Page 28 of The Forbidden Villain
Five billion dollars.
I can’t wrap my head around the amount. One might say I grew up in luxury my whole life, so I shouldn’t be this surprised, but it would be a lie.
I’ve spent eleven years in isolation, wearing flannel nightgowns most of the time and being locked in a room with only an old CD player.
And my life before my self-imposed imprisonment…
When our uncle took us in, he used our inheritance to his own advantage and never spent a dime on us unless he wanted to. We never had pocket money or could buy ourselves anything without his permission. And if you disagreed with his methods, it was either starvation or punishment that Rafael mostly got since I was so little.
Things only got worse once he kicked Rafael out, and culminated in a fight which scars I still bear on my skin.
Rubbing my cheek, I close my eyes, but my usual method doesn’t stop the flashback.
Not this time around.
My painful scream echoes through the house when Jade pushes me down the stairs, making me tumble over the harsh surface, and my head hits the marble, the pain akin to thousands of knives sinking into my scalp, spreading through me rapidly. “You thought you could date?” he bellows, fisting my hair and forcing me to sit down as nausea hits me while I’m struggling to breathe. “Choose Juaquine again! I saw you first!” He drags me toward the fireplace, pulling so hard at my hair that I think he might rip it out. “You’re mine, and it’s time you finally learned that.”
“Let go of me.” I try to wiggle in his hold despite the dizziness overtaking me because he mentioned my father’s name, which means he has lost his marbles again. It happened more frequently after my seventeenth birthday.
Sometimes I think he sees my mother in me and doesn’t even realize I’m my own person. That’s what I get for being her spitting image, sans the signature Wright eyes.
“Tonight you’ll learn.” He brings me toward the fireplace, where the logs are crackling, the orange and blue flames swallowing the wood rapidly, and the heat fans my skin, sending a shiver through every bone in my body. “No one would love you the way I do.” He picks up the poker with his free hand and holds it over the locks. “I’ll prove it.”
“Rush does.” I rub my cheek one more time, the skin still prickling as if remembering the abuse done to it. “He invested some of it into stock and real estate markets, so your money is working for you every year and brings a nice profit.” A beat passes. “Rafael, in turn, checked all the legal stuff regarding the money, making sure you’ll never lose it and that all the investments are legit. He drafted a prenup agreement as well in case you ever get married.”
Yeah, sounds like my brothers are trying to protect me to the best of their abilities.
Yet they failed to protect me when it mattered the most.
“I don’t want to sue my brothers,” I repeat, and she sighs. “Inheritance or not…they’re intelligent, educated, and experienced. They know how to manage money, while I can’t wrap my head around the amount. If they think I’m not ready, it means I’m not ready.” I can’t fault them for that and ruin our new building relationship over this money.
Just imagining our confrontation triggers a panic that urges me to hide under a rock. It’s better to keep the status quo and avoid reopening old wounds.
Because once we do that…all the ugliness will come out and my darkness will rival theirs and they’ll think I’m crazy. This time, for real, and they will lock me up in some psychiatric ward, and I’ll never escape.
Keeping my mouth shut gives me some freedom.
Which sounds cowardly, but that’s who I am.
A coward.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” Scarlett pushes off the doorframe and walks onto the balcony, pulling her jacket tighter around her dress when another gust of wind hits us and thunder shakes the sky.
The weather is still in a mood.
“Sure.”
“Have you ever managed your own money?”
“No. Which is also a good reason not to try to fight with my brothers.”
“Lavender, you’re thirty years old.” Ouch. “You’re enrolled in university right now, you read all the time, and you assimilate well into society, plus you have sessions with Dr. King. You have no diagnosis, or you don’t take any medications aside from some vitamins. It’s been almost a year since you started living your normal life. You don’t lack intelligence or education, and experience can be gained. I’m not telling you to take the money and run. You don’t have to do a thing with it. But you are an adult, and it’s time you finally took control of your life. No matter how much someone loves you, if they have control over your money, you’ll never be truly free.”
“Scarlett—”
She places her hand on my shoulder and pats it. “Think about it. I have a great financial adviser who can teach you things.”
“To my brothers, I’ll always be high risk. This will cause a fight.”
