Home For The Holidays

“I’m sorry, babe, she’s right. It’s been a while since she’s been home, and we haven’t had time to catch up.”

“But…” She started to object, but I grabbed the jackass of the century’s arm and started leading him to the door. “Ooh great, let’s go to that place that we all used to love. I remember Deidre used to love their Sunday brunch…oops. Sorry.” I looked back over my shoulder at her with the most insincere smile of apology. She knew, and from one bitch to another, fuck her.

“It’s going to take me a while to get used to the changes, I guess.” Take that, you witch! I didn’t stick my tongue out or anything, I wasn’t quite ready to burn this particular bridge yet, but it was close. This was just a little power play to show her where she stood. I never had to do that shit with Deidre because I trusted her to take care of my brother. This one, I don’t know what the hell she’s up to.

I dragged him off to brunch, where I pretended to give a damn and did my best not to point out the fact that he’d lost his damn mind. I didn’t bring up the ex or his kids because he was still in asshole mode, which meant he wouldn’t hear a word I said, so I pretended I didn’t know shit. In the end, it was he who brought it up.

“I guess you know by now that Deidre and I are getting divorced.” I kept my head down in the menu so he wouldn’t see the kill lights in my eyes. “I figured as much when you moved out and moved in with someone else.”

“Don’t you want to know the reasons why?”

“Only if you want to tell me.”

“Hmm.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I finally looked up at him.

“I don’t know; I just thought you’d be digging into me. You and she were rather close.”

“You’re my brother; you’ve always been an upstanding person. I trust your judgment. If your wife did something that warrants you leaving her and your children behind, then who am I to stick my nose in?”

I looked him dead in his face and told him that bold lie, but I was also reading his expression and didn’t miss the grimace of pain. I wanted to smack him and hug him at the same time. You see, I understand why he’s being an ass. But I also blame him for letting things get this far.

The picture, I admit, is very damaging, but if he took the time to hear his wife out, then all of this could’ve been avoided. At least I thought so until I saw the cooked up evidence this bitch from hell had thrown into the works.

It wasn’t until I got home later that day, after keeping him away from Jezebel’s clone for hours, and was able to go through everything I’d sent from his phone to mine that I saw the extent of what was going on. And from what I read and saw, I knew it was going to be a long dirty fight.

Samantha

Part of being the beautiful nerd is that I have a mind that works unlike most. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m a borderline genius, and what most people don’t seem to realize about people like me is that we can use our minds for good or bad. I sway to ninety-nine percent good, but that one percent of bad can fuck shit up royally. I was about to go ham on Tessa, and she didn’t even know it.

After that, one wayward day spent with Tom and Beelzebub’s bed wench; I went no contact. It was hard being apart from my brother, but it’s something I had to do if I wanted the scheme that was taking shape in my head to work. Our bond is such that he can see right through me. Then again, the longer he played the ass, the easier it became to be genuinely put out with him.

There were a lot of murmurs over the next few months while I put my game plan together. There was a lot involved, and I was sure that Tessa hadn’t gone to these lengths without having a fallback plan in place. Bitches be having backup plans for their backup plans; that’s why the rest of us got to be smart and stay on our A-game twenty-four seven.

My game was to remove any and all safety nets she might have in place one by one without her knowing what I was up to or that I was even up to anything. Once I’d taken care of that, sealed off all and any escape routes, then I plan to move in for the kill and bring her ass down like a lion on a gazelle, then yeet her dodgy ass out of my family’s life.