Isabel
“Are you fucking kidding me?” my voice echoed through to the living room, louder than I had ever been allowed to speak in this mausoleum before. My father, the person who all my rage was currently directed at, visibly paled as he took a step away from me, retreating further into the house, I hadn’t even been allowed to fully walk into yet.
He was out of his goddamn mind. He had to be. It was the only thing that could make any of the shit coming out of his mouth, into anything that makes any sort of fucking sense. The man had completely lost it.
“Now Isabel”, his tone, while trying to be reasonable, just set my teeth more on edge. He was carrying on as if I was the crazy one. As if I was somehow wrong, for reacting in any way, other than the immediate obedience and compliance to his whims, he so clearly expected. I struggled to not grind my teeth, my jaw aching from how hard I was clenching it.
“This is the only solution for our family.” And there it was. There was that fucking word again. The one he always threw in my face, to try to make me fall in line with whatever bullshit he was spewing, as if ‘family’ gave him the right and license to treat me any way he wanted to. “Your sister is already married, leaving you as the only option. Xavier has also all but insisted, that it has to be you.”
“Only option?” I muttered to myself in complete disbelief. Only fucking option? What was this man even on? This had to be some kind of cosmic joke, the universe deciding that even after the literal blood, sweat and tears I’d forced myself through to survive the Academy, it wasn’t enough ‘character development’ for my life. I took a deep breath, trying to process everything, ‘only option’, the words echoed in my mind, as my muttered words hung in the air between us but, muttering? Yeah, muttering was not going to cut it, not this time.
“ONLY OPTION?!” My voice was laced with the years of repressed rage, sarcasm and disappointment, all directed at the man who stood in front of me, the man who was supposed to be my father. The man, who was supposed to show me how I deserved to be loved and treated. But, who instead, was the man who kept proving to me time and time again, that I was just a pawn in the chess game of his life, the one he would gladly sacrifice at any point when it became convenient.
“Are you fucking insane? Like seriously, do I need to have you fucking committed or something? You haven’t even seen me in ten years. Ten. Fucking. Years.” I made sure to annunciate every word, in the misguided hope that something would penetrate his thick skull. That some little fucking light switch, in the recesses of his brain, might spark to life and help him reassess just how fucking insane what he was asking, or rather demanding, I do actually was.
“I eventually decided I’d let you see me again after…” I took a deep, steadying breath, reminding myself that my family had no idea where I had disappeared to at nineteen, they just knew I was given a ‘life changing opportunity’. They had no idea that I had kept an eye on them from a distance, on Charlie and Chelsea, even occasionally on Arthur despite how badly he kept letting me down.
That train of thought almost made me snort out loud, I guess that my ‘life changing opportunity’ wasn’t a total lie. I had enough money to comfortably retire at twenty-nine but, they didn’t, couldn’t and honestly don’t even deserve, to know about that part of my life.
I stare my father down; the same emerald green I saw reflected in the mirror every morning; staring right back at me as this worthless waste of air seemed to shrink under my death glare.
I could kick his ass. I should kick his ass. I could easily put this worm of a man flat on his back, with about the same amount of effort as it took for me to tie my fucking shoelace. The mental picture; of doing just that, almost broke through my rage enough to make me smile, but not even that was enough to cool the burning fury coursing through me, just looking for something or even someone to set on fire.
“They are demanding a girl for a girl Isabel. You don’t understand these people. They will do anything to get what they want. And this isn’t up for discussion.” He tried to sound commanding, authoritative, as if I was still the little girl living under his roof, the one who had to obey his every decree, while also having the gall to sound irritated, at the sheer inconvenience, of having to explain any of this to me; as though explaining to me, why I suddenly needed to agree to something this ridiculous, was beneath him. I stared at his pale face, his beer belly making the button up shirt he was wearing, strain with all its might to stay closed and not burst at the seams.
I could definitely kick his ass. The thought was taking a stronger root in my mind the more he spoke, without saying anything worth hearing. After everything he put me through, all the emotional abuse; since he apparently knew better than to risk his reputation with anything that would leave marks. His abandonment, while he ran around after his replacement family. I could put a bullet right between this man’s eyes, and no one would fault me for it. There wouldn’t be any doubt that I had sufficient backing to claim self-defence, a ‘heat of the moment’ retribution from the forgotten, mistreated daughter. I sighed heavily, he wasn’t worth my time, I knew this, he definitely wasn’t worth the phone calls I’d have to make to the clean up crew if I lost it.
This realisation seemed to help his words register through my rage clouded mind; they’re demanding a girl for a girl and would do anything to get it. If it wasn’t me, they would take Chelsea as payment instead and no way in hell would I let that happen and this motherfucker knew it.
“Fine.” My tone was neutral, emotionless, just like my student mentor had coached me to do at the Academy, a key survival technique we all needed to perfect. Closing my eyes I could almost hear Atrax’s voice in my mind; “They will always try and control you, Red. Your emotions are their way in. Never let them see what you truly feel. Never let them in.” His voice in my mind was a cooling balm. As my thoughts slowly refocused.
The Academy’s ranking system was easy enough to understand, once you knew about it, which was how Atrax and I had initially been paired together. Spiders were the Top. The best of the best. He was Atrax and I was Redback. Next came the Snakes, my snake was Viper, I’d never met Atrax’s Snake, Taipan, but they had been in the same year like Viper and I, even though technically, I was still younger than Viper since my training had been rapidly accelerated, the Snakes were almost as strong as their Spiders but, they were a rank below and ultimately answered to the Spiders. After that it was all just numbers, with none worth remembering. I was definitely missing my Snake. It had been years after all, maybe it was time for a reunion.
I mentally shook my head out of that train of thought and took another deep, centring breath. I’d perfected so many skills over the last ten years. The Academy didn’t train, release and rank inadequate graduates, and I was one of their best. It was time I remembered that. My father seemed to perk up at my words, relieved at his apparently easy victory. Worthless maggot of a man.
“You want me to marry this man to clear your books, fine. But Arthur…” he visibly cringed at my use of his first name, the disrespect clear in my tone; “You will tell me what debt you owe.” I gestured to the space around us. “Clearly it’s not a money problem.” My father, well glorified sperm-donor at this point, cleared his throat and shuffled his feet, looking almost uncomfortable and seemingly somewhat taken aback, at being asked so directly how he’d failed not only as a man but, as a father yet again.
“Well, you see, your brother…” I held my hand up, stopping his train of thought as I arched an eyebrow at him. There was no way in hell this had anything to do with Charlie. And he was the only brother I had as far as I was concerned. Charlie would never have even entertained something that would impact me or Chelsea like this. Arthur seemed to understand my unasked question, and he corrected his own statement.
“Half-brother” His voice was gruff, almost angry, that I had forced him to make the distinction. I felt my stare grow colder. There it is. I clenched my jaw, to keep from interrupting him again, since I needed to know what that half-wit asshole had done this time around, which had left me here; yet again; being forced to clean up another one of his fuck ups. He cleared his throat and adjusted his too small tie, starting his apparently well-rehearsed tale of why the half breed mattered more than I did, yet again. Clearly, he hadn’t wanted me to ask but he had definitely prepared his little speech for when I did.
“Well yes, you see, he had one of his ‘strong feelings’ days.” I rolled my eyes, so hard I’m surprised they didn’t permanently lodge themselves firmly in the back of my head, as he quickly continued, seeming eager to have this whole explanation behind him “He decided to go for a drive to clear his head, and well,” more throat clearing, I pinched the bridge of my nose, mentally reminding myself to stay calm.
I was going to stab him if he didn’t spit it out. Nowhere vital, obviously, I mean I didn’t want to kill the worm. I mentally shake my head. Nope, not buying it. I couldn’t even convince myself of that - I definitely wanted him dead and buried; possibly even set on fire. Twice.
“He ran another car off the side of the road. Killing one of Xavier’s cousins. Not one he was close to by all available reports, they were never really seen together but, family is family in their books and well; we took one of theirs so now they’re demanding one of ours.”
I scoffed. There was no “our” in this family; the worm, as I’d now dubbed my sperm donor, only cared about himself, his image and his replacement family. Suddenly the name he had mentioned seemed to click into place for me, and everything just got so much more aggravating for me.
“Wait Xavier?!” my voice was rising again, the rage I’d been trying so hard to suppress, now back in full force. That man was another reason which contributed to why I left. He always liked to act as though he had some kind of claim over me, some right to dictate my life and the lives of everyone around me even though I don’t remember us ever saying more than two words to each other but, his obvious hatred and implied control over me meant that no one else in our school spoke to me either. Which meant no friends, real or otherwise, and no real reason to say no when the Academy had recruited me six months after high school.
“Yes, Xavier O’Neil” the worm straightened, almost preening at the mere mention of our families being permanently linked; as though he was somehow elevated in his own self-importance by admitting who I was being sold off to like some kind of heifer.
“He expects you at his residence by the end of the day.” Welcome fucking back to me, I guess. The sound of tyres on gravel had my head turning to the driveway as a black town car pulled up. My bags, it seemed much like me, weren’t going any further than the entry hall.
