Antonio
I draw the car into the kerb in front of Kat’s home. I reach over and grab my jacket from the passenger seat. I’ve been trying to figure out where Joey could be. Theo has drawn a blank. Joey hasn’t used any of his credit cards for a while and the last time he did was a cash withdrawal in Sydney around the same time shit went down with the Chinese. Nico is still trying to track down his drug dealer to see if he has been in contact with him and hopefully that may give us a lead. I also have Theo researching Darren’s background. There are some things about him which do not make sense to Dominic, the boss thinks that now he is dead we may have a better chance at finding out shit we couldn’t before.
I drag my fingers through my hair. I'm fucking exhausted and all I want to do is crawl in bed with my Kitten. I ring the doorbell, hear footsteps on the other side of the door and hope like hell it’s my Kitten and not her stupid fucking bitch of a sister.
“Good morning, handsome." Ashley’s whiny voice prickles down my spine making me feel like I’ve fallen backward onto a bed of nails.
Fuck. I step sideways to look past her shoulder, not wanting to look at the bitch. Then I feel her fingers run down my chest.
“Katherine is still sleeping, maybe I can do something for you? I can offer you much more pleasure and satisfaction than that good for nothing bitch."
BITCH? GOOD FOR NOTHING? She calls the love of my life a good for nothing bitch? My anger goes from zero to boiling at mach speed. I grab her hand and apply pressure to warn her, I think how easy it would be to break every bone but I don’t hurt women, not even this stupid bitch, so I throw her hand aside and step into the house, pushing her out of my way.
“Don’t you get it bitch?" I turn to look at her and notice she is in nothing but a green, see through lacy nightie. Fuck. I turn back toward the stairs before I really lose my shit.
“No, you don’t you get it. She’s no good for you, she can’t even give you a family. She’s broken and worthless."
I spin around and step closer to her. “Who the fuck do you think you are?" I hear a noise coming from upstairs and see the glint flash in Ashley’s eyes seconds before she slams her mouth down on mine.
“What the fuck?" Kat's screaming voice cracks on a sob.
Fuck! I push the bitch off me and turn toward the stairs in time to see Kat’s devastated face before she runs up the stairs. I hear the loud bang of her door being slammed shut. I look back to Ashley smirking like she is pretty pleased with herself.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? I swear, if you were a man you would be dead already." I turn and run up the stairs, she laughs at my retreating back. The fucking bitch is psycho.
Katherine
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the fuck just happened? Was she saying goodbye to him? Did he stay here last night? Did he decide I wasn’t worth his time after all and slept with her? Question after question invades my mind, each one confirming how worthless I am. Just when I thought I had found someone I could trust, a man I could bare my soul to, I find him kissing her. Of all the people he could have done this with, he had to pick my sister. I breathe deeply before I dash into my bathroom and grab my razor off the counter. Ashley’s words from last night taunt me -Kill yourself! You’re worthless! No-one will miss you! Tears stream down my face, I can barely see out of my eyes as I push the blade against my wrist. I feel it slide through my skin like scissors through paper and watch as blood runs into the palm of my hand. I am feeling euphoric when a loud bang echoes in my room and the bathroom door is flung open. Antonio storms in, snatches the blade from my hand and throws it across the bathroom.
“Get Out!" I scream through my sobs and run a hand under my nose.
“Not fucking happening." Antonio grabs a washcloth from the sink and wraps it around my wrist in an attempt to stem the bleeding from my wrist.
I try to snatch my arm back but Antonio’s grip tightens and he pulls me into his arms.
“You are going to calm the fuck down and tell me what the fuck just happened and anything else I want to know!"
He places a finger under my chin and raises my face so I am forced to look into his eyes. I can see he’s pissed off. He’s pissed off! He kisses my sister and he’s pissed off! I need to explain myself? I don’t fucking think so, I’m not telling him shit. “After what I just saw downstairs, I ain’t telling you shit so you may as well fuck off. I saw you kissing someone else, not to fucking mention it was my fucking bitch sister and, oh yeah, God only knows what else you two have been doing while you were together all night." I push from his arms. “I’m done. We’re done. Go and fuck her brains out if you haven’t done so already.”
It fucking broke my heart to push Antonio away, but I have to be strong and start building the wall up again. The wall I had protecting me for so fucking long until he came along and started chipping away at it. How could I have been so stupid to think he was actually genuine and not just a slimy piece of shit? Antonio pulls me back into his arms and shakes me gently.
“Listen to me Kitten." Antonio’s voice is husky with emotion.
I don’t care. “Screw you, and the fucking horse you rode in on, asshole." I try to push from his arms again. Fuck he’s strong.
“Katherine, STOP!”
Katherine? Whoa, he never calls me by my full name. I gaze into his eyes and see pain mixed with anger.
“Stop this. Stop jumping to fucking conclusions. I didn’t touch her. I’ve been gone all night and I’d just walked in the door. She heard you coming and threw herself at me and kissed me. I swear to you, nothing fucking happened."
I look into his eyes trying to judge if he’s telling me the truth. Can I trust what he is telling me? I relax a little in his arms.
“Listen to me, kitten. I would never, hear me now, Kitten, I would NEVER fucking cheat on you. I thought I made myself clear last night. You are it for me, nobody else would ever compare to you. I don’t want anyone else, EVER. Fuck, I have never laid out my feelings for anybody before you. I love you, you have my heart. Nothing and nobody will change that." He looks into my eyes pleading with me to listen and believe what he is saying.
I want to believe him but…. but nothing. I should believe him, I can see it in his eyes, I can feel it in his touch, he’s telling the truth. Ashley wants me to think Antonio cheated on me with her, to break me some more. I take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I believe you. I love you.”
His lips crash down on mine and he kisses me deeply. “We are going to talk, Kitten, and you are going to tell me everything. Everything, including why your bitch of a sister wants to see you dead."
He waits for me to argue with him but I know we need to talk. “Okay," I whisper.
He sweeps me into his arms and sits me down on the bed.
Antonio
I return from the bathroom with a bandage in my hand which I got from Kat’s medicine cabinet. I cross to where Kat sits crossed legged on her bed. I crawl onto the bed and sit in front of her, grab hold of her hand, remove the bloodied cloth from her wrist and begin wrapping it with the bandage. “Start talking, Kitten. I want the whole story. I’ll know if you leave anything out.”
“Ashley and I used to be really close but then our father left when I was thirteen. Something changed in her, she became abusive and physical toward me. I’m not sure what I actually did to cause it and when I would ask, she would tell me it was because I made daddy leave." Kat shrugs her shoulders and stares off into space. “When I was sixteen, she took me to a party. I left early but when I got home, mum was home from work, she’d left early. She asked me where I’d been and I told her the truth. When she knew Ashley had allowed me to leave and come home alone while she stayed, she became angry. Then, Ashley came home drunk. It was the last straw, they fought and mum told her we were moving back to Newcastle for a fresh start. She wanted Ashley away from the party scene she was sinking into." Kat paused and gazed into my eyes, there was such sadness.
“As you can imagine, Ashley wasn’t happy with leaving. She was having to leave her friends and her boyfriend at the time, I copped the brunt of her anger. I didn’t blame her because I thought it was my fault. I’d caused it all to happen. If I’d been a good girl, our dad would have stayed and Ashley wouldn’t have run off the rails. We wouldn’t have had to move away. As I said, it was my fault and I had to live with it and try to be a better person. I built a wall around myself a long time ago, I needed to protect myself from the hurt. I only ever let Brooklyn in because she knew what was going on, she would let me hide at her place if things got too bad." She inhales a deep breath and blows it out. Tears sparkle in her eyes. There are a lot of issues in her statement which are completely wrong and they need to be talked about. Kat is blaming herself for things which were out of her control. I’ll let her finish and then we will have a discussion.
“As we grew older, things seemed to get worse. She hates me, it’s always the same with her. She says I should do what everyone wants and kill myself. I guess deep down inside, I’m still that scared little girl worried about what she thinks. I let everything she says get to me, I know I deserve her anger for causing daddy to leave. I ruined her life. She’s right, I am worthless, maybe I should just kill myself."
I’ve heard enough. What twisted crap has Ashley been feeding her sister? I take Kat’s hands in mine. “Kitten, first of all you don’t fucking deserve to be treated like shit and second she has no right to blame you for things that were beyond your control. You didn’t make her the way she is, she did that herself without any help from you." I lift her chin up so I can look into her eyes and she can hear the conviction in my voice when I speak. “You don’t owe her shit. She’s a big girl with a lot of fucked up issues you shouldn’t have to shoulder. If I ever hear you say you’re worthless and should die, I swear to God, I’ll………Well, I don’t know what I’ll do, maybe I’ll wring your pretty little neck.”
“You don’t understand Antonio it is my fault dad left and we had to move back here.”
“How the fuck could it be your fault? Make me understand.”
“The night my father left I heard him arguing with mum. The next day he was gone and when I asked Ashley why daddy left she told me it was because I was naughty and didn’t listen to him.”
FUCK! What the fuck did this bitch do to my Kitten? What kind of fucking sister would say something like that to their own sister? I’m trying to work out what the fuck to make of this. Something isn’t adding up.
“Kitten, it’s not your fault, I promise you. You were a young girl and it sounds like your father was an asshole for leaving, but what’s worse is that bitch downstairs blamed you for everything. It wasn’t your fault, darling, he made his own decisions to leave not you. You are a beautiful person with a good heart." I gather her in my arms and hold her while silent tears slide down her face. She may not believe what I’m telling her now, but I hope eventually she will understand it wasn’t her fault.
“I’m not, I let Brooklyn down not once, but twice."
I run my hand up and down her back. “What do you mean you let her down, how did you let her down?”
“The night Darren raped her, I should have been with her but I got a phone call from the hospital telling me Ashley had overdosed. I had to leave and sign some paperwork.”
I hold her back so I can look into her face. “Darling, did you know Brooklyn was going to be raped that night?”
“Of course, I didn’t know, what kind of question is that?"
Kat snaps at me and I see some of her fire reassert itself. “A valid one." Before she can say anything else I go on. “You didn’t know what was going to happen so what that sick fuck did wasn’t your fault.”
“But I should have been there. Brooklyn is my best friend, she has always been there for me. Instead, I was running off to the hospital for a sister who doesn’t give a shit about me, to sign papers I have signed multiple other times when she pulls that shit. I let my best friend down for a piece of shit sister, how do I live with that?”
“Kitten, it wasn’t your fault. You can’t predict the future." I run my hand down her back and lay her down with me. She snuggles into my chest. I’m thankful she hasn’t cut too deep and we’re not sitting in a hospital right now. I kiss the top of her head when her sobs stop and her breathing evens out. I need to go and tell that bitch downstairs to get the fuck out and stay away from my Kitten but right now I need to hold her, and feel her. I close my eyes and try to erase the memory of her tear soaked face and the razor blade cutting into her soft wrist. Fuck, I need to get rid of that bitch from my Kitten’s life. I take a deep breath, try to relax and draw my Kitten closer into my arms.
Katherine
I wake with a start and notice immediately, Antonio isn’t lying next to me. Where did he go, did what I say earlier scare him off and he finally realised how screwed up I am? I hear a dish smash, darting from my bed I head down the stairs my heart pumping fast. What the fuck is going on? I pause when I hear Antonio’s anger filled voice. I have never heard him so angry.
“I’m only going to say this once, Ashley. Get your shit and get the fuck out. Now!”
“Who the fuck do you think you are to tell me what to do?" The smugness in Ashley’s voice grates down my spine like fingernails on a blackboard.
“You don’t want to know who the fuck I am.”
I can’t take the shouting and head into the kitchen, I notice the pile of glass on the floor. “What the fuck is happening in here?”
Ashley spins around to face me. “Your boyfriend…."She makes air quotes with her fingers. “…..thinks he has a right to tell me what to do in my fucking house.”
I don’t know what comes over me, but when I speak next, it’s with so much menace in my voice, I surprise even myself. “This is not your house, this is my house and you need to leave. NOW!”
I watch as a stunned look crosses Ashley’s face and she takes a step back. She recovers from the shock of hearing me speak to her with such confidence, straightens her shoulders and a look crosses her face I don’t understand. She takes a step in my direction and it’s my turn to take a step back. Fuck what did I just do? I feel a cold chill race through my body until Antonio wraps his arms around me. I relax into his hold and look Ashley straight in the eyes.
“This isn’t over with." She pushes past us and storms through the front door, slamming it behind her. I’m not sure what she meant by that but I don’t give a fuck either.
“I’m proud of you, Kitten." Antonio whispers in my ear sending shivers running through me and causing me to moan.
“How proud, Stud?" I feel his hot breath on my neck before a nip to my ear draws another moan from me.
“Upstairs now," he says in a commanding voice that gets my blood pumping.