Page 61 of Beaten

Susanna huffs and crosses her arms with so much attitude that only a sixteen year old girl can muster. “No. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“You are rude,” I say again. “I have been through hell. You don’t even know the half of it.”

She snorts. “Sure.”

The pure dismissiveness of her statement pisses me off so much that I storm over to her and slap her across the face.

The room goes silent.

Right before Susanna starts screaming at me. “This bitch just hit me!”

“She did,” Nina says aghast. “See, Alek? We told you she was a bad person.”

Alek flashes me a dark look. “Katya, you don’t get to slap people.”

“Oh?” I ask. “Yet, you get to spank me like it’s nothing?”

He opens his mouth and closes it, realizing that I am completely right.

“You know what I’ve been through,” I say to him. “She’s being rude. She is not my responsibility to get in line. She’s yours.”

Susanna looks between me and Alek with her mouth agape. “You’re just going to let her talk to me like this?”

Alek sighs and turns to Susanna. “Katya is right. You’ve been too spoiled. If you don’t start showing Katya some respect, I am going to lock you both up.”

“You can’t!” Susanna cries.

“I will.”

“That’s abuse,” Nina says.

Alek only shrugs. “Do I look like I care? You two need to get yourselves in line. Stop acting like spoiled, little brats. Katya is my wife now. Accept it or you’re never going to come back to my house again. I want you two in my life. But I will choose Katya over both of you if it comes down to it.”

I suck in a breath. Does Alek really mean that? He helped raised Nina and Susanna from my understanding. Would he really just choose me over them?

Susanna breaks down into tears but I don’t have any sympathy for her. Not after how she’s treated me.

“Be nice to her,” Nina says. “She’s sensitive.”

“Then she needs to learn to be nice to others,” Alek scolds. “Both of you do. Now, go home. You both can see that I’m all right. That I returned to New York unharmed. So, go back home. Katya needs to rest.”

“Why does she need to?” Susanna asks through her tears. “I’m the one who got slapped.”

“Because of you two, Katya was almost killed today.”

Nina’s eyes widen. “What?”

“You told Sasha and my other men that Katya killed Jack.”

“That’s what she told us!” Susanna says, pointing at me.

“It was a lie. I killed Jack. And because of you two, she was almost killed. So think about things before you speak them. Do you want to be responsible for someone else’s death?”

“I don’t care if she dies or not,” Susanna snaps.

“Do you?” Alek asks Nina who hesitates before she nods.

“I don’t want death on my hands,” Nina says to her sister. “Let’s just go. I don’t want to be around the bitch that slapped you anyway.”