Chapter 66: The Fine Arts of Twisting Necks
Irene hadn’t expected Aisha to grab her like this. The fingers digging into her arm were so tight it made her wince before she could stop herself. She tried to twist free, but Aisha’s hold didn’t budge an inch.
She couldn’t even fight back properly, not with Zenick standing right behind them. So instead she let her voice tremble and made her eyes go wide and glassy, the way she’d always done it in the past and made everyone side with her.
"Aisha, you’re hurting me. Please, let go."
She glanced past Aisha’s shoulder toward their brother, making sure he could see her face clearly, and see the fear in her face. "Don’t do this in front of our older brother. He just got back from such a long trip. He must be so tired already."
Aisha didn’t loosen her grip at all. If anything, her fingers tightened.
"Last chance," she said, voice flat and cold. "Tell me where you heard it or I will break things again."
Inside, Irene felt a small thrill of satisfaction rise up through the sting in her arm. A few days ago, Aisha had thrown a tantrum, smashing pots and glasses in front of their mother and Theon.
Though her scheme of turning Aisha into someone who could steal from her younger sister didn’t happen because her bracelet was not found in her room, her plan still worked out well for her then. Everyone had seen Aisha as volatile, dangerous, someone who couldn’t control her own temper.
Now a new witness was standing right there. It was their eldest brother, who had always seemed too soft and considerate of Aisha, too willing to overlook her faults and make excuses for her. If he saw this with his own eyes, if he watched Aisha threaten violence over something so trivial, surely even he would stop taking her side so easily.
Irene had been worried about this exact thing since he arrived. Zenick had always shown Aisha more patience than anyone else in the family. If he continued being partial toward her, it would only make things more difficult in the future.
But now, with this scene playing out right in front of him, he’d finally see what Irene had been trying to tell everyone all along.
She opened her mouth, ready to drag this out a little longer, to make Aisha look even more unreasonable the longer this continued.
"Aisha, I—"
She never got the chance to finish her words.
While Irene was still mid-word, Aisha’s hand left her arm and closed around her throat instead.
Irene’s eyes went wide.
This wasn’t what she expected at all. And for half a second, real fear cut through her and almost made her flinch.
But underneath that fear, something else was already stirring. A small, ugly kind of glee. She thought that Aisha was really stupid and blinded by rage for doing this in front of their brother.
Grabbing her by the throat... did she think their brother would allow it? Rather, this would be the end of whatever soft spot Zenick still had for her. He would see exactly what kind of person Aisha really was, and he would never look at her the same way again!
The corner of Irene’s mouth twitched, rising just slightly, so faint it should have been unnoticeable.
But before that small smile could fully form and before she could enjoy the moment of watching Aisha ruin herself so carelessly, she heard Aisha laugh. A low and short laugh devoid of any warmth.
"Do you really think I care what he thinks of me?"
Irene’s stomach dropped.
Before she could say anything and before she could even process what those words meant, Aisha’s hand twisted sideways.
’Craackk’
Zenick, standing a few steps behind them, barely comprehended what was happening. One moment his two sisters were arguing over Irene’s words. The next, he heard a sharp, sickening crack, and Irene stiffened before crumpling to the floor without a sound.
He rushed forward immediately, dropping to his knees beside her and checking her pulse with shaking fingers, watching her chest to see if it still rose and fell.
She was still breathing. That was a relief.
For a moment there, he had thought Aisha had killed Irene.
He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, then looked up at Aisha.
"Why did you do that?"
Aisha’s eyes were cold as ice, completely unlike anything he remembered from years ago. For a moment, something in his chest tightened, an involuntary chill running through him at the sight of that expression on his own sister’s face.
She looked at him for several long seconds before she answered.
"You don’t need to worry. I didn’t kill her." She said it calmly, without any hint of guilt or hesitation. "She’s just unconscious. Though she’ll probably need to wear a neck brace for a while when she wakes up."
"That’s not what I meant." Zenick shook his head and slowly sighed exasperatedly "You could’ve just slapped her or punched her. Why did you have to break her neck?"
Aisha: "....?"
Whatever anger had been simmering in her all evening and the temper she’d tried to hide came to a sudden, complete stop. She stood there, momentarily speechless, staring at her brother like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of him and his words.
Zenick scooped Irene up into his arms without another word and carried her to the nearby sofa, laying her down. She watched him do it and frowned.
"Why didn’t you take her to her room instead?" she asked.
Zenick blinked at her, like the question genuinely caught him off guard. He paused and said, "I’ll call a servant to carry her to her room later."
Aisha frown deepened. He could clearly carry his own sister without any trouble. So why hand the task off to someone else when he was already right here?
But Zenick showed no intention of doing it himself. He straightened up after setting Irene down properly on the cushions and turned to face Aisha fully.
"Did you forget what I told you before I left five years ago?"