Page 182 of Darling Venom
Sure.
“Charlie…” Leah quirked a brow, reevaluating me. Her hands moved to her hips. The hesitance faded. “You mean Charlotte?”
“I mean the woman who can’t focus on anything for longer than thirty seconds because of you.”
“Excuse me?” Fire lit up her eyes. The same shade as her sister’s. “Listen, bud, who the hell are you to barge into my house and talk to me about my own sister?”
“You opened the door for me and stepped aside.” I leaned against the wall, offering her distance. “I would hardly categorize that as barging.”
“It’s whatever I say it is. My house. My rules.”
“Interesting,” I muttered, more to myself.
And it was.
Leah sounded just like me. In fact, I might’ve said that verbatim to Terry a few dozen times. In the last week alone.
“Interesting?” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know you. It’s not your place to intervene in my life.”
“I know Charlie. It is my business.” I kicked off the wall, straightening. “Let’s be real here. Even if I paid attention to her for half a second, it’d be light years more attention than she receives in here.”
“She started a fire in our childhood home,” Leah spat.
“Well aware.”
“Then, I’m sure you’re also ‘well aware’ that, in doing so, she killed our parents.”
“Yes, but I’m not going to hold an accident that happened when she was thirteen over her head.”
I’d flipped that switch. Everyone had one. The thing that could single-handedly make them self-destruct.
Leah tossed her hands in the air.
“It’s not your place to decide whether it matters that the fire was an accident!” She stepped toward me, getting more riled up by the second. “I ran into that house. I saw the flames consuming their bedroom door. And I didn’t even have time to let their deaths sink in before I ran to save my sister. So, excuse me if I don’t give a damn what a complete stranger has to say to m
e about a sister I saved.”
Her chest rose and fell in wild jerks, and it occurred to me that I would never, under any circumstances, air my ‘Big T’ out to a total stranger. But she was a kettle, steam escaping her in loud hisses, ten seconds from spilling everything.
This might’ve been the first time she’d ever spoken about this, with the way her words poured out.
“You’re angry.”
“Of course, I’m angry. She robbed me of everything.” Her finger met the center of my chest, jabbing it with each sentence. “My future. My boyfriend. My face.” Stab. Stab. Stab. “Until you know what that’s like, feel free to walk out that door and never come back.”
“Your boyfriend was a dick for leaving. You’re better off without him.” I ticked my fingers with each rebuttal. “Your future is still here. Ripe for you to take. It’s never too late.” Another finger. “And your face? It’s not the same face you had before that night, but it’s beautiful, nevertheless. It’s also a reminder that your sister is alive.” I peered down at her, seeing Leah but also seeing myself. “I would give anything to say the same.”
“I am ugly,” she said, as if it explained anything.
She wasn’t ugly.
Not even close.
“Your self-esteem took a hit. But so did Charlie’s. Have you ever noticed that thing she does with her leg? Yanking it like she wants it off her body?”
I studied Leah.
From the looks of it, she’d never noticed. Almost nine years, and she’d never fucking noticed.
