Page 60 of Rise of the Queen

There were a few coughs and laughs from the guys, who were trying to hold it in, but just couldn’t. She looked around at them, realizing they were laughing at her. She started to squirm slightly in her seat. I might’ve enjoyed that.

“Please, tell me. How long have you had the job you’re at now? And what is it you do?” I asked, trying to appear curious and not seething. She was starting to get angry, but she wasn’t at the level I needed her to be at yet.

When she stayed silent, I poked her harder. “And what of your husband? What is he? Number four? Is that right? What happened to the first three?” I asked, crossing my arms across my chest, enjoying watching her get angrier and angrier.

The youngest sister tried to come to the defense of her older sister, but it was weak. I focused on her. “Do you really want to play this game, little girl? Do we need to talk about why you haven’t married yet or better yet, why you have to keep moving to larger cities to escape your reputation?” That shut her up and even got a snicker out of the oldest sister. “Oh, don’t think you’re immune from my charms either,” I said, addressing the oldest sister. “Those two are bad, but you’re no better. Arguablyworse, I’d say.” The oldest sister looked at me, wide-eyed, then looked at Stephen. She knew in that moment that he’d told me everything. The other two hadn’t caught on yet, but the oldest sister knew. I watched the color drain from her face.

The middle sister had been stewing in her own anger during all of this. She finally exploded. She slammed her hand down on the table, causing the youngest sister to jump in fright. “Enough! You can’t speak to me that way. You’re obviously too stupid to see how much of an imbecile my brother is and you’re making up lies to try and make him seem more important than he is!”

I glanced briefly at the guys during her little outburst. Every single one of them had their hackles up. I could feel Adrik’s anger as well. I knew my eyes were about to go dark. I just hoped they went black. I wanted her scared.

I put my palms down on the table, as I slowly stood up. I was looking down when I stood up, so she couldn’t see my eyes yet, nor could anyone else. I kept my palms on the table, so I could lean over, getting even closer to her.

“I can speak to a piece of shit like you however I goddamn please. And if you ever take that tone with me again, you will regret it for the rest of your very short life.” My voice was loud enough everyone could hear, but it was controlled. I sounded as calm as possible, but my tone was daring her to yell at me again. I could see the fear in her eyes as she looked at me, but she couldn’t look away. While my anger was at an insane level, I was also concentrating on everything I felt when Stephen shared his memories with me. I used it as fuel for my fire, but I also desperately wanted to find a way to push it to her. I wanted her to break right in front of me. “You have the audacity to think that your brother would even want to see you, for one. Then you come here, insult me not once, but twice, and you insult him in front of his real family, who coincidentally can end youand make it appear like you never existed. I think it’s clear that you’re the imbecile here.”

I paused, wanting to see if she could come up with a response. She hadn’t looked away from my eyes. It was like she was frozen in place, unable to speak, unable to move. The youngest sister once again tried to stick up for her sister. “You’re not his real family. We’re his real family,” she said.

I laughed. I turned from the middle sister, focusing all my anger on the youngest. She was nervous when I first stood up. Now, she was terrified. “You really think he wants to claim a filthy piece of trash like you? You realize you don’t get extra points for having all the sexually transmitted diseases, right? I almost feel sorry for you. You’re so lost in trying to prove your worth to your bitch of a sister that you lost yourself somewhere along the way. Instead of having the strength to stand up to her, you turned into her and you hate yourself for it. I don’t blame you there. I hate you too.” She was now frozen in place as well, but she was making noises. Like she was crying. Or whining. Or both.

The oldest sister looked at Stephen. She was now angry as well. I stood up completely, crossing my arms across my chest, daring her to speak. She looked at Stephen, then to me. “I don’t know what he’s told you, but it’s all lies,” she half-yelled.

Stephen started to speak, but I placed my hand gently on his shoulder. “He didn’t tell me a single thing. He didn’t have to tell me anything. You see, I have this ability. Let’s call it a gift. I don’t need anyone to say a word to me and I know everything about them. You, for example. You’re still mad that your parents had to work so much when you were a kid and left you in charge of your siblings. It’s why you let your two younger sisters abuse your only brother. You were angry at your parents for trusting that you were mature enough to handle the responsibility of takingcare of your siblings. Instead, you sacrificed one because you didn’t want to be bothered.” I pointed to her middle sister, who was still frozen in place. “She’s pure evil. She’s been consumed by her demon since she was a baby. You probably had something to do with that too, as I’m guessing you were very jealous of her when she was born.” I pointed to the youngest sister who was clearly struggling internally, but unable to move. “She’s an idiot that just wants to be loved. She might’ve turned out to be a very sweet girl, but you made sure she’ll never amount to anything.” I finally stared at her, my anger only slightly subsiding. “But you. You’re the worst of them. You let unspeakable things happen. Not because you didn’t care. Not because you didn’t know it was happening. No, you knew all along. You wanted it to happen. You thought if your siblings could fuck each other up enough, you’d turn out to be the brightest and your parents would love you the most. You’re pathetic, and quite frankly, I don’t want to look at you any further.”

Adrik stood up, standing behind me. I felt his hand on my waist. He looked down at Stephen, who looked grateful, then back to the oldest sister. “You’ve seen Stephen for the last time. You’ve also come to this city for the last time. Take your sisters. You have twenty-four hours to leave this city. If any of you are seen in this city again, you’ll be shot on sight. This is my city. Stephen is my family. I protect my family.” I could feel his anger feeding into mine, and I knew he was looking at her with every ounce of intimidation he had in him. She looked terrified.

She looked at Stephen, like he was going to argue. He stared at her for long enough that I wasn’t sure he was going to answer. Finally, he said, “Oh, I’m sorry. You’re expecting me to step in here? Nah. I’m good. I’ll let you learn what it feels like to fend for yourself.”

Ivan looked at his watch, then to the oldest sister, as the other two were still stuck in their own minds. I saw a brief flash of surprise on his face, but he quickly masked it. “You better get a move on. The clock is ticking. Those twenty-four hours are gonna go by real fast.” He pointed to the other two. “And it looks like your travel companions have some special needs that are going to need to be addressed.”

She looked at her sisters, pulling both of them out of their chairs. They readily stood up and went with her, but neither spoke and neither looked like they had a clue what was happening. I caught Andrei’s eye when they walked past him. The look on his face told me he had snooped.

Maybe it did work …

Chapter Twenty-Two

Adrik

I could feel Sephie’s emotionswere everywhere all at once as she was trying to goad Stephen’s sisters into an outburst. I knew she was still trying to figure out a way to push all the pain and hurt she got from Stephen to his sisters. I also knew that Ivan, Misha, and Andrei were feeling much the same as I was. I wasn’t sure if it would work to push our anger to her, but we tried it. She was so adept at controlling her anger. It was like it had the opposite effect on her as it did everyone else. It calmed her. She could almost think more clearly when her anger levels were extremely high, especially when she had to deal with her fear and panic. Both of those emotions were coming up for her when she thought about what she felt from Stephen. If we could help her keep her anger high and controlled, then she could concentrate on figuring out a way to push everything to his sisters, effectively breaking them.

It was a brilliant plan. We just weren’t exactly sure on how to make it happen or if it would work going into this dinner.

Judging by the state that two of the sisters were in when they left, I’d say it worked. I’d even go so far as to say it worked better than we dreamed possible. There was much to discuss later.

Battista was stunned, as was Vitaliy. He hadn’t seen Sephie’s eyes until now. When she looked at me after Stephen’s sisters left, they were still black. I kissed her forehead. “Take a breath, love. It’s over now,” I said, keeping my lips against her forehead. She leaned against me, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, they were the deepest depth of the ocean blue.

“I know what you did. Thank you,” she said as she smiled sweetly at me. I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers, pulling her chair out so she could sit back down. As she did, she leaned over to Stephen. “How you doin’? You okay? Was it too much? I might’ve gotten a little carried away there,” she said, trying to make him laugh.

He turned to look at her, speaking quietly, but I could still hear him. “It was perfect, Seph. I think I know what you did, but we’ll talk later. My mom is gonna be so pissed,” he said, shaking his head. He caught my arm as I was pushing in Sephie’s chair. “Thank you,” he said.

“Anything for family, Stephen.”

We finished dinner, with Battista and Vitaliy asking plenty of questions. As usual, Sephie kept the focus on her when Battista was around. He suspected there was something different about me still, but I was hoping he didn’t have any idea about the guys. I wasn’t sure I wanted him to know about them just yet either. He also didn’t realize that we were all as connected as we were now. I felt protective of that.

Once we were back in the penthouse, the guys were eager to discuss what really happened. As soon as we walked in, Sephie pulled Stephen to her and hugged him. He held onto her so tightly that I was a little worried she’d be able to breathe. She stayed there, helping him calm his storms.

When he finally loosened his grip on her, she looked at all the guys. “I know what you all did tonight. It worked,” she said, her sweet smile on her face as she looked at each of them.

“We weren’t sure if it would work or not, but we figured you’d need help. You’ve felt different the last couple of days. Like you were struggling to contain it all,” Misha said.