Page 76 of Unapologetic Obsession

“I think the store made a mistake. There’s only one controller. Can you call them and ask them to ship the second one?”

Her brow creased. “Why do you need a second controller?”

“For Caden,” he had replied like the answer was obvious.

I rolled my eyes. The prized heir still didn’t get it, did he? Despite spending twelve years with our parents, he was utterly clueless about our family dynamics.

Luckily, Mother dearest was there to shatter his illusion about this perfect family. Her smile faltered. “It wasn’t a mistake, Damon. Your brother is still grounded for damaging the curtains downstairs.”

Last month, some of the curtains in the basement had turned black when smoke rose from my sugar and potassium nitrate mix. How else was I supposed to create a smoke bomb? It was called collateral damage.

“That was weeks ago,” Damon protested.

Her expression soured. “Which means he has had weeks to apologize for it. Caden doesn’t get video game privileges until he shows remorse for his actions.”

Whatever. Like I wanted to play her shitty video game. I would never apologize to inferior beings.

“C’mon, Mom,” Damon groaned, massaging his temples. “You know Caden doesn’t do apologies. You already docked his allowance to clean the curtains. Just let it go.”

“It’s not about the money, it’s about accountability. Caden keeps doing dangerous experiments at home after we specifically told him not to. I can’t reward his behavior with a video game.”

“But—” Damon had started warily.

“No buts.” Her voice sharpened. It was that tone she generally reserved for me.

Damon stared at the gaming station for a long moment. Only the word yearning could describe his love affair with the latest console. Yet he pushed the box away. “If Caden can’t play, then I don’t want it, either. You can return this.”

Of course.

Damon and his savior complex. He clearly wanted the stupid metal box but had too many fucking principles. Always the martyr. It made my teeth itch.

My mother seemed peeved by the turn of events. “Damon. You can’t punish yourself for your brother’s mistakes.”

“But he only used the basement because you guys took away his shed.”

My jaw clenched at the reminder. I had been happily staying out of this family’s way, spending most of my time in the shed and doing my class projects there. But no, even that had to be taken away from me. All because I had worked on a free energy project using magnets and copper wire. It wasn’t my fault the power lines weren’t strong enough to sustain my creation. The circuit overload fried a few appliances around the house, and not even the major ones. My dramatic parents took away my shed, and I hadn’t found a moment’s peace since.

Damon leaned closer and dropped his voice. “He takes a million science classes and almost all of them require him to do experiments. Where else is he supposed to do them?”

“At school!” she replied, exasperated. “We don’t want him doing unsupervised experiments in the house.”

“But school told us these projects were to be done at home. This isn’t his fault, you know? You and Dad can supervise him if you are worried about what he’s doing.”

I scoffed. As if Mother dearest would ever take the afternoon to supervise one of my projects or interests. Being locked in that shed with me would be her worst nightmare.

“Damon…”

“Please, Mom. It won’t be fun to play without Caden.” It was a bald-faced lie. Damon just wanted to include me, though I wasn’t interested in these things. “Think of it this way. If we play together, he’ll have less time for unsupervised experiments.”

Her somber expression said it all. She didn’t want to relent, but she also couldn’t stand to make her firstborn unhappy. She sighed. “Fine. If that’s what you want.”

Yippee. She said fine because she couldn’t bear to spoil her favorite son’s mood.

Damon grinned and turned back to setting up the console. When his head snapped up, his eyes found mine across the room. “Caden.”

My mother glanced up. Her pupils were dilated, probably because she had recently upped her dose. She thought I wouldn’t notice. The only person she couldn’t hide from was me, and she hated me for it. She looked at me like I was the wild animal she wasn’t sure should be fed. If she could help it, she would put me down one day.

But Damon didn’t see the truth about our family, nor did he see us for what we truly were. Our mother was self-destructive, our father was an idiot, I was a monster, and Damon was clueless.