Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Kat chokes on a sob and covers her face.
“Kat is beautiful,” I say in defense. I could kill Henry for speaking to her this way. Kat has insecurities and at times suffers socially for her shyness. This asshole only wants to break her down to make her more dependent on him. “No one asked you, Henry. Kat, don’t listen to anything he says.”
“She’s practically bursting out of her clothes. It’s obscene. I can’t have her leaving a stain on the family reputation,” he says, guzzling more beer.
I can’t take it. I grab his lapel and twist it, yanking him to me so hard and fast that his feet aren’t touching the floor. “Listen here, you tiny dick pathetic incel,” I spit in his face. “She just lost her father, and because she’s not a fucking psychopath like some people, she’s in mourning over the loss of someone she loved dearly!”
Henry whimpers and breathes his beer fumes in my face. He swivels, trying to escape my grip with only his toes touching the kitchen tiles.
“Kat IS beautiful, just the way she was made. Don’t even look at her body, let alone talk about it. It’s none of your fucking business, and if I catch you insulting her again, I’ll fucking castrate you. You got that?” I threaten him.
“Don’t you realize, Heath, son of our servant, that now that dear old Dad’s dead, I can kick you the fuck out of Wainscott Hollow on the slightest whim? I’m the man of the house and you’re nothing. A peon. A slug. A charity case ruse that’s been going on too long. If I want you gone tonight, it can be done!”
“Stop it! Stop it!” Kat screams. She stands between us, her shoulders shaking with sobs as she tries to stop us from flinging hate at one another. “Henry, Heath is our brother. That’s what Dad wanted and we have to honor that. Heath, Henry’s probably right. I could stand to lose some weight, and I’ll start trying to take better care of myself,” she says, trying to convince us with her voice that she’s strong enough to handle the death, the onslaught of criticism, and the bleak road ahead.
“I’m gonna head to bed. I don’t want you two fighting. Can you put it to rest for me? For Dad?” she pleads with us.
Henry slams more beer. I look into Kat’s eyes and nod, move to her side, and wrap her in a hug.
That night, I walk out to the dunes alone. Perhaps it’s my way of saying goodbye to Mr. Shaw, a man who was more of a father to me than my own. I watch the fireflies light up the boardwalk path that cuts down to our beach. I can smell the salt in the air and a hint of wood smoke which makes the scent decidedly Montauk. I watch the waves roll in and crash upon the shore by the light of the moon and wonder what my life would have looked like had Mom and I stayed in the Bronx.
But a life without Kat is one I don’t want to know. I wish I could shelter her from Henry, who’s clearly mentally ill. The man needs to get his head examined and take some meds, or at least go to therapy. He’s out of control with madness, like an old beast trapped in an ancient castle. He seems to have lost any social clout when he graduated high school. and his drinking keeps escalating. He’s a runaway train, an accident waiting to happen.
Wind-whipped and refreshingly calmed, I make my way back to Wainscott Hollow. When I enter the back door by the kitchen, I hear Kat sobbing upstairs as her quarters are at the back of the manor. I figure she’s still beside herself with grief until I hear Henry’s bitter yell, and I run up the stairs like a racehorse just out of the gate.
A perverse and shocking scene greets me in Kat’s dressing room. Henry has his little sister pinned to a wall, half nude, where he’s taking photos of her against her will.
“What the fuck is going on?” I bellow.
“Heath!” Kat yells. She pushes past a wasted Henry and falls into my arms.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I grab him by the back of the neck and seriously consider killing him.
“I want before and after shots. I need to make sure she’s losing weight. Look at her tits spilling out of that huge bra like some kind of freak. Maybe I need to have a doctor take a look and see if he can reduce them.”
“Kat, go to your bedroom. Lock the door,” I tell her.
She clings to me, her body pressed in close, my bicep between her breasts as she clutches it. “Don’t hurt him, Heath, please! It will only make things worse,” she cries.