Page 23 of Amateur Goddess (Morrigan University #3)

Bernice

Rebecca was on the floor bleeding. Charles had exploded and punched his own mate before smacking her several times and then kicking her when she fell. I was frozen in shock at his outburst. I’d never seen him so upset and crazed.

That was why I didn’t see the slap coming.

“This is all your fault!” he roared.

“My fault?” I gasped, holding my cheek. “Charles, control yourself! Get yourself together and—”

“Don’t tell me what to do, you stupid bitch,” he roared and backhanded me hard enough that I fell to the ground. “I will not be lectured by a lowly woman who has failed this family!”

“I gave you everything , even my own child,” I bellowed. “How can you say I failed or this is my fault? You told me to stay out of it as always. You told me to leave it alone.”

He ignored all of that and narrowed his eyes at me. “You will get the women of this family under control and stop letting them humiliate us. Clare will move home immediately and be mated to clean this mess up you made.”

No. No, not that. Clare would never forgive me.

And she was the only one who truly loved me in this family even after all the evil I’d committed. She was the one person who still cared for me even when we both knew that I lied to her and she knew the horrible things I’d done. I’d done them to save myself and for this family. She knew that. She understood that.

She loved me anyways.

“Clare has done nothing wrong and is loyal,” I argued. “You cannot treat your own daughter this way, Charles.”

“She is a breeder and belongs to me!” he roared. “I will do whatever I want with her and any woman in this family! She will mate Gregg Haddock and clean up this mess that bitch you didn’t teach to behave made for us.”

“No!” I shouted. “No, you cannot mate our Clare to that monster and humiliate her. He’s a criminal and—”

“What crime did he commit?” he sneered. “I gave him permission to do what he wanted with Bevin. Women have no rights or—how dare you think to argue with me?”

“I’m your mother ,” I seethed. “I gave you life and—”

“You did your job as a breeder.” The look of pure disgust made me shiver. Had he been hiding this from us all this time? “Do as you’re told or you will be punished next. Do not push me.”

“No, I will not do that to Clare, nor Jean. You have gone too far, and they are—” I cried out when he reached for me, knowing my magic was no match for his and it would only anger him more if I tried to use it against him.

But he never reached me. A barrier formed over me and Charles hit it.

And the magic he always had around him didn’t break it.

“Enough, Father,” Jean said calmly. “You are out of control. You are ruining this family with your—”

“How dare you even think to speak to me this way,” he seethed as he focused on her. “You are—”

“More powerful than you,” she chuckled darkly. “And I didn’t kill a sibling to do it. Bevin might be wrong about a lot, but you are out of control. Threatening the head of the council?”

“Shut your—”

“ Silence ,” Jean ordered, and Charles shut his mouth, shocking all of us. “I have listened to your drivel for all of my life and now you will listen.” She rolled her eyes when he moved towards her and gathered magic. She easily blocked the attack he threw at her, shocking him so much he stumbled a few steps back. “As I said, I’m more powerful, Father.

“I know your sexist mind cannot comprehend that, but I am. And you’ve gone too far. You are out of control, and the branch families are up in arms, not just the rest of our society. They are demanding you step down or they will petition the council to be disowned as well. I’ve also talked to the accountants, and what Bevin said is true.”

I gasped, not having thought to even believe that. Charles was really losing the estate money and lying about it.

It was true. Rage was all over his face. He wasn’t insulted.

He was pissed someone knew the truth.

“So here is what is going to happen,” Jean told him as she moved towards him without fear. “You will go to the hunting cabin and get your head together. You will stop lashing out and throwing these tantrums that make everything worse. No more threats. No more getting caught on the record saying you will murder people .

“And Clare is not mating one of the Haddocks. That is the stupidest—no. It’s not happening. You will take time to get yourself together, center yourself, and come up with a real plan to handle all of this. There is a massive mess, and we will need the help of all of the family to fix it. So enough of this madness, and take this last chance or I will have to handle everything.”

She pulled off her magic and made it clear that she expected only one answer from him.

“You will regret doing this, Jean,” he seethed. “And being disloyal to—”

“I regret not doing it sooner so we didn’t lose the gem Bevin turned out to be,” she snapped. “Do not speak to me about being disloyal as you just said I was a breeder and your property. It was one thing when Bevin was broken, but she wasn’t, and you were sickly going to sacrifice her for lazy Alex instead of people working in this family. I have!

“I have worked harder than both of you, and that’s why I’m more powerful. That’s why I have personal money more than Alex. That’s why you cannot control me and never have! So do as you are told before I let your brothers get involved because they want to bind your magic and decide who takes over, and I’m considering helping them!”

Fear filled Charles’s eyes for once instead of rage. He didn’t see Jean as a woman for once but what she truly was to him.

A threat.

He bellowed to the butler to get his things packed for the hunting cabin and have a security detail ready to take him there within the hour. Then he faced Jean again. “If things get worse while I’m gone, you will take the place Bevin was supposed to and make your brother more powerful so we can right the ship with a better heir.”

Jean was brazen and actually snorted at him. “No, I won’t. I won’t take any responsibility for this mess you made and Alex could make worse while you’re gone. And I certainly won’t die for that idiot and you sexist fools.” She stepped towards him again. “And both of you can’t make it happen, so be careful I don’t sacrifice you to make this situation go away, Father.”

Charles saw enough in her eyes to believe her and stormed off.

Jean let out a slow breath and then came over to me, easily healing me as she squatted down in front of me, keeping the barrier up but now over both of us.

She studied me a moment. “I expect your full support in my taking over the family, Grandmother. We both know Alex will be a disaster, and this sexist attitude is over when Father is ruining the family from all the work you did, right?”

It took me a moment to find my voice. “Yes, yes, of course. I didn’t realize you were so capable or wanted it, darling.”

She snickered as she offered me a hand up and stood. “What would be the point of having voiced it earlier? Father pushing harder to mate me off? The only thing that saved me was reminding him that it would have humiliated Alex if I mated first when no one would have him.” She checked I was okay and I assured her that I was.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “I’ve never seen him—he has lost his mind.”

“He has, and that is why this sacrificing of family will also end,” she said firmly. “That sort of evil has consequences. Darkness seeps in—you said your own father was evil and insane. No more. No more evil men leading this family. There are other ways to be powerful. No more laziness.”

“You are right, yes,” I agreed as she let me feel her power.

Because she wasn’t really giving me a choice.

“Then I expect you to come up with another version of your crime and convince the family. Without throwing Bevin under the bus, Grandmother.” She shook her head when I argued. “Leave her be. She was clear she would leave us alone if we left her alone. Father started all of this. We need to de-escalate, not make more problems.”

“I will think of something,” I whispered, bobbing my head too fast.

“Good. And you will convince my aunts and uncles that I am the only choice they should consider. Alex is a moron and Bryan would never—he doesn’t even want it.”

“I will handle it,” I promised.

“Good. I know you can. We have a lot of work to do while Father is planning whatever. I want it handled before he comes back so we can make the right moves.”

“Of course. Of course, darling.”

She took down the barrier and sighed when her mother started sobbing.

“How can you help her and not me?” Rebecca whined. “You only stepped in when he hurt her and not your own mother?”

Jean didn’t even hide her disgust I’d never seen her show for her mother. “You’re weak and useless. Bevin was right that you’re pathetic. More than that—when have you ever stood up for us , Mother? When have you ever told Father that he went too far or that we were more than his bullshit? Never. Not once.”

“I couldn’t do—”

“You didn’t even try and nodded along,” she drawled. “You enabled him and supported him right down this path of madness. So now you can handle his insanity you helped create. At least Grandmother stands up for us.”

Jean walked away without even bothering to call a healer for her mother. I stared after her like I’d never seen her before.

Because I didn’t think I had. This woman was someone I didn’t even recognize. Apparently, Jean had been wearing a mask for a long, long time and now was only just taking it off.

Just like Bevin.

Our family really had spiraled out of control, and if we didn’t get control soon, our demise was inevitable.

The End