Chapter 9

The morning sun had barely crested the horizon when the peace of the house was violently shattered.

Ainsley marched up the wooden stairs, her high heels stabbing the steps like daggers.

In her arms, she carried a massive, overflowing plastic laundry basket. It was piled high with her silk dresses, delicate blouses, and Kristopher's mud-stained trousers from the day before.

Ainsley reached Alissa's bedroom door. She didn't knock.

She lifted her foot and kicked the door hard. The latch, weakened by rust, gave way, and the door slammed open, crashing against the interior wall.

The loud bang echoed like a gunshot in the quiet morning.

Alissa was sitting on the edge of her bed, slowly stretching her tight calf muscles.

She didn't jump. She didn't flinch. She simply stopped stretching and raised her head.

Her eyes were dark, flat, and completely devoid of emotion.

Ainsley stormed into the room and dropped the heavy laundry basket right at Alissa's feet. A cloud of dust puffed up from the floorboards.

Ainsley crossed her arms over her chest, her perfectly glossed lips set in a cruel line.

"You've been hiding in here playing sick for two days," Ainsley spat, her voice dripping with entitlement. "Vacation is over. Wash these. By hand. And if you ruin my silk skirt again, you won't eat for a week."

Ainsley spoke to her not as a sister, but as a stray dog that had forgotten its place.

Alissa didn't look at the basket. She slowly stood up.

She was half a head shorter than Ainsley, and fifty pounds lighter, but as she straightened her spine, the air in the room seemed to compress around her.

Alissa looked directly into Ainsley's angry eyes.

Her lips parted, and she delivered a single, sharp word.

"No."

The syllable hung in the air, heavy and absolute.

Ainsley froze. Her brain literally stuttered, unable to process the sound.

In eighteen years, that word had never crossed her pathetic sister's lips. Alissa was supposed to cower. Alissa was supposed to cry.

Ainsley's eyes went wide with shock, which instantly boiled over into white-hot rage.

"Excuse me?" Ainsley shrieked, her voice cracking. "Did you just say no to me?"

Alissa took one step forward. She glanced down at Ainsley's fresh, cherry-red manicure, then back up to her face. A cold, mocking smirk touched the corner of Alissa's mouth.

"Your arms aren't broken," Alissa said, her voice low, slow, and dripping with venom. "Your husband's arms aren't broken. If you want clean clothes, wash them yourself."

Ainsley's face flushed a violent, ugly crimson.

"You ungrateful little bitch!" Ainsley screamed.

The strike came down fast.

But Alissa was faster.

Her left hand shot up like a striking viper.

She didn't block. She caught.

Alissa didn't try to match her sister's healthy strength. Instead, in the exact fraction of a second when Ainsley's wrist reached the lowest point of its arc, Alissa's fingers darted out. She didn't squeeze with a vice-like grip; she precisely dug her thumb into the vulnerable ulnar styloid-the fragile cluster of nerves and bone at the edge of Ainsley's wrist.

Ainsley gasped, her forward momentum violently halted by the sudden spike of nerve pain.

Alissa didn't stop there. She shifted her weight to the side and pressed her other hand sharply against the outside of Ainsley's elbow, creating a brutal fulcrum. She twisted her hips and applied sharp, downward pressure against Ainsley's wrist joint, bending it backward into an unnatural angle.

A sharp, tearing pain shot up Ainsley's arm.

"Ahhh!" Ainsley shrieked, her knees buckling instantly. She was forced to bend over, her perfect posture crumbling as she tried to relieve the agonizing pressure on her joint.

Her face contorted in pain, tears of genuine shock springing to her eyes.

Alissa leaned in close. Her face was inches from Ainsley's ear.

"Never," Alissa whispered, her voice a dark, demonic hum, "try to put your hands on me again. Or I will snap this wrist like a dry twig."

With a sudden, violent shove, Alissa released the joint and threw Ainsley's arm back at her.

Ainsley stumbled backward, her heels catching on the floorboards. She slammed hard into the doorframe, clutching her rapidly swelling wrist to her chest, her eyes wide with absolute terror.

Alissa looked down at the laundry basket.

She didn't try to kick the heavy load; her atrophied leg would have shattered on impact. Instead, she slid the toe of her worn sneaker under the bottom edge of the plastic basket. Using her entire core, she violently jerked her leg upward in a sharp, lifting motion.

The basket tipped backward. Dirty clothes exploded everywhere, tumbling out of the doorway and raining down over the wooden floor of the hallway.

Alissa looked back at Ainsley, who was trembling in the doorway.

"Get out," Alissa commanded.

Ainsley didn't say a word. She scrambled backward into the hallway, slipping on a silk shirt, and backed away.

Alissa grabbed the door handle and slammed it shut right in Ainsley's face.

She reached up, her trembling fingers gripping the old, rusted knob lock, and twisted it until it clicked. For good measure, she grabbed the heavy wooden chair from her desk and wedged its back firmly under the doorknob.