It all started with a game

Chapter 14

I scrunched my nose up as I chewed the squishy vegetable. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I could have done better.

Not bothering to set my fork down, I glanced around the table at each person, trying to see if any of them had actually known my father, each person becoming yet another disappointed as I'd never seen them in my entire life, until I landed on one familiar face. My eyes locked with the last person I'd expect to be here: Kavinski's father, one of the sole reasons for my fathers death. My fake smile fell instantly, my fist clenching. My eyes blazed, red being the only thing I could see and the man had the audacity to address my stare with a smirk. My fork began to quiver under my grip, caving in as all things do when put under pressure, leaving me with a fork in the shade of a v.

If I ruined this dinner for my mother, I would never hear the end of it.

I took a deep breath, the action not the least bit soothing. It seemed no matter how many breaths I took, no air filled my lungs. I was a ticking time bomb and I was about to go off if I didn't calm down soon.

Screw it.

I didn't give myself a second to back out, desperately reaching over for Beatrice's hand, taking it my own, which was practically trembling and coated in sweat. I waited for her to tear hers away, like I'd done to her, like I most definitely deserved, but it never came. Instead, without even breaking away from her conversation with Alexia, in which she'd been telling Alexia a story about her brothers, Beatrice readjusted our hands in the way my sister had once shown her, before interrupting her own sentence briefly to press a small kiss to my knuckles and then carrying on like she hadn't just touched her lips to the most scarred section of my body from years and years of fighting.

My eyes locked in the spot where she'd kissed. I gripped onto her hand for dear life and she returned the gesture, holding onto me as tightly as I'd been her.

I could feel the stare of Kavinski's father locked onto my body but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing how badly he affected me. Beatrice storked the back of my hand with her thumb. I let out a soft sigh, letting my body relax for the first time today. But that didn't stop me from eavesdropping on my mother's conversation with Kavinski's father.

"So, how is the family?" My mother tried to act polite to her once lover, something I tried not to think about.

"They're fine. My brother has found himself a new lady, as usual. He's convinced she's the one." He finally took his gaze off of me.

"And you don't approve?"

"Hardly. She's probably just dating him for the money, to raise her three kids."

My mother's eyebrows shot up. "Three kids. Different fathers?" She mocked.

He joined in on the sick joke. "Most likely. She probably doesn't even know who the father is."

The two joined together in wicked laughter at the expense of the poor women.

I can't believe I'm related to that. It was no wonder I was such a 'pompous ass', as Alexia put it, with that as my role model.

The dinner seemed to take hours to finish, before mother finally dismissed the table, allowing for a meeting by the fireplace, from which Alexia, Malik, Beatrice, and I were excused. I didn't even wait for anyone else before leaping to my feet, finally releasing Beatrice's hand, which was probably aching from how tight I'd been holding it. I may as well have literally run out of the room, as I rushed to leave, the last of my patience and self control completely used up. One more word about how much my mother 'loved my father' and I was going to explode.