“Mother,” I reply cordially. “You look lovely as always.”
“Where the hell have you been? What happened last night? The video wasn’t there.”
Inhaling slowly, I let my eyelids fall shut and try to consider who I’d be now if I’d just ignored them and refused to do all the fucked up things they’ve had me do since the will was read. Maybe if I had, I’d just be a normal teenager instead of the calculated, conniving bitch I am now.
“Carrigan,” Mom hisses, her nails digging further into my skin.
“Do you ever sit back and consider your actions?” I ask quietly.
“What?”
“Do you ever wonder who you’d be, who we’d all be if the money had just been left to grandfather like it should have been.”
“What are you talking about? Have you been drinking? Really, it’s completely unacceptable for you to put me in this position,” Mom chirps, her tone disapproving like I’m inconveniencing her.
“I haven’t been drinking mother.”
“Then I expect an explanation as to why you did not do as you were told last night?” she demands.
“You mean why didn’t I drug and rape my sister’s fiancé?” I ask a little too casually.
Her lips curl into a menacing smile and she tips her head slightly to the side. “Dear, how dramatic a description that is. All we’re doing is correcting a mistake, Arlo was always intended to be yours and yesterday you should have rectified that problem. Now where is the video?”
“There isn’t a video mother,” I say with a smirk. I know I shouldn’t be provoking her like this, but I just don’t seem to be able to help myself.
“What did you do?” she hisses.
“Do you consider yourself evil?”
Mom’s lips part and I think she tries to narrow her eyes at me, but the plastic surgery and Botox stops any real expression from forming.
“Because I do,” I tell her, watching her, waiting for some sign of recognition, like somehow she sees how despicable we’ve become.
She blinks slowly, sighing lightly as her mouth curves back into a smirk. “I’m not evil child, I’m motivated. I’m doing what any mother would do to secure her daughter’s future.”
I laugh, the sound cold and harsh falling from my lips. “It’s over Mother.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s over, it’s all over,” I say, yanking my arm from her grip and escaping into the crowd of people that are all turning to the stage as my sister and Arlo make their entrance.
Tallulah looks stunning in a deep red gown and Arlo looks as handsome as ever in a classic fitted suit, but it’s the way they’re looking at each other that makes an ache start in my chest. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on between them, I know they’re having sex, but until the other day I honestly thought it was all just an act. Looking at them tonight, it’s obvious it’s not.
Arlo’s arm is around her waist, holding her close like he’s terrified she might leave and he can’t bear to be without her. He keeps looking down at her, like she’s the only thing keeping him sane, and that look is filled with more love than I thought it was possible to give another person. But it’s not all him, she’s smiling too, leaning her back against his chest, knowing that he’s there, that he wouldn’t let her go. There’s a contentment in her expression that I’ve never seen before.
I’ve known for years that my sister was nothing like me, but I’ve never seen it be more evident than it is right now. She’s full of light, her smile is only for him and even though she’s clinging to his jacket she’s not holding him to her or tying him down, she just wants to be close to him because she loves him.
This isn’t an intimate moment, it’s just an innocent touch between two people who are so in love they can’t help but show it to the world. Logically I can recognize the emotion, but it doesn’t make any sense to me, I can’t understand it. Why does she love him? Why does he love her? How do they know?
I don’t think I’m capable of an emotion with as much depth as love, in fact I’m pretty sure I’m not. But if that’s true why am I jealous?
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Mr. Archibald says, calling everyone’s attention as he speaks into a microphone at the front of the stage. “I’m sure you’ll all agree that love is a truly wonderful thing. Tonight, is all about celebrating the love between my son and my beautiful soon to be daughter-in-law. Please raise your glasses and join me in congratulating the future Mr. and Mrs. Arlo and Tallulah Lexington.”
Taking a champagne flute from a passing waiter, I raise my glass and toast my sister and her not-so-fake fiancé, alongside the other couple of hundred people in the room. The envelope folded inside my clutch suddenly feels heavy and weighted, and I know I’ve done the right thing. The first right thing in far too long.
“Carrigan, we have not finished talking about your behavior,” my mother says from behind me, her voice laced with barely restrained anger.
Sighing, I spin around to face her, my glass of champagne held aloft in one hand, my clutch with the envelope held tightly in the other. “I agree, we’re not finished. But I think this is a family matter, so perhaps, you, Dad, Tallulah, Arlo and I should discuss this together.”
Before she has a chance to speak, I down my champagne and deposit the glass on the tray of yet another passing waiter. Reaching for her, I grip her wrist tightly and move, dragging her along with me, my own nails digging into her skin just like she did to me earlier. Weaving in and out of people, I smile politely as I pass, towing my mother behind me until I find my sister,
