Chapter 6 - A Sister's True Colors
The twenty minutes granted by the marshals turned into a pathetic circus of desperation. While my parents scrambled through the master bedroom throwing clothes into trash bags, Brianna cornered me in the front foyer under the towering crystal chandelier.
Her designer composure had completely disintegrated. Her hair was a tangled mess, her designer dress stained with dirt, her breath smelling of cheap jail coffee and sheer panic.
""Amelia, please,"" she whimpered, reaching out to touch my sleeve. I stepped back, avoiding her touch entirely.
""Don't touch me, Brianna.""
""Amelia, you have to listen to me! It was Mom's idea!"" she sobbed, tears cutting dirty rivers down her powder-caked face. ""Mom told me to take the video! She said we needed leverage because Julian’s dad was threatening to pull out of the wedding contract! She said if we broke Teddy down, you’d do whatever she asked! I didn't want to do it! I swear I didn't!""
I looked at the girl I had spent my entire youth protecting. When she crashed my car at nineteen, I told the insurance company I was driving. When she got caught shoplifting at twenty-one, I emptied my savings account to hire a private defense attorney so her record stayed clean.
""You laughed, Brianna,"" I said, my voice barely above a whisper, but carrying the weight of a lead weight. ""I heard your voice on that recording. You laughed while my four-year-old boy wept on burning gravel. You zoomed in on his bleeding knees.""
""I was nervous!"" she screamed, her voice cracking into hysteria. ""People laugh when they're nervous! You know I love Teddy! I bought him that toy train last Christmas!""
""You bought him a five-dollar plastic train from the pharmacy while Dad gave you an eight-thousand-dollar trip to Paris,"" I replied coldly. ""You have never loved anyone in your life except yourself. And now, the bill has come due.""
""What am I supposed to do?"" she wailed, sinking to the polished floorboards. ""I don't have a job! Julian blocked me! All my credit cards are maxed out! Where am I supposed to sleep tonight?""
""There's a women's emergency shelter on Montgomery Street,"" I said without an ounce of hesitation. ""I suggest you walk fast before it fills up.""
""Time's up!"" the marshal shouted from the doorway. ""Everyone outside. Now.""
Celeste staggered down the grand curved staircase, dragging a single designer suitcase behind her. Her diamond earrings were gone—pawned weeks ago to pay for catering deposits—and without her professional makeup and hair styling, she looked every bit her sixty-one years: hollow, bitter, and utterly defeated.
She stopped at the foot of the stairs, glaring at the moving crew carrying out the mahogany dining chairs.
""You think you've won, Amelia,"" Celeste hissed, her lips curling over her teeth. ""You think you're powerful because you have a piece of paper signed by a corrupt judge. But you will always be the daughter nobody wanted. You will always be second best. When this town remembers this day, they won't remember you as a victim. They will remember you as the monster who threw her elderly parents out onto the street.""
""Let them remember whatever they want, Celeste,"" I said calmly. ""Because while they're remembering, my son will be sleeping in a safe bed, in a home where nobody will ever hurt him again. Get off my property.""
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The marshals escorted them past the front gates. The iron gate clicked shut with a definitive, metallic thud.
From the upstairs window, I watched the three of them standing on the public sidewalk, surrounded by black plastic trash bags full of clothes, waiting for a city bus in the pouring rain that had suddenly begun to break the Georgia heat.
