Chapter 1 - The Eruption
The crash of the tray hitting the floor was the loudest sound I had ever heard.
Roasted chicken, crystal glasses, and expensive silverware scattered across the dirty linoleum, mixing with the damp grime of the service kitchen. Valerie didn't move. She stood frozen, staring at me as if a ghost had just materialized from the concrete floor.
Behind her, my mother, Carmen, clutched the collar of her silk blouse. The color had completely drained from her face, leaving her looking like a wax figure melting under a heat lamp.
"Son," my mother choked out, her voice barely a whisper. "You… you weren't supposed to be home until next month."
I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t. If I looked at her, I wasn't sure what I would do. Instead, I looked at my wife.
Lira was trembling. She had pulled Leo into her chest, shielding him from the sudden noise, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and disbelief. She looked so fragile, so worn down by a relentless, grinding cruelty that I had blindly paid for.
I stepped over the spilled food, my boots crunching on broken glass, and knelt in front of them.
"Lira," I whispered, my voice breaking.
Tears spilled over her eyelashes, cutting through the thin layer of dust on her cheeks. "You're real," she sobbed, reaching out a shaking hand to touch my face. "You're actually here."
"Daddy!" Leo cried, burying his small face into my neck. I wrapped my arms around them both, breathing in the scent of cheap soap and stale air, holding them so tight I thought my own ribs would snap.
"What is the meaning of this?" I finally said, my voice eerily calm, not turning around.
"It’s… it’s a misunderstanding!" my mother stammered, stepping forward. "She wanted to be out here! She said the noise was too much for Leo—"
I stood up, keeping Lira and Leo behind me. I looked at the woman who gave birth to me, and then at the sister I had grown up protecting. They were strangers. Dressed in clothes I paid for, wearing jewelry I funded, standing in a house I built.
"Get out of my way," I said.
May you like
I took Lira by the hand, scooped my son up into my other arm, and walked straight toward the door leading to the main house. Valerie tried to step in front of me. I didn't say a word. I just gave her a look so dark, so completely devoid of brotherly love, that she physically recoiled, pressing her back against the wall.
We walked through the threshold, out of the darkness, and into the blinding, sickening light of my own home.
