Chapter Two

Kamille

Father, and mother sat on one of the couches, with forlorn expressions on their faces. His arm was thrown around her shoulders, as she sobbed into her wad of tissue.

From an outsider's perspective, this was just a normal grieving family. From my perspective, however, this was all a performance. Grandma's death meant nothing to them, if anything, they were glad.

In silence, I moved to sit on the couch in the farthest corner of the room. Father's phone began to ring, and he raised it to his ear, “What?”

There was a moment of more silence, before he got up from his seated position, hung up and threw the phone on the couch.

“Honey, what's wrong?” Mother sniffed, standing.

“Bad news. Why now, of all times?” He exclaimed, crossing his arms and tapping his feet in obvious agitation. “It's the lawyer! The call came from the hospital, claiming that he got into an accident on the way here. And he's currently having emergency surgery.”

“He has no replacement to send here to get Grandma's Will read or what?” Gabriel, that weasel, tossed carelessly.

Liz snorted and got up, “ He's the only one who has access to the damn will.”

Her black piercings and neon pink wig contrasted with the strong and toned body hiding under her black shirt and pants. But of course, this was Liz, the most volatile one of the Manor household. It didn't help that she had an ugly temperament and was a professional fighter, either.

Father was stressing, pacing back and forth, “ I have no time to waste waiting for some incompetent lawyer!”

It was confounding, that the lawyer's life was at risk, yet this was all they could say concerning that.

“Now, where is Ellen?!” Mother exclaimed, “We were all supposed to be gathered here!” She looked at me accusingly. “Shouldn’t you know where she is—?”

“—I’m here!” The clack of heels announced Ellen's arrival. “I'm right here, mom. Dad.”

“Good.” Father snapped, outstretching his hand. “Where are the documents I told you to get me?”

“Right here!” She sounded so excited, giving me a nauseating smirk as she reached into her handbag. “By the way, mom, isn't the lawyer supposed to be here by now? Why the delay?” She asked, handing Father the papers.

Liz answered instead, “Lawyer's in the hospital. How fucking inconvenient. How am I going to know if Grandma left me an extra trust fund or something?”

“Here I was already daydreaming of renting out an entire strip club for a week-long party, just to celebrate my additional riches, bro.” Gabriel chuckled.

“Too bad.” Ellen raised her stiff eyebrows. “I never liked that man anyway. Once he reads the will, we'll fire him. If he doesn't like it, he can go meet his employer in the grave!”

They laughed, but my heart only ached. Father and Mother were not even paying them any attention, they were going through the documents with intensity.

“Kamille?” Father suddenly called.

I got up, moving closer. “Yes, dad?”

His eyes were cold and eager, like he had been waiting a long time for this moment. “Here. Take these. Since the will can't be ready today, we'll move straight to the next order of affairs.”

I slowly took the papers, “What are these—”

Family Annulment Document.

Those three words slammed so hard into my eyes that I stumbled back.

“What is this?”

“Can't you fucking read?” Liz snapped impatiently.

“We want you out of the family, Kamille. You were never a Manor, and signing those papers solidifies that fact. It was all your grandmother's idea to adopt you when you were nothing but a pathetic three-year old. We were under instructions to treat you like family, but now, grandma's gone. You have to go as well.”

My mouth opened and closed.

My mind flailed and failed. The papers began to shake in my hands, as I looked from one face to another for help, for a hint that this was all a cruel prank and it wasn't real.

I found none.

“But… this is my family…” I muttered, “You all …you're the only family I have…I—”

“We're not.” Mother said firmly. “I only have three children, you are not one of them. Sign that and get out!”

“This can't be true. You can't do this to me!” I choked.

I lost my marriage. Now, I was losing my family. They never really treated me as good as grandma did, they always blamed me for problems and framed me as a bully even if I was always the victim…they were still the only family I ever had.

“You're nothing but some tramp grandma picked up along the way!”

I dropped to my knees and clung to father's legs. “Please!” I sobbed. “Please, this is all I know..!”

He kicked me off, “Stop with the crocodile tears, girl! I do not want to see you or your belongings by the time I come back downstairs!”

He turned and headed up the stairs. My hands fell to the marble floor, clutching the papers. I looked up at Mother through teary eyes, but she only stared me down and walked off after Father.

“How pathetic.” Ellen spat.

“If you don't take your shitty, trashy belongings, I'll have fun setting them on fire.” Liz sneered.

“By the way, you'll not be able to access your trust fund.” Ellen settled on the couch and began examining her nails. “Father made sure of it. Why do you deserve the same treatment us real Manors get?”

My pain, devastation and agony slowly simmered into rage. I would be cut off from any financial support? How did they exepct me to survive? I had no real source of income, and what little money I had to my name was made off writing weather forecast articles.

I could not get a proper weather forecasting job, because Ezekiel's family had not wanted me to work while married to their son. Now, I was helpless and penniless. And rageful, oh the rage.

It fueled me. Gave me strength to get off the floor and head towards my old bedroom. In the hallway, I realized Gabriel had followed me.

“What do you want?” I snapped shakily.

A hard slap on my ass made me gasp. He squeezed the flesh for good measure, leering into my face. His breath smelled of weed and whatever expensive liquor he had chugged down.

“I could help you out of this pathetic situation, Kamille. If you would just give me what I want. This soft round ass, and the holes between them. Just once.”

Incensed, I swung my hand out to slap him across the face. “You're my fucking brother! We're family, how dare you!”

He barked a curse and clutched his face, definitely shocked that I hit him. This was not his first time harrassing me. But this was my first time giving him what he deserved.

“Did you just fucking hit me?”

Before I could respond, a hand grabbed my hair roughly from behind. I was twisted around to see Liz's angry face.

“Liz—!”

Crack! Her fist collided with my cheek, sending me crashing into the wall. The breath was knocked out of me, an an ear-splitting pain tore through my face.

“You dare hit my brother?! I'll fuck you up!” She charged at me again, but Gabriel held her back. “Not worth it, Liz. You know it's illegal to hit a non-fighter. If she reports it, your career could be over.”

“I dare her to try!” Liz screamed bloody murder, and Gabriel managed to lead her away from the hallway.

Holding my rapidly swelling cheek, I moved into my bedroom and locked the door behind me. Reaching under my bed, I pulled out a box and unlocked it to make sure the contents were intact.

They were all there. The camera and USBs which contained footages of all the abuse I had endured from my “family”. Gabriel, many times before, had tried to force himself on me, and many of those rape attempts were recorded here. My “parents” also embezzled the company's funds even when Grandma was alive, it was alarming to think of what they would do now that she was gone.

I was enraged, that they were throwing me out now, with nothing. They believed they would get away with everything they had done but I would destroy every single one of them with everything I had in this box.

One leak and their entire lives would be shattered. It was a vow I made to myself.. It only took a few minutes to shove everything of importance into boxes and load them into my old Wrangler. The precious white Jeep grandma gifted me on my eighteenth birthday, four years ago.

Locking the trunk, I made my way to the driver's seat and sped out of the garage, without looking back. A few moments on the highway, and I decided to take the next turn leading to Ezekiel's house, so I could pick up the rest of my things.

I eased my foot off the accelerator and moved to the brakes.

The car did not slow down.

I looked down, frantically jamming my foot this time, because a truck was coming up ahead, and I needed to turn immediately. The brakes were still unresponsive. My heart dropped to my toes.

The truck blared its horn, so terrifyingly close that I panicked and swerved out of the way, careening off the road and straight into a tree.

There was a loud crash, and all I could hear was bangs and ringing, my shaky hands cradling my belly… then… nothing.