Chapter 2 - The House Clearing
The main house smelled of expensive cedar, vanilla, and champagne. The music was a heavy, thumping bass that vibrated against the marble floors. Dozens of people—strangers in designer clothes—were laughing, drinking, and eating from silver platters in my living room.
I walked right to the center of the room. Lira shrank against my side, painfully aware of her torn dress and worn sandals amidst the sea of evening gowns and tailored suits.
I found the main stereo system on the console. I didn't look for the power button. I just grabbed the heavy power cord and ripped it straight out of the wall.
The music died instantly. A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the room.
Sixty pairs of eyes turned to look at the dirty, exhausted man holding a crying child and a trembling woman.
"Who the hell are you?" a man with a slicked-back haircut asked, swirling a drink in his hand.
"I'm the man who owns this house," I said, my voice projecting off the vaulted ceilings. "And the party is over. Get out."
Murmurs erupted. A few people looked offended, but the sheer, unhinged fury radiating from me made them start moving toward the door.
My mother and Valerie came rushing in from the kitchen, panicked and humiliated. "Everyone, please, stay! It's just a family dispute!" my mother pleaded, her face flush with embarrassment. "My son is just… he's just jetlagged!"
"If there is a single person left in my house in exactly sixty seconds," I roared, the anger finally cracking through my calm facade, "I am calling the police and having you all arrested for trespassing!"
That did it. The crowd scattered like roaches when the lights come on. Within a minute, the front door slammed shut, leaving the sprawling, empty mansion drowning in silence.
I turned to my mother and sister. They were standing by the stairs, trembling with indignation and fear.
"Five years," I said, my voice dropping back to a dangerous, icy whisper. "I bled for five years in the desert so you could treat my family like stray dogs?"
"She was stealing from us!" Valerie shrieked, pointing a manicured finger at Lira. "She was trying to take your money, hide it in her own accounts! We had to take control, for your sake!"
Lira sobbed into my shoulder. "They took my passport," she whispered, so softly I almost didn't hear it. "They took my phone. They told me if I tried to leave, they'd call immigration and say I abandoned Leo."
I felt the blood roaring in my ears. I didn't yell. I didn't scream. I just looked at my mother and pointed at the front door.
"Upstairs. Pack a single bag. Both of you."
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"You can't kick us out!" my mother cried. "This is my home! I'm your mother!"
"You have ten minutes," I said. "Or I drag you out by your hair."
