Stalker - Clarissa Wild Page 0,61
lips part, but the air seems to be stuck in my throat. I turn my head to glance at Phillip, who’s standing near the door with his hands in his pockets, watching me intently. From the look in his eyes, I can tell that he’s challenging me … telling me to make a decision.
This is it. This is what it’s coming down to. The evil that surrounds me has forced me into a position where I must choose between right and wrong.
My mother once warned me about this. She told me there would always come a moment when I had to make a choice. One or the other, the choice is easily made, but the consequences are unbearable. Family and fortune or loneliness and poverty. If I don’t do this, I’ll lose my family, my current life, and they’ll probably kill Miles. If I do it, it means I get to keep everything but lose my innocence. My virtue.
What follows is inevitable.
Someone will die. Miles or this woman. Me or my family. What do I choose?
One life for the other.
When I turn back to face the woman, she says, “Finally, our drinks have arrived.”
My fingers hover close to two glasses, trembling with fear as I must make the ultimate choice. I tell myself I can do it. I can’t. I can do it. I can’t.
And then the choice is made for me.
The woman picks up the glass. I hold my breath as my eyes skid from the glass on the tray to the one in her hand. She brings it to her lips, and for a moment, my heart stops beating. Make a choice. Make a choice, Vanessa. Do it!
Then she takes a sip.
Seconds feel like minutes as I spin on my heel in horror, walking away from the crime scene that everyone’s about to witness. Soon, I can already hear her choking. It doesn’t take long for the glass to drop from her hand and for the crowd to begin screaming.
I made my choice.
I chose myself, my love, and my needs over someone else’s.
Now I’m just as evil as my mother is.
I can’t look back and watch, but my mother suddenly grabs my arm and turns me around, forcing me to witness my own undoing.
“Well done, dear,” she whispers. She sounds so happy, even though all the bones in my body are shaking with the terror of what I just did.
“Don’t say that,” I murmur, feeling guilty already.
“Why not? See that? That’s power.” There’s an unmistakable grin on her face.
“It’s murder,” I murmur.
She tightens her grip. “Like they say in the comics, with great responsibility comes sacrifice.”
“It’s not responsibility if people have to die for us to gain wealth.”
“She was threatening your father’s position. Now she’s no longer a problem. Be glad,” she says.
I jerk my arm free. “And yet you made me do it. I know it was your idea. Do the Starr’s even know what they’re getting involved with?”
She narrows her eyes. “Of course, they do. Why else would we be friends with them?” The way she says it, like it’s the most normal thing in the world, has me baffled.
She puts her arm around me and guides me back inside the house as chaos outside ensues. “That’s why it’s so important for you and Phillip to stay together. So our family will grow, and you’ll get everything you want.”
“No, so you get everything you want. What do I get? A guy who doesn’t even like me and acts just as horrible as you do.”
“Vanessa.” She purses her lips. “One more word and I’ll have you on house arrest for the entire month.”
“What?” I gasp. “I can’t believe this.”
“You’d better because I’m quite done with your ungrateful attitude.”
“You just had someone murdered! And I was the one who did it!” I say, a bit too loud.
Some people walking through the hallway briefly glance at us, and my mother glares at them until the room clears. Then she shoves me up the wall.
“Listen to me, you little bitch. You’ll do what I say, when I say it, or you’ll be the next to end up dead on the ground. Do you understand?” Her voice is so gritty, so raw, that I barely recognize my mother.
Who is this woman?
I swallow away the lump in my throat and keep it together, so I don’t show any fear. If she smells it, she’ll attack, just like a wild bear.
“Yes, Mother,” I say with a contained voice.
“Good.” She smiles. “Because I will