She had stepped through the door and was stalking me, forcing me to move backwards until I hit the glass wall of the elevator in the middle of the room. Sinclair was beside me, keeping a wary eye on Elena but he was letting her get it out and I thought that was good of him.
“Then you took Christopher and turned him into a fucking psychopath. He was good to me before you corrupted him. He took me to museums and festivals, he read to me and so patiently taught me English even though I sucked at it. Then you grow those God damn tits and suddenly he only has eyes for you,” she sneered at me. “You practically begged for his attention and yet you go crying to the twins as if he raped you. Do you know what that made him do? Do you know what a man goes through when he is accused of rape? It turns him into that fucking animal.”
“Elena,” I breathed, because she was confirming my worst imaginings.
“Yes, Giselle. Christopher couldn’t have you but he could have me, even when he didn’t want me and he raped me for six God damn months.”
My heart was beating in my throat and my sensitive stomach was thrashing against my other organs violently. I needed to throw up so badly that my entire body shook.
“Elena,” Sinclair said quietly, authority still clear but calm in his voice. “Please, take a deep breath and let’s talk about this privately.”
I had forgotten that we had an audience.
Apparently, Elena didn’t care.
“Finally, years later I find a man that I care about, that cares about me. I get out from under the weight of Christopher, of that stinking fucking Naples and all that poverty and actually make a life for myself. And what do you do? You show up and fucking. Ruin. Everything. Again!”
Elena moved forward so quickly that Sinclair couldn’t stop her. She grasped my shoulders and brought my head back sharply against the glass wall as she shook me.
“He leaves you for me and now Margot tells me that you are GOD DAMN PREGNANT?”
“Elena, please,” I said, trying to ignore the ache echoing out from the base of my skull. “I am so, so sorry.”
“Elena,” Sinclair said his voice cutting into her so hard that she flinched a full foot away from me, releasing her grip before she could even consciously be aware of it. “You will not touch Giselle like that. I understand that you are angry, rightfully so, but you do not touch a woman, your sister or a pregnant woman like that, for any reasons.”
“Fuck you, Daniel. You are just as bad as that slut and everyone is going to know it.”
Sinclair vibrated with fury and it was Elena’s turn to retreat backwards as he moved closer. She may have played at being a predator but Sinclair was the ultimate alpha wolf and her man handling of me had caused him to shed his thin veneer of civility.
“If you think that you can come into my house and hurt my woman, physically, mentally or emotionally, then you are just fucking stupid. We hurt you. Fuck, if we don’t feel that regret every day. There is nothing to do for it but apologize, but empathize. We have kept as far away from you as we can and allowed you to treat us, particularly Elle, with absolute cruelty. That is done now. I hurt you, Elena. It was me who did this and me you should be angry with just as it is Christopher that you should be angry at. Not your little sister. Have you ever thought that treating her like shit for her entire life may have led her to this? Maybe she would have tried harder to resist if you’d given her any kind of love or warmth over the years.
As it is, I’m fucking glad she didn’t because she is mine now and no one messes with her, not even you, not even if you think you deserve to. So, get out of our fucking house and stay away unless you can pretend to be fucking civilized.”
His voice was not loud like Elena’s had been, or coarse with excess of emotion. Instead, it was stripped of anything but cold, cold malice and I watched as every word hit Elena like a physical blow. In the end, she stood shaking in the doorway, her eyes skirting over the entire space, over our collection of friends including Cosima and Sebastian in the living room, before they landed on me again over Sinclair’s shoulder.
“You took everything from me,” she breathed, so broken that it was painful to look at her. “And somehow, I’m the bad guy.”
I wanted to say something but the bile in my stomach had finally flooded over and when I went to open my mouth, I threw up all over the floor.