Page 64 of The Bitter Words

He’s hovering over me with rage filling his eyes. I sit and sway, way too high to be dealing with this drama going on.

“Leon, leave him alone. He’s just a boy.” My ma jumps to her feet. “You’re a terrible man.”

“Shut up, Victoria.” Leon gets in her face. “You have no room to talk.”

Her eyes tear up. I gaze around and notice Uncle John standing far away, near the kitchen, almost like he’s trying to hide.

My ma straightens her back. “You had no right to do what you did to him. We told you that you could have it all. You said you wouldn’t touch him if we did.”

“Then you realize where you went wrong.” Leon raises hiseyebrows. “I was promised something and that wasn’t delivered. Instead, you and your son here decided to get wise and make it so I couldn’t get my hands on it.”

“What are you talking about?” Ma’s face contorts in confusion. “I didn’t do anything with his inheritance and he signed with you. Isn’t that what you asked for?”

“Do you think I’m stupid, Victoria?” After a pause, Leon twists to John. “Or was it you who gave him the idea to lock everything away, making it untouchable?”

Uncle John raises his hands in the surrender position. “I have no clue what you’re referring to.”

Leon spins to me. “You’re too dumb to know how to protect your assets. Especially something as legally complicated as an inheritance and trust fund. You even created an LLC. Nobody your age thinks of those types of protections, not unless they were coached.”

I may be numb and stoned as shit, but even so I know telling Leon where I got the advice is a horrible idea. There’s no way I’m getting Jaxon Crowne or Greg Hemings involved in this fucked-up situation.

I shrug as I wipe sleepy sand out of my eyes. “The information wasn’t hard to find out. All I did was search some shit online about how to lawfully form a rock band and a thousand different blogs and advertisements from attorneys popped up.”

Ma gasps. “Bubba, what did you do?”

“Cash, come on.” Uncle John strides into the room. “Tell us you didn’t do anything stupid.”

Leon analyzes the two of them while I try to figure out why the hell everyone here thinks I should’ve just handed over my pops’ money. He left it to me.

“All I did was some research and called an attorney. He did the rest.” I reach for some water and knock over my medication.

The bottles roll off the table and land at Leon’s feet. Hepicks them up and reads the labels. He places them back where they belong.

“Does poor little Cash have an infection? Is that what’s causing his migraines?” Leon beams my ma an evil smile. “Or is he just taking a page out of your book, Victoria? After all, self-medicating is how you cope.”

My heart shrinks at all his words.

Yes, I’m using the painkiller to escape the awful ache in my soul. I just need something to help me get through these thoughts that make me wanna tear my brains out of my head and forget everything.

Livianna would be destroyed if she found out I was doing the same thing I scolded her for when she was using. I certainly have more compassion and understanding of why she relied on them.

The need for the antibiotic, though. Yeah, that’s the worst kind of betrayal.

The ground beneath me opens up and swallows me whole. Not only was I coerced into cheating on Livianna, but I got chlamydia to prove it.

It doesn’t matter if I was out of my mind, hallucinating, and thinking it was Livianna. The fact remains it happened.

He drugged me, and then they assaulted me. I can’t bear to look at her. The agony of the situation takes a knife to my lungs.

I suck in a breath and grab the pills off the table. “Leon, why are you here? Haven’t you done enough damage?”

I take out three painkillers and swallow them down. If he’s here, I need something to stop me from killing him.

Leon sits in the chair across the room with a look of satisfaction streaming from his twinkling gray eyes.

“You know, Cash. You’ve given me an idea.” He crosses his leg over the other, resting his ankle on the other knee. “Since we’re all here, I’m going to sit back and watch the tragedy unfold.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” I place my glass of water down.