Lilith
Serene pulls a knife from her pocket and flicks it open.
A glint of evil flashes across her eyes.
Panic washes over me as I realize what she is about to do.
I place myself between Serene and the painting.
“Please,” I can’t stop myself from begging.
“Anything but this.
Let me keep it.”
Serene twists the blade in her hand.
“I would rather die.”
She darts past me, shoving me to the floor.
The tip of her blade punctures the canvas right between my mother’s eyes.
Serene pulls the knife downward, and my mother’s painting is destroyed.
I jump to my feet and rush toward the bed.
Maybe it isn’t too late, maybe I can save it.
“No,” I shout, pushing Serene to the side.
The knife flies out of her hands and lands at my feet.
Serene hits the ground roughly, and a yelp escapes her lips.
“Serene,” my father’s Beta calls from the hallway.
“Are you okay?”
Another smile crosses her lips, and she begins to scream and cry loudly.
I know what she is doing, but I am too stunned to move.
The knife lies at my feet, and I stare at it as Serene cries.
I could end this right now.
I could kill her, and no one would be here to stop me.
But I am not a killer.
I could never destroy someone’s life for my own personal gain.
I would never stoop to their level, but something compels me to pick up the knife anyway.
Just as I reach down to pick it up, my father’s Beta, Ash, bursts through the door.
“Your father was worried,” he begins, but he doesn’t finish his thought.
His eyes are too busy taking in the scene around him.
“Ash,” she breathes his name in fake relief.
Then she jumps to her feet and rushes to the painting, pretending to try to mend it with her fingers, but she is only making matters worse.
Each movement of her fingers rips the canvas more, until my mother’s face is no longer recognizable.
“Stop touching it,” I roar as I step in her direction.
Before I can reach her, a hand wraps around my arm and yanks me away from her.
I try to pull myself free, but Ash’s grip is like a vice.
“What the fuck is going on in here?” He roars.
I look at the knife in my hands and realize how this looks.
This is exactly what Serene wanted.
She wanted me to look like the bad guy.
She planned it all.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” I begin, but Serene’s sobs cut me off.
She turns to Ash with fake tears in her eyes.
“I only wanted to give her a special birthday present.
I spent my savings having it commissioned, and she destroyed it in anger.
She is still angry over Casper.”
Suddenly, my father is at the door as well.
Vanna is there too, standing behind him with a smirk on her face.
“Lilith,” my father whispers.
“What have you done?”
”I didn’t do this,” I reply.
“I would never destroy a painting of Mom.”
But I know it is useless.
Every bit of evidence in this room is against me.
Serene was on the floor when Ash burst in, the painting is destroyed, and I am holding the knife in my hand.
No one will believe me.
Beta Ash lets go of my arm and turns to my father.
“When I came in, Serene was on the floor, and Lilith had the knife.”
Tears rush to my eyes no matter how hard I try to stop them.
They mix with the blood on my cheek.
“Daddy,” I whimper.
“You have to believe me.
Serene cut my cheek.
Not her.
She cut the painting, not me.
I didn’t do it.”
Serene wails loudly.
“I scratched you when I tried to stop you from running the painting.”
”Is this another petty revenge?” My father roars.
“We asked you to come back, and this is how you repay us?
You should be ashamed of yourself.”
”I don’t want revenge,” I snap.
“I only came back today to honor Mom.”
Vanna scoffs.
“And this is how you choose to do it?
By destroying a painting of her?”
”I DIDN’T DO IT!”
Serene collapses dramatically on the bed in front of the painting, gripping the blankets in her fists.
Her cries are so loud that they can only come across as fake, but no one else seems to notice.
I am the only one who seems to see through her façade.
“Serene spent so much time and money having this painting commissioned,” Vanna scolds me.
“You should apologize to her.”
I roll my shoulders back and narrow my eyes in her direction.
“I will not apologize for something that I didn’t do.”
The strike comes before I can prepare myself.
My father’s palm hits my cheek, and the pain drives me to my knees.
He stands over me with fire and hatred in his eyes.
“Apologize.
Now.”
I slowly get to my feet, cupping my cheek in my hands.
I look around the room at my accusers, and I know there is nothing that I can say to defend myself.
Once again, Serene has trapped me.
There are no cameras in this room, and the only one who could speak the truth is the one person determined to ruin my life.
Everyone’s eyes are on me.
Waiting for my lips to utter the apology that they expect from me, but I can’t make my mouth open.
I refuse to say that I am sorry for something that I didn’t do.
I refuse to be the pawn in Serene’s game any longer.
I square my shoulders and lift my chin.
“I will not apologize for something that I didn’t do.”