Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 123922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 413(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 413(@300wpm)
When he got everyone separated, he pointed to the cars across the road. “You four, get in your cars and leave. Do not come back here.”
After my father’s dismissal, he turned to me. “Are you okay?” he asked me, his tone soft.
I held my face with both hands but nodded my head.
Kane looked at me then. “Wh-what?”
“You back-handed her you son of a bitch,” my father snarled over his shoulder. “Now leave before I put this bat to good use.”
Kane stumbled a little, the skin on his face that wasn’t cut or swollen, visibly paled. “Oh, Christ. Aideen, I would never—I’m so sorry, babydoll.”
I turned from him. “Leave, Kane.”
“But the baby—”
“Will still be in me stomach for another few months. For today, just leave. I can’t even look at you.”
Kane didn’t move. “He hit me first.”
I dropped my hand from my throbbing cheek and looked at him. “Me students come at me with excuses like that and don’t get away with them so don’t you dare think you will either.”
Ryder intervened, “Kane wanted to talk it out, Aideen. Your brother was hell bent on fighting—not Kane.”
I looked at Ryder. “Did you stop for a second from hittin’ me other brother to look at Kane? I screamed at him and hit him to try to stop him but he blanked me out. He was like an animal, and if me da didn’t stop it, he would have killed me brother.”
James grunted against my argument. I wasn’t thinking about his pride for the moment, I was thinking about his safety, and the safety of my other brothers.
“I’m sorry,” Kane said to me, not to my brother.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear it. I want you to leave.”
Again, he stood firm.
“If she has to ask you again, boy, I’ll make you sorry,” my father growled.
Ryder stepped into the garden, glaring at Harley, who followed him.
“Bro,” he said to Kane, his tone softened, “let’s go.”
“I can’t leave her,” Kane said to Ryder without looking away from me.
I pressed my hand back to my cheek. “Just go home, Kane.”
I turned and walked into my father’s house ignoring Kane calling my name, and my brothers shouting for them to leave. I walked up the stairs to the bathroom and closed the door behind me, turning the lock to make sure no one could come in without my say so.
I rolled my eyes as I put the toilet seat down and sat on it—I never could get my father and Gavin to break the habit of leaving the seat up after my other three brothers moved out. I leaned forward, placed my face in my hands, and sighed. I rubbed my eyes but winced when a pulsing pain in my cheek demanded attention.
“Damn it,” I mumbled to myself and stood up.
I turned and took two steps towards the sink. I turned on the taps and washed my shaking hands. It took a few seconds of inner pep talk and deep breaths in order for me to look up, but when I did, I wished I hadn’t.
“Oh, no,” I grumbled.
My eye wasn’t swollen, but my cheekbone was. It was already bruised as well, a light electric blue spread out over my upper cheek. I thought back to nearly two years ago in Playhouse Nightclub when I last had a bruised face. That was Kane’s fault too, or was it Alec’s? Whatever, it was one of the brother’s fault. A lay of theirs got pissed and hit me because she thought I was trying to take her face down arse up position.
Please.
I shook my head clear of my thoughts and refocused on my reflection.
“How am I goin’ to hide this?” I thought aloud.
The last time I had a bruised face was before school term started so I didn’t have to worry about work. I had to worry about it this time around since term was already in session.
Make up.
I hoped the bruise wouldn’t darken up too much over the coming hours. I would be able to cover it up if it stayed light. Otherwise, it would draw unwanted attention at school from students and fellow colleagues.
“Me stupid brothers,” I muttered as I examined my face in the mirror. “Stupid Kane!”
I lowered my hands and tightly gripped the sides of the sink and took a few breaths to relax myself. I had enough to worry about without adding the Slater feud with my brothers and their stupid fight to my ever-growing list.
I refused to work myself up over them. I wasn’t taking bullshit from anyone, not even my family. That was final. I didn’t need the stress.
I nodded to myself in the mirror, turned and exited the bathroom. I descended the stairs and marched into the kitchen where I found my father scolding my brothers.
I felt my anger dip when I saw Gavin and how beat up he was. I didn’t have a favourite brother, but I did feel a little closer to him because I helped my father with him after my mother died giving birth to him. Granted I was only six when Gavin was born and couldn’t do a lot, but I stepped up as much as a little girl could. I knew not to complain, hog my father’s attention, or be an all-around problem. I accepted I wasn’t the baby anymore and that there was a serious change in our family.
I took it on the chin.
By the time I was ten, and Gavin was four, I would make food for him, wash and clean him, dress and play with him. He came everywhere with me. I would drop him to pre-school on my way to school and collect him from after-school on my way home. One of our older brothers would always tail us to make sure we both got to class on time, and to make sure we were safe. I think they just let me believe I was bringing Gavin to and from school because it made me feel like I had a great deal of responsibility with him.