Chapter 171
Chapter 171: Richard’s Dog
Catherine’s POV
Just as Lucy was about to turn and face Julian, I grabbed her shoulder and lifted my other hand.
The stinging in my palm was the only thing I felt as the sound of the slap boomed loud. Her head was snapped to the side, causing her hair to scatter. For a glorious three seconds, her mouth was finally shut.
I didn’t care about the consequences. Seeing the shock on her face was worth it.
Before I could move again, my mother lunged forward and grabbed my arms, pinning them to my sides. Her grip was surprisingly strong.
“Catherine! What’s wrong with you? Why did you hit her?” she cried, her voice trembling.
Huh? Was she seriously asking me that?
Lucy let out a high-pitched shriek of pure outrage. She looked like she was about to go feral, her fingers curling into claws as she lunged toward me. “You bitch! You just hit me? I let you go the other day but now, I’m done being nice. I’ll kill you!”
Gabriel moved faster than Julian. He stepped between us, catching Lucy by the shoulders and physically forcing her back. “That’s enough, Lucy! Get a hold of yourself.”
I watched her screaming, it was good to see her in her craziness. My eyes caught moving aside, like he didn’t want any of the madness to reach his side and for an unknown reason, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Even though Gabriel was protecting me, I couldn’t stop looking at Julian, who was still standing exactly where he had been since we walked in. If Gabriel hadn’t been there, Lucy would have had a clear shot at my face while Julian just stood there like a statue. It was pathetic for someone who claimed to love you.
Lucy continued to rage. Even with Gabriel holding her back, she started raining down a new torrent of abuse. She knew throwing insults at me wouldn’t get me, so she directed the words at my mother.
“Look at what you raised!” Lucy spat, her finger pointing jaggedly at Lisa. “A violent, low-class bitch who doesn’t know her place. I can’t believe Richard stooped low enough to marry a woman who can’t train her daughter. You’re a failure as a wife and a failure as a mother.”
“Enough, please,” my mother begged, her eyes filling with tears. She didn’t defend herself or try to tell Lucy to shut up. She just kept her head down, looking like a whipped dog. “Catherine didn’t mean it. She’s just stressed from school.”
What the fuck? If Lisa wasn’t my mother, I would have given her a heavy knock right now. Why was she acting like a slave?
“I did mean it!” I yelled, trying to shake my mother’s hands off me. “Let go of me, Mom! Stop begging her! What’s your problem? Don’t you see she’s a rotten brat who thinks she can walk all over you?”
“Enough, everyone!” Gabriel shouted, looking at Lucy with irritation. “Lucy, please just go to your room before this escalates further. You’ve said more than enough.”
She scoffed, smoothing her dress with vibrating hands. “Oh, I’ll go. But don’t think Richard won’t hear about this. He won’t be happy about this fight, Lisa. He’ll see exactly what kind of influence you and your daughter are having on this household.”
The mention of Richard made my mother go stiff. Her face turned a sickly shade of gray, and she gripped my wrists even tighter.
I turned my fury on her then. I couldn’t help it. I was sick of it; sick of the cowardice, sick of the bowing. “What the heck is wrong with you, Mom? Why are you acting like this? You used to be the one who taught me to stand up for what’s right. You weren’t a pushover. But ever since we moved into this godforsaken mansion, you’ve turned into some sort of ass-licker. Every single day, it gets worse. I have to watch you acting like Richard’s dog, now you are taking insults from a girl half your age!”
“Catherine, shut up,” she whispered with a frantic voice. “Stop talking already. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
I let out a bitter, jagged laugh. “Oh, so you can actually talk? You can find the voice to shut me up, but you let this girl talk to you like you are a cleaner? You even watched her call you a failure but you said nothing. Here you are now, finally finding your ton—.”
Before I could finish my sentence, Lisa’s expression changed, not to anger; it was a sudden look of alarm. She grabbed my wrist with a force that actually hurt and began dragging me toward the stairs.
“You’re coming with me now,” she commanded.
“Let go of me!” I shouted, digging my heels into the rug. “I’m not a child!”
She didn’t relent. She ignored Lucy’s continued taunting from below and my stepbrothers’ stares, dragging me up the stairs. When we reached the foot of the upper landing, she finally dropped my hand, but she didn’t stop. She walked ahead toward her bedroom.
I followed her, my heart hammering against my ribs in fury. Was she about to lecture me? I hope not because I was ready to challenge her.
We stepped into her room, and the second I was inside, she slammed the door and locked it. She turned to pale face to me, her hands shaking so much she had to clasp them together.
“Have you gone nuts?” she hissed, her voice low and terrifyingly intense. “Do you have any idea how dangerous Richard is, Catherine?”
I blinked, the anger momentarily replaced by total confusion. I stared at her, my mouth slightly open. I had expected a lecture on manners, not a warning about my stepfather’s character.
“So? Wait,” I stammered. “You know? You’re actually aware that the man you married is dangerous?”
She breathed in hard, closing her eyes as if trying to hold back a scream. She let out a long, shuddering breath and moved toward the edge of the bed, sinking onto it as if her legs could no longer support her weight.
“I can’t tell you a lot of things right now,” she whispered, looking at the door as if she expected Richard to be listening through it. “There are things… things you don’t understand about how the Vaughns operate. But I am pleading with you, Catherine. Just lie low. Play the part. Do whatever you have to do to stay invisible until I can come up with a plan to divorce him.”
The world seemed to tilt on its axis. I felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. “You… you want to divorce Richard?”
She didn’t answer. She stood up abruptly, the momentary vulnerability vanishing as she moved back toward the door.
“I need you to leave now,” she said, her voice trembling again. “Go to your room. Lock your door. And for God’s sake, don’t provoke anyone else tonight.”
“Mom, wait—”
“Leave, Catherine! Please!”
She unlocked the door and held it open, her eyes pleading with me to go. I didn’t have a choice. I walked out into the hallway.
But my mind was a chaotic mess of questions and half-formed thoughts.