The Gift from My Brothers for My Birthday Was My Mother’s Broken Bangle Chapter 05

The Gift from My Brothers for My Birthday Was My Mother’s Broken Bangle Chapter 05

The triumph vanished from Pippa’s face the moment she saw me smile.

She had probably expected me to break down again, sobbing or screaming as the overload consumed me.

I did neither.

I swung my legs off the bed and grabbed the paring knife she had left on the nightstand.

Pippa screamed. The apple slipped from her hands and rolled across the floor.

“You enjoyed putting peanut butter in my oatmeal, didn’t you?”

I forced her backward until she hit the wall.

Her entire body began to shake. The cruelty she had shown me seconds earlier disappeared without a trace.

“Please, Miss Rivington. I’m sorry. I’ll never do it again.”

I leaned close to her ear, my voice almost gentle.

“You had plenty to say before.”

I raised the knife.

“Keep talking.”

The hospital-room door burst open.

“Romilly, what the hell are you doing?”

Dashiell charged inside, with Ames and Tiernan right behind him.

All three froze when they saw us.

Tiernan moved first. He lunged forward, seized my wrist, and twisted hard. Pain shot up my arm, forcing my fingers open.

The knife struck the floor with a metallic crack.

Its blade sliced across my palm as it fell. Blood streamed between my fingers and dripped onto the tile.

Not one of my brothers looked at me.

Ames pulled Pippa into his arms and examined the thin mark near her throat.

“Pippa, are you hurt? How deep is it?”

She collapsed against him, sobbing.

“I’m scared, Ames. I was only peeling an apple for her.”

“I don’t know what I did wrong. She suddenly tried to kill me.”

Her shoulders shook.

“Maybe even breathing around her is a mistake. Maybe I should just die and make everyone’s life easier.”

Dashiell turned toward me. Disgust and disappointment filled his eyes.

“Romilly Rivington, you’re beyond help.”

I stood barefoot on the cold floor, letting blood fall steadily from my palm.

“She put peanut butter in my oatmeal.”

Tiernan gave a cold laugh.

“That’s impossible. Pippa didn’t even know about your allergy.”

“She had no access to your medical information. You’ll say anything if it gets her thrown out.”

I stared at the three men who had once treated me as if I were the most precious thing in their world.

The pressure closed around my throat again. I bit down hard on my tongue, using the pain to keep myself conscious.

“You believe her over me?”

Dashiell rubbed a hand over his face, looking exhausted.

“We indulged you for too long, Romy.”

“We taught you that your comfort mattered more than everyone else’s. We let you become selfish, entitled, and incapable of caring what you do to people.”

His gaze hardened.

“You’re controlled by your emotions, and you’re dangerous.”

“Do you even know who Pippa is?”

I looked at him coldly.

“A thief who helps herself to other people’s lives.”

“Shut up!” Ames roared.

His voice shook the room.

“She’s Malcolm Wren’s daughter. He died fifteen years ago saving the three of us from those kidnappers.”

I went still.

Malcolm Wren.

The quiet, dependable man who had driven for our family for more than a decade.

Dashiell’s voice turned cold.

“We spent fifteen years looking for Malcolm’s daughter. Pippa is the girl we’ve been trying to find.”

“She grew up in foster care, was mistreated, and spent years without enough food.”

“She had nothing, Romilly. You had everything.”

“All we wanted was to repay what her father did and give her some sense of family.”

Tiernan reached into his coat pocket and removed a syringe.

His face showed no emotion.

“Dash is right. You’re an immediate danger to yourself and everyone around you.”

“We’ve arranged a private transfer to Stonecrop Behavioral Institute. They’ll admit you tonight and keep you under observation until you’re stable.”

I stared at the syringe.

Then I looked past Tiernan at Pippa, hiding behind Ames with a small, taunting smile on her lips.

“I’m not sick.”

I backed away, but Tiernan kept coming, closing the distance one step at a time.

Two private security officers rushed in from the hallway and seized my shoulders.

The needle pierced my skin. Cold medication flooded my veins, and the room began to blur.

Pippa looked past Ames’s shoulder.

“Don’t blame Romilly. She can’t help being this way.”

Her lips curved faintly.

“While she’s gone, I’ll be here for you.”

I stared at my brothers as darkness closed over me.

Go ahead.

Send me away.

When I came back, not one of them would escape what they had done.