4: 4
My clothes and personal things were dumped all over the floor.
Howard was humming to himself, yanking the cord out of my thirty-thousand-dollar Mac tower and shoving it into a cardboard box.
And Carol was sitting at my vanity, raking through my designer jewelry into her bag.
But none of that was what set my blood boiling.
My eyes locked onto her wrist.
Around it was a jade bracelet, clear and deep green.
The one Grandma Eleanor had slid onto my wrist with trembling hands on her deathbed.
“Take it off.”
My eyes stung red as I rushed at her and grabbed her wrist.
I startled her, but the second she saw it was me, something vicious and pleased flickered through her eyes.
She'd made her scene at the office earlier and walked away with nothing but a warning from the officers, and all that spite had been looking for somewhere to land.
“Let go! You shameless slut, so what if I wear it for a bit?”
She shrieked, and instead of taking it off she clamped down on the bracelet.
“That's my grandmother's. It's all I have left of her.”
I pried at her fingers.
“Your grandmother's? In this house, right now, it's mine.”
The corner of Carol's mouth curled into a savage smile.
She snapped her wrist up and, before anyone could react, brought it down hard against the marble tabletop beside her.
A sharp crack.
The green jade broke into three pieces, bounced off the marble, and scattered onto the floor.
Time seemed to stop.
I stared at the broken jade on the floor, a ringing in my head, and something in my chest felt like it had been carved out.
Carol set her foot on the pieces and ground her heel down, then burst out laughing, brazen.
“You won't buy my son a gold pendant, so you don't get to wear a cheap rock like this either. What, you want to hit me now?”
I was shaking all over. I'd barely started to lift my hand.
My parents rushed over at once and grabbed my arms, one on each side, holding me tight.
“What do you think you're doing?”
My father snapped at me. “It's just a cheap bracelet. So it broke, it broke. Are you trying to kill someone?”
My mother went further, shoving Carol behind her.
“Katherine! Your brother's wife is pregnant again! She's carrying the Dickerson grandson. You lay one finger on her and I'll fight you to the death today.”
Pregnant.
That was the charm that let them trample all over my limits without a second thought.
Looking at their righteous faces, every last illusion I'd ever had about family shattered in that moment, into dust, right along with the jade on the floor.
They expected me to fall apart and make a scene, the way I always had.
Or to swallow it and give in one more time.
But I didn't cry.
I shook off my parents' hands and slowly crouched down.
One by one, I calmly picked up the dust-covered shards at Carol's feet and closed them tight in my fist.
The broken edges cut into my palm, but I couldn't feel the pain.
Then I stood up and looked at my smug sister-in-law, and at my parents' impatient faces.
I smiled.
“A cheap rock?”
I raised my bleeding hand, my voice cool and clear.
“Carol, this bracelet was one Grandma bought at an auction house in the Harbor District years ago. It comes with an appraisal certificate and a receipt.”
“Final price. One point two million.”
As the whole family froze on the spot, their faces slowly draining white, I pulled out my phone and dialed the police.
“Now, not one of you is walking out that door.”
