Brecken's desperate, shameless accusation hung in the air. Why didn't you say anything?
The sheer audacity of the question made several guests physically recoil. A prominent tech CEO standing near the front row shook his head in open disgust. The attempt to blame the victim was too grotesque even for this crowd.
Abbey stood perfectly still. She looked at the man who shared her blood. His face was twisted into an ugly mask of panic and rage. His chest heaved as he tried to claw his way out of the social grave he had just dug for himself.
She felt a strange, hollow sensation in her chest. It wasn't anger. It was the absolute death of the last microscopic shred of hope she had ever held for her brother.
She didn't yell. She slowly tilted her head, her dark eyes locking onto his erratic gaze.
"I didn't say anything?" Abbey's voice was a low, gravelly hum that cut through the murmurs of the crowd.
She took a step forward. Her presence suddenly felt massive, suffocating. Brecken instinctively took a half-step backward, his heel bumping into the DJ table.
"Your memory is truly fascinating, Brecken. Or do you just surgically remove the facts that make you feel like a monster?"
"Shut up," Brecken hissed, his eyes darting around the room at the judging faces.
Abbey ignored him. She raised her chin, projecting her voice so every single person in the ballroom could hear the rot hiding beneath the Dudley family's polished exterior.
"Five years ago. January. There was a massive blizzard in New York," Abbey began, her tone flat and factual. "It was the final deadline to pay the spring tuition for Seacrest Academy."
Brecken's pupils dilated. A memory he had buried deep in his subconscious violently clawed its way to the surface. His stomach dropped.
"My bank cards were suddenly declined. I had zero cash. I wore a thin autumn jacket and stood outside the lobby of your Manhattan penthouse for four straight hours in the snow."
A collective gasp rippled through the women in the audience.
"The security guards refused to let me in," Abbey continued, stepping closer, forcing Brecken to look at her. "Because you gave them strict orders not to let any 'trash' interrupt your private weekend dinner with Emmie."
Brecken's face turned the color of ash. He opened his mouth, but his vocal cords were paralyzed.
"When you finally came downstairs, you were surrounded by your Ivy League friends. I ran up to you. My lips were blue. I was shaking so hard I could barely stand. I begged you."
Abbey's voice finally cracked. A raw, jagged edge of old trauma bled into her words.
"I begged you to loan me twenty thousand dollars for my tuition. I swore on my life I would work three jobs to pay you back. I just wanted to finish my high school education."
"Stop it. Don't say another word," Brecken pleaded, his voice a pathetic, high-pitched whisper. He raised his hands as if to physically block the words from hitting him.
Abbey's eyes flashed with a terrifying, violent light. She raised her voice, shattering his defense.
"But what did you do, Brecken?! You pulled a stack of hundred-dollar bills from your wallet. You threw them directly into the dirty snowbank. And you looked at your friends and said-"
Abbey pointed a shaking finger directly at his face.
"'Look at the family parasite. She'll do anything for a handout.'"
The ballroom erupted in a chorus of absolute horror. A wealthy matriarch in the front row actually spat on the marble floor in disgust.
"I dropped to my knees in the freezing slush," Abbey said, her voice dropping back to a deadly whisper. "I picked up every single wet, freezing bill. Because if I didn't, I would be expelled. I would lose my only chance to escape this family."
Brecken grabbed his own hair. He squeezed his eyes shut, unable to bear the weight of the crowd's hatred. He was suffocating. He needed an out. He needed a weapon.
His brain latched onto the lie his father had fed him for years.
"Because you were a failure!" Brecken screamed, his eyes snapping open. He pointed at her, his face contorted in desperate triumph. "Dad told me! Your grades were garbage! You were failing every class! Paying your tuition was throwing money down the drain!"
He panted heavily, looking around the room, begging the crowd to understand his logic. "She was a lazy, stupid parasite! Why should we invest in a failure?!"
Near the back, Chandler Dudley gripped his cane so hard the wood groaned. He realized instantly what his son had just done.
Abbey stopped speaking. She lowered her hand. She looked down at the marble floor.
Brecken saw her drop her head. A manic surge of relief flooded his veins. He thought he had finally hit her weak spot. He thought he had won.
"See?! I knew it!" Brecken yelled, his confidence returning in a sickening rush. "You have no right to demand anything from us! You were a useless academic disaster!"
Abbey slowly raised her head.
The corners of her mouth stretched upward. She smiled. It was a blinding, beautiful, and utterly apocalyptic smile.
