Page 104 of Vicious Behaviors

I open my mouth to explain, but the words freeze when she yanks Stella up by the arm, none too gently.

“Look at you?! You look like a pig! Are you a pig, girl? Are you a filthy pig?!”

“Hey! Don’t talk to my sister like that!” Lucky shouts just as Enzo flees the scene.

“I can talk to her any way I want. I’m in charge here,” Ms. Rinaldi seethes, eyes narrowing as she turns her attention back to Stella.

Anna presses herself into my neck, trembling, afraid the woman will turn her wrath on her too.

“What will your mother say? You did this on purpose to make me look bad!” Ms. Rinaldi snaps.

“I did not!” Stella says, too stunned to do more than shake her head.

“Oh yes, you did. I’ve heard stories about you…you ungodly child. This whole week, you’ve been nothing but a nightmare to me. But it ends today. You will not embarrass me in front of your parents. I will not have it.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Stella says, spine straight, jaw set.

“Don’t you dare talk back to me, child!”

“Or what?” Stella provokes.

“Spoiled brat!” Ms. Rinaldi swings her hand and slaps Stella across the face before we know what’s happening.

The sharp crack of the slap freezes me in place, causing my stomach to twist. This woman was hired to protect us,to keep us safe,yet she just hit my sister. Our parents never hit us. Not once. The very idea of a hand raised in anger was unthinkable in our house. And now, faced with it, I can’t even breathe. I just stand there, wide-eyed, too stunned to move, as if the world had tilted and I no longer knew the rules.

“You hit me?” Stella says, more surprised than anything else.

“And it was long overdue, you insolent child. Now get to your room and change before your mother sees you like this.”

However, Stella doesn’t move. Instead, she takes a step closer. “You hit me,” she says again, her gaze burning into the nanny.

“And I’ll do it again if you don’t move.”

Stella doesn’t flinch. Her hand rises, and she slaps Ms. Rinaldi square on her cheek, hard. Lucky chuckles nervously, while Anna and I freeze, our anxiety spiking.

“You will never lay another hand on me. If you do, I’ll kill you in your sleep,” Stella hisses softly, her emerald glare filled with venom.

Ms. Rinaldi’s eyes widen at the threat. Instead of backing down, she lunges at my sister, grabbing Stella by the shoulders and slapping her repeatedly, until Stella collapses onto the grass. Lucky rushes to intervene, but is shoved aside while a hard kick lands in Stella’s stomach.

I can’t move. Fear pins me to the spot. The world narrows to Stella’s gasping form and Ms. Rinaldi’s raised hand, while Anna cries into my chest.

Behind us, my parents’ party continues. The laughter, the music, the clinking of glasses, a horrid contrast to the violence happening just a few feet away from their midst.

Tears stream down my cheeks as Anna pleads, “Make the bad lady stop, Mar! Make her stop! Please! Stella!”

Still, I don’t move. My whole body is in a catatonic state, watching Ms. Rinaldi pull at my sister’s hair just to kick her in the stomach again.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” I hear my mother’s voice cut through the air like lightning.

Ms. Rinaldi freezes mid-kick, caught between rage and fear.

“I…I…“she stammers, fumbling for words.

My mother rushes to Stella’s side, with Enzo right behind her, making me realize that he fled to get our mother to help.

“Piccolina, are you alright?” our mother asks with concern while brushing a messy lock of hair away from Stella’s face. And when my sister looks up to nod that she’s okay, instead of sadness or hurt, all I see in Stella’s eyes is fury.

Once she’s satisfied Stella is fine, or as much as she can be after what just happened, my mother rises, storming toward the nanny. A thunderous slap lands across the woman’s cheek, my mother’s wedding ring slicing Ms. Rinaldi’s skin and causing blood to ooze from the cut.