Welcome To My Mothers Grave

I was born with a scorched-earth policy.

When I was six, a neighbors kid stole my favorite toy; by midnight, Id started a fire in their backyard shed. At fourteen, my fathers mistress showed up at our front door, announcing she was my new mom. I didn't cry. I picked up a heavy mahogany chair and hurled it at her, sending her straight to the ER.

My father nearly had a heart attack. He thrashed me and locked me in a windowless basement, vowing to starve me for three days until I "learned my place." I didn't wait. I smashed the cellar window with my bare hands and, dragging a fractured leg, crawled my way to his corporate headquarters. I crashed a hundred-million-dollar board meeting looking like a ghost from a horror movie.

In Chicagos elite circles, people were terrified of me. They whispered that I was "unstable," but no one dared say a word to my face.

On my eighteenth birthday, the gala was supposed to be my debut. Instead, my father walked in with a girl in a white designer silk dressdelicate, porcelain-skinned, and radiating innocence. He announced it to the room with a beaming smile:

"This is Nina. Shes my daughter, too. From today on, shell be Jades little sister."

I suppose the last few years had been too quiet. Hed forgotten who I was.

I tilted my head, looking at the human doll standing beside him. "My sister? Arthur, you really think shes in my league?"

...

The ballroom went silent. Every eye in the room pivoted toward us. Ninas rehearsed smile curdled.

"Thats enough!" my father hissed, grabbing my wrist and trying to pull me aside. "How can you speak like that? She is your blood!"

I didn't budge. I cleared my throat, pitched my voice for the back of the room, and smiled. "So, let me get this straight. My mother, who died in the ICU giving birth to me, somehow managed to pop out a sister for me years later from the grave?"

My fathers face went a bruised shade of purple. Nina bit her lip, her eyes brimming with calculated tears.

"Jade, I know today is hard... its the anniversary of your mothers sacrifice. But how can you be so cruel to Dad?" she whispered, loud enough for the nearby guests to hear. "Please, don't make a scene in front of everyone."

I saw the look in her eyesa flicker of triumph. This was her opening move. She wanted the world to see the "wild, broken heiress" vs. the "sweet, long-lost angel."

But Nina had no idea how I played the game.

That night, I made one phone call to my Uncle Jude. Within the hour, my personal security team had a sleeping Nina bundled into the back of a black SUV. To ensure she didn't wake up and ruin the surprise, Id personally seen to it that shed had a little help staying under.

The wind was biting as I stood before my mothers headstone. I lit a single, expensive candle and watched the flame flicker against the cold marble.

When Nina finally came to, shivering in the frost, she found me kneeling by the grave, whispering to the headstone.

"Mom," I said, my voice airy and haunting. "I brought the 'sister' to meet you."

"AHHH!"

Her scream tore through the silence of the cemetery, jagged and raw.

By the time my father reached the hospital where the paramedics had taken her, Nina was catatonic from shock. Outside the trauma room, Arthur was a caged animal.

"Youre insane, Jade! Truly, clinically insane!" he roared. "Its the middle of the night! Its freezing! Why the hell would you take her to a graveyard?"

I sat on the plastic hospital bench, swinging my legs, looking like the picture of innocence. "But Dad, you said she was family. I just wanted her to meet Mom. I thought Mom would want to see what youd been up to while she was rotting in the dirt. Did I do something wrong?"

He pointed a shaking finger at me, his chest heaving. "You... you monster!"

Just then, a woman draped in Fendi rushed down the hall.

"Nina! Where is my daughter?"

It was Tiffany, the woman Id once sent to the hospital with a chair. Shed clearly spent the intervening years getting enough Botox to freeze her expressions in a permanent state of faux-concern. She threw herself into my fathers arms, sobbing about "their poor baby."

I leaned back, watching the performance. Shed played her cards well, getting Arthur to marry her in secret while I wasn't looking.

My father held her, shushing her, before finally remembering I existed. He cleared his throat. "Look, it was just a... a sibling prank that went too far. Jade will apologize, and well move on."

Tiffanys head snapped up. "Apologize? Arthur! Our daughter is in a hospital bed! That girl drugged her and dragged her to a cemetery! An apology isn't enough!"

Arthurs gaze turned cold, and for the first time, he looked at me with a strange, guarded intensity. "Jade is headstrong, but shes not malicious. A sincere apology will settle it. Siblings fight. Thats final."

I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the hospital air conditioning. My father hated meeveryone knew that. If it wasn't for my Uncle Judes protection, Arthur would have disposed of me years ago. His sudden "protection" was a red flag the size of a billboard.

I narrowed my eyes and stood up. "Fine. When she wakes up, Ill give my 'dear sister' exactly what she deserves. An apology shell never forget."

The next morning, I arrived with a massive bouquet of liliesthe kind people usually send to funerals.

Tiffany looked at me like I was a ticking bomb, but she let me in. I was curious to see what kind of "incentive" Arthur had given her to play nice. But she was called away by a doctor almost immediately.

The moment the door clicked shut, Ninas "poor me" mask disintegrated. She leaned back against the pillows, a smirk playing on her pale lips.

"You probably didn't know, did you? Im actually two months older than you," she whispered. "My mom and Dad were the real love story. Your mother was just the socialite bitch who forced her way in between them. Everything you havethis name, this moneyit was stolen from us by a woman whos finally, thankfully, dead."

She didn't get to finish the sentence. I lunged across the bed, grabbed her by the hair, and delivered two sharp, stinging slaps that echoed in the small room.

I hauled her out of bed like a sack of laundry and dragged her toward the ensuite bathroom.

"Nina, your mouth is filthy," I growled. "Lets wash it out with some toilet water."

"No! Stop! Help! Someone help me!"

I was inches from shoving her face into the bowl when the door burst open. I was ripped away by a pair of strong arms and slammed against the tiled wall.

"Jade, what the hell is wrong with you?"

It was Tristan Miller. My "fianc" by arrangement, and the boy Id grown up thinking might actually be my friend. He was breathing hard, his eyes full of a disgusted fury I hadn't seen before.

"Shes a patient! Shes here because of your mental breakdown! Are you trying to kill her?"

Tristan, usually so polished, looked disheveled. He ignored me and knelt to gather a trembling Nina into his arms.

I leaned against the wall, clutching my bruised arm, watching the two of them play the hero and the damsel.

"Tristan," Nina sobbed into his chest. "I just told her I wanted us to be friends... and she just snapped..."

Tristan looked at me with pure vitriol. He grabbed my wrist and tried to force me to my knees in front of her. "Apologize. Now."

He squeezed right over the spot where Id hit the wall. The pain was blinding.

"Get your hands off me," I spat, wrenching myself free.

"I can't believe I ever felt sorry for you," Tristan said, his voice dripping with contempt. "Youre not a girl, Jade. Youre a predator."

I didn't argue. I simply walked over to the bedside table and pointed to the high-end nanny cam Id hidden in the lilies Id brought. I pulled up the feed on my phone and turned the screen toward him.

The video played clearly: Ninas face twisting in malice, her insults about my mother, the admission that she was the product of an affair.

Ninas face went white. Tristans expression shifted through a dozen colors.

He remained silent for a heartbeat, then scoffed. "So what? Shes bitter. Shes had a hard life. She said some things in angercan't you show a little grace, Jade? You have everything, and she has nothing."

I felt a cold laugh bubble up in my chest. He was asking me to "show grace" to the girl who just spat on my mothers memory?

I grabbed my bag and walked out without a word.

But within twenty-four hours, the narrative had shifted. A rumor was tearing through our private academy: Jade Callahan, jealous of her new sister, had tracked her to the hospital to finish the job.

At lunch, a group of guys surrounded Tristan. "Hey, Miller, is it true? Did your psycho fiance actually try to drown her sister in a hospital toilet?"

Tristan glanced at me, then looked away with a performative sigh. "I want to believe Jade isn't that far gone... but its been a lot of change for her. She isn't handling Ninas arrival well."

Suddenly, I was the pariah. Even in the cafeteria, people moved their trays when I sat down.

I saw Nina sitting at a central table, surrounded by a "court" of sympathetic girls. She was the new queen of the school, the tragic figure everyone wanted to protect.

I was eating my salad in peace when one of Tristans friends walked over and sneered at my plate. "How can you even eat? Ninas over there crying, and youre acting like nothing happened. Youre cold-blooded, Jade."

Nina looked over, her eyes wide and watery. "Its okay, let her be. Jade has always been... different. Im used to it."

I swallowed my food and looked at her. I truly didn't understand. If she was this afraid of me, why did she keep poking the bear?

I stood up abruptly. Nina flinched, and the boy standing over me puffed out his chest. "You going to hit me too, Callahan?"

I smiled. "You want to be the hero of the day?"

He faltered, swallowing hard.

Nina suddenly stood up and grabbed my arm. Her grip was surprisingly tight. "Jade, please. Dad told me you had... mental struggles. I didn't believe him until now, but I think you need help."

I tried to shake her off, but Tristan appeared out of nowhere. His hand clamped onto my other shoulder like a vice.

"Its okay, Jade," he said, his voice terrifyingly gentle. "Were going to get you some help. Weve already called the school to excuse you."

They dragged me out of the cafeteria and forced me into the back of a car. We didn't go to a doctor. We drove an hour outside the city to a derelict industrial parkan old chemical plant that had been abandoned for decades.

The moment we stepped out of the car, Ninas "sweet sister" persona evaporated. She looked at the rusting structures with a smirk of pure malice.

I smoothed my uniform skirt and looked around. "This is it, Nina? This is your grand plan?"

She laughed, crossing her arms. "You think youre so tough, Jade. But your mouth is the only thing about you thats hard."

She clapped her hands. Four hulking men in tactical gear stepped out from the shadows of a warehouse.

"Aren't you worried Dad will find out?" I asked.

Nina looked at me like I was an idiot. "You really think I came up with this location? Jade, this was Dads idea. He needs you gone. Youre the last piece of your mothers legacy he hasn't been able to burn. Once youre out of the way, Im the only Callahan heir left."

I felt a pang in my chestnot of sadness, but of cold realization. My father didn't just hate me. He wanted me erased.

"Youre insane, Nina," I said quietly.

"Im insane?" she screamed, lunging forward and slapping me across the face twice. "I spent my whole life being the 'secret'! I watched you on the news, in the papers, living my life! Your mother is dead, and now its your turn."

Tristan stepped in, holding her back. "Easy, Nina. We need her functional for now."

He signaled the guards to drag me inside. The air in the warehouse was thick with the smell of rot and old chemicals. In the center of the room stood a terrifying sight: a heavy wooden chair with leather straps and copper wiring.

An old-school shock therapy chair. The kind they used in the fifties to "fix" the rebellious.

My pulse spiked. I couldn't let them put me in that chair.

As they dragged me past a row of old laboratory cabinets, I saw my opening. Some of the glass was broken, exposing old bottles of reagents.

I waited for the precise second their grip loosened. I threw my weight sideways, slamming my shoulder into the cabinet.

Glass shattered. Bottles crashed to the floor. A puddle of clear liquid spread rapidlyit smelled like high-grade industrial alcohol. I scrambled back, my hands sliced and bleeding, but I managed to snatch a small, unlabelled jar from the debris.

The guards stepped back, startled. I wiped the blood from my forehead, a jagged smile on my lips.

Click.

I pulled a lighter from my pocket. The flame was tiny, but in that dark, chemical-choked room, it looked like a star.

"Nina," I rasped, my voice sounding like it came from the bottom of a well. "If Im going to hell today, Im taking my sister with me."