Chapter five

I shouldn’t have come. I told myself I was doing it for closure, but as I stood in front of the Vance mansion, the air felt just as poisonous as it did six years ago. Beside me, Leo gripped my hand, his small fingers warm against my palm.

"Mommy, why are we here?" he asked, his voice echoing in the quiet, expensive cul-de-sac.

"Just saying hello to some old ghosts, Leo," I whispered.

I didn't ring the bell. I walked straight in. The butler tried to stop me, but I shoved past him with a look that told him he’d be unemployed by morning if he touched me. I followed the sound of laughter into the dining room.

The scene was sickeningly familiar. My father, my stepmother Beatrice, and Lydia were all sitting there, drinking wine and celebrating their "miracle" life.

"Well, well. Look what the rain washed back in," Beatrice sneered, dropping her fork. She didn't even look surprised; she just looked disgusted. "Still alive, Elara? And I see you brought a little souvenir from the gutter."

My father stood up, his face turning a dark, mottled red. "You have a lot of nerve coming back here. We told you six years ago you are a stranger to this family. Who the hell is this brat?"

"This is my son, Leo," I said, my voice steady, though my blood was boiling.

Lydia leaned back in her chair, swirling her wine. She looked at Leo, then at me, a cruel smirk spreading across her face. "Leo? Funny. He looks a lot like Charlie. But we all know that’s impossible, right? You were divorced six years ago and you already have a six-year-old child? You always were a sl*t, Elara. I guess you found a sugar daddy in London to pay for those fancy clothes and that fake attitude."

"He's fatherless, isn't he?" Beatrice added, her voice dripping with venom. "Just another mistake from a woman who couldn't keep her legs closed. A little bastard child to match his thief of a mother."

Leo’s grip on my hand tightened. He looked up at me, his big green eyes filling with tears. "Mommy? Is it true? Am I fatherless? Is that why we're here?"

The sound of his voice breaking was like a knife to my soul. I knelt down, pulling him into my arms, glare fixed on the three monsters in front of me. "No, baby. You have a father. They're just people who don't know how to tell the truth."

"Get out!" my father roared, pointing a trembling finger at the door. "Take your bastard and get out of my house! You're an embarrassment. You’re nothing but a gold-digging whore who probably tricked some old man into giving her a life she doesn't deserve!"

I stood up slowly, tucking Leo behind me. I didn't cry. I didn't beg. I just looked at them really looked at them. They hadn't changed. If anything, they had rotted further from the inside out.

"You haven't changed a bit, have you?" I said, my voice so cold it seemed to drop the temperature of the room. "I actually thought, for one second, that maybe you’d feel a shred of guilt. But you’re even worse than I remembered."

"Guilt?" Lydia laughed, a sharp, ugly sound. "For what? For winning? Dem it, Elara, you lost. Just go back to whatever hole you crawled out of."

"Oh, I'm going," I said, stepping toward the table. I leaned down, looking my father right in the eye. "But remember this moment. Remember the way you’re looking at me right now. Because one after another, I am going to break you. You will regret every word you’ve said today. You’ll be kneeling on this very floor, begging me for a crust of bread, and I’ll watch you starve just like you watched me."

I turned on my heel and walked out, Leo’s small hand back in mine.

"Mommy, they're mean," Leo sobbed as we reached the car.

"I know, baby. I know." I pulled him into the backseat and closed the door.

As the car pulled away, I looked back at the house through the rearview mirror. I started to laugh a low, dark laugh that vibrated in my chest. I had expected a struggle, but they were so blinded by their own arrogance that they didn't even see the storm coming.

They thought I was a sl*t with a sugar daddy? Fine. Let them think that. It would make it all the more delicious when they realized I was the one holding their debt, their home, and their future in my hands.

"Dem it," I whispered, wiping a stray tear from my eye and replacing it with a mask of steel. "I should have done this years ago."