Total pages in book: 188
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
She takes a step in and even though she’s still far away, I flinch and jerk back. Although I probably shouldn’t have worried about her flying over to me because somehow there’s someone between me and her. Someone who was standing all the way over there by the stairs, but now is standing here, facing my mother. Someone who says, more like growls in a very low-pitched voice, “I wouldn’t take another step if I were you.”
My mother glances over at him. I watch how her eyes move over his face before she sneers. “You’re one of the twins, aren’t you? There’s so many of you, it’s hard to keep track. So I’m not really sure which twin you are, but if you don’t let me get to my daughter, you—”
“She’s not your daughter,” he cuts her off, again in that same low-pitched voice, almost calm but not really.
“Excuse me?” my mother snaps.
“Not anymore,” he says, and I notice his broad back twitching with his long breath. “And if you don’t step back right the fuck now, you’re going to remember what my name is.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“You threaten my family, I threaten you back.”
My mother scoffs. “She’s my daughter. She’s not your family.”
“Again, she’s not your daughter,” he goes, shaking his head slowly. “And I’m not a very patient man.”
She looks him up and down. “I see you really fell for her ‘woe is me’ act. Just so you know”—then she looks at everyone in the room—“that’s what she does. She tries to paint herself as the victim. I bet she didn’t tell you that it was her fault.” I stiffen as she keeps going. “What’s happening to Snow. She missed the signs. If she’d caught it earlier then my baby girl wouldn’t be in this mess. She likes to think of herself as this responsible know-it-all but she can’t even hold a job. Did she tell you that? She got fired from her only job that made her any money and now—”
“That was also the job where she got assaulted every fucking day,” he cuts her off and my heart clenches.
Mom’s eyes narrow up at him. “Are you the one who’s putting these ideas in her head? No one is assaulting her. She likes to make things up and if you think you can take my daughter away from me—”
“That’s it,” Shepard cuts her off and this time, his voice has enough of a threat in it that my mother winces. Then, leaning forward a little bit, he says, “Get out right now or I’ll put you the fuck out. And I’m not gonna be nice about it.”
My mother leans back but her fire isn’t totally gone. “Apparently, you all have been without any parental supervision for too long, or maybe your mother never taught you any manners, but—”
“My mother is none of your business, so don’t even think about mentioning her,” he growls. “And while you’re at it, get your daughter’s name out of your fucking mouth too, or I’ll explain to you, in great detail, where my manners go when it comes to family.”
Before my mother can say anything else, I see Ledger step forward. “He’s not the only one. My manners fuck right off too when it comes to someone threatening my family.”
Before I can contend with that, Reed joins the group as well. “They’re being too nice about it. But I don’t have that problem. So why don’t you stay? Fuck around some more and find out exactly what we do to people who threaten our own.”
If I thought this was all then I’d be wrong, because there’s one more person, or rather brother, in this room and he speaks next. “She’s ours. And we don’t like when people interfere in our family business. So leave. Now.”
So this is what it feels like, then. To have a family. To have someone at your back.
To belong.
Chapter Sixteen
THE WRECKING THORN
There have been times when I’ve heard my siblings say that our mother made a mistake.
As in, she made a mistake having kids too early or having so many of them. Especially when she knew our father was such an asshole. Well, it mostly comes from Conrad, the oldest brother who’s more like a sensible parent than a sibling. Which is why he flipped out when Callie turned up pregnant while still in high school; to be honest, we all flipped out, mostly because the guy who got her pregnant was the biggest asshole in this town, Reed Jackson. Anyway, Con had the same reaction when a year later, Ledger got Tempest pregnant. His reasons were different, but yeah, his reaction was much the same.
All of this is to say, I never once thought Mom made a mistake. I never once thought I would like to have fewer siblings than I do. Because despite our problems, if we didn’t have each other, we never would’ve made it. I know people like to tell stories about us, and while most things tend to be exaggerations, the fact that our life was hard isn’t one. It’s also not an exaggeration that we did stand together, through thick and thin.