing.
But father loved stretching a lie until it had no choice but to morph into the truth, he quirks up an eyebrow, lips twitching upward resembling more of a smirk than a smile, "Is that so Genny, you paid it all?!", he exclaims pretending to be amused.
What a show! Fine, you want a show Mr. Laurent, I'll give you one.
"Yes Father, that is true", I say without breaking eye contact, not the slightest bit of fear shadowing my features
"How?"
"I have my sources", my lips twitch upwards
Father looks at Aiden who backs me, "She told me the same father"
Father sighs, he steals his gaze back upon me, "Go on, and tell me why did you do so?"
"I did what was the best of our interest Father"
"And what would that be, Genevieve?", he muses with the slightest of a mocking lilt, as if curious what outlandish excuse I could possible cook up to get myself out of this mess.
"Lily's father saved mom's life sacrificing his own on the battleground, making Lily a liability, a burden to us. Giving her a roof on her head and cash in her hand wouldn't nearly repay anything"
Aiden's eyes flick with confusion as he side-eyes me
I continue unfazed, "And today, we did the equivalent, we saved her mom's life who would have otherwise not made it. Now, instead of her being the liability...."
I smile fully, sweetly saccharine, "We are the liability"
"She owes us"
"She'll feel burdened by our favor. Grateful. In our debt. Which means — when we play our cards…", my voice full of dark intent, malice, "She'll fold."