The Gift from My Brothers for My Birthday Was My Mother’s Broken Bangle Chapter 02

The Gift from My Brothers for My Birthday Was My Mother’s Broken Bangle Chapter 02

Pippa was thrown out.

But I knew it was not over.

That night, the strain sent my body into a fever. My three brothers stayed beside my bed until morning.

When I woke, Dashiell was holding a glass of warm water, checking the temperature before offering it to me.

“Exactly 98.6 degrees,” he said carefully. “Take a sip, Romy.”

I looked at him without reaching for it.

My needs had never been purely physical. I needed absolute emotional security too, and once that trust was broken, no apology could restore it.

The moment my brothers chose Pippa over me, something between us changed for good.

“I don’t want it.”

I pushed off the covers and walked straight into my dressing room.

The couture gown Pippa had worn had already been dry-cleaned and returned to its place.

I took a pair of scissors from the vanity and cut the six-figure dress to pieces in front of Dashiell.

Ames and Tiernan reached the doorway just as the last strip of fabric fell to the floor. Neither of them dared make a sound.

I had always been this way.

Once someone touched something that belonged exclusively to me, cleaning it was never enough. Even looking at it could make me nauseous.

When we were younger, Tiernan once drank from my personal glass. I vomited until my stomach cramped so badly they had to take me to the emergency room.

“Good,” Ames said with a strained smile. “If it feels contaminated, you don’t need it.”

I dropped the scissors and looked at all three of them.

“Did you fire her?”

They exchanged uneasy glances.

Dashiell exhaled.

“Romy, Pippa grew up in foster care. She worked hard to get into college and earn this internship.”

“She was wrong yesterday, but that doesn’t mean we destroy her entire future.”

He paused.

“She came to work with a fever this morning and passed out in the lobby.”

A sharp pulse began beating behind my eyes.

“So now you feel sorry for her?”

“That’s not what this is,” Tiernan said quickly. “She’s had a difficult life, and she’s actually good at her job. The company just assigned her to an important project.”

I said nothing.

I changed clothes, went downstairs, and told the driver to bring the car around.

“Take me to Rivington Tower.”

Half an hour later, I pushed through the doors of the executive suite.

Pippa was sitting inside my private lounge in a loose hospital gown, cradling the porcelain cup I had commissioned from a French atelier.

The second she saw me, her fingers jerked. Water spilled across the carpet.

“Miss Rivington…”

She stood, eyes reddening as fear spread across her face.

“I didn’t know it was yours. It was just sitting there, and I was thirsty.”

Her voice softened.

“Your brothers said you had so many beautiful things that you probably wouldn’t mind me using one.”

The calculation beneath her helpless little act was almost impressive.

I walked over and tore the cup from her hands.

“You thought leaving it untouched was a waste?”

I hurled it to the floor.

Porcelain exploded across the room. One of the shards sliced across Pippa’s lower leg.

She screamed and dropped into a crouch, clutching the cut.

“What exactly made you think I wouldn’t mind?”

I let my anger take over.

“Who the hell do you think you are, helping yourself to my things? That isn’t sharing. It’s theft.”

My brothers had just finished a meeting. The moment they stepped inside, they saw the blood running down Pippa’s leg.

“Romy, what did you do?” Dashiell snapped.

Ames rushed forward and immediately placed himself between us.

Pippa began sobbing so hard she could barely speak.

“Don’t blame her, Ames. I grew up with nothing. I’ve never owned anything that beautiful.”

She wiped at her face with shaking fingers.

“There were times I barely had enough to eat. Romilly has always had everything.”

Her voice cracked at exactly the right moment.

“For once, I just wanted to know what it felt like to be treated as if I mattered.”

Every word was designed to trigger their need to protect the weakest person in the room.

It worked.

Dashiell’s expression hardened.

“Romilly Rivington, enough.”

“It was a cup. Was hurting her really necessary?”

I stared at the way they surrounded her.

The overload struck again.

Every sound in the room sharpened until it felt as if someone had turned the volume inside my skull all the way up. My pulse pounded against my ribs.

Before I could stop myself, I grabbed the golf club beside the display cabinet and swung it through the window.

Then I turned on the coffee table and computer.

“You think this is about a cup?”

Glass shattered around my feet as I swung again.

“I’m not stopping with the cup. I’ll destroy every last thing in this room.”

I turned on my brothers, breathing hard.

“You care about her so much? Then stay here with her in the wreckage.”