3: 3
3
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and laughed, loud.
I staggered to the middle of the stage, smashed the whole mountain of glasses, and pulled out a bottle full of gasoline.
"She's insane, this eldest Henson daughter is a lunatic. Let's go, I'm not dying in here."
"Don't leave, don't leave, everyone get back here."
Her nice little birthday party, wrecked by me. Gayle Henson looked like she wanted me dead.
"Sister, why are you doing this to me? You want me dead? Fine, I'll die for you to see."
"Then go ahead and die for me to see. Or we all die together. Not one of us gets to live. We'll all check in at the gates of hell nice and neat."
My mother backed away, too scared to move, but the filth kept pouring out of her mouth.
"You worthless curse. Poor Gayle, you've suffered because of her."
"I'm not suffering, Mom. But seeing my sister like this, I feel so guilty, it breaks my heart."
"None of this is your fault, Gayle. It's all her fault. She's a demon. You'll always be my only sister."
Vincent Henson had made his position clear. It stung, a small sharp pain in my chest, and at that same instant he suddenly clutched at his own heart, shot me a glance, then looked away fast. I knew what that was. The twin thing.
I laughed. So this was what family love looked like.
"You have to give all that love to your sister. Only then will she let go of her hatred and live with us. All of us together, that's what's good."
"That's my good girl, Gayle. Look how your sister thinks only of you, with her whole heart. And you? Your brother's right. You're a curse."
I lit the strip of cloth right there. Their faces went white.
"Stop it, stop it, have you lost your mind?"
"Yes, I've lost my mind. You drove me to it. In another life I was a firstborn legitimate daughter too, and a fake is living off everything that was mine, and still acting like she's the one doing me a favor."
My fingers were about to let go.
"Stop. Stop right now. Just tell me what you want. Anything I can do, I'll do it."
"Sign everything in her name back over to me. Right now. Or we all die."
The sky had fallen in on Gayle Henson. Fainting wouldn't save her this time.
"It all belongs to Gayle. Why should it go to you?"
"Why should a fake sit on what's mine? Stop wasting my time. Are you giving it back or not?"
"Once you're dead you'll have nothing. Want to bet on whether you run faster than the fire spreads?"
I raised my hand higher. They didn't dare gamble. I stared at the loving little family, all of them. I was the one true eldest daughter of the Hensons, and I had to claw back what was mine like this. Almost funny.
In the end they just couldn't out-crazy me. I didn't stop until every transfer went through.
"Lunatic. Don't worry, Gayle, everything I have is yours from now on. Don't you fret."
The grief on her face flipped back to life in a heartbeat.
"It's all right, Mom. As long as we're still together, that's all that matters."
And she looked at me, smug, while she said it.
The four of them moved to another place to keep celebrating Gayle Henson's birthday, and me, the curse, they left behind like trash.
My whole body gave out and I slid to the floor. Nothing left of the fire from a moment ago.
"Miss, let me get you back to your room. You're too foolish. Doing this does you no good at all."
I gave a cold little laugh.
"But if I don't do it, I get nothing either."
"If they throw you out, all of this just falls to the eldest Miss for free."
I patted her head. The only servant who was ever kind to me.
They'd brought me back because Dennis Sullivan, the young heir of the Sullivan family, had both legs ruined in a car accident, and they couldn't bear to marry Gayle Henson off to him, so they came and dug me up instead.
The Sullivans stood at the head of the four great families. Without the betrothal, the Hensons wouldn't have come close to them. But now that Dennis Sullivan was stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his days, unable to perform in that way too, marrying him meant a life of widowhood on top of it.
There was no way Gayle Henson would live like that. So this was the trick she came up with.
