“Anyway,” Kass stopped and guzzled a glass of wine before finishing her request, “I need some money.”
“Okay?” She didn’t understand. Surely Kass knew Karla wasn’t rich and didn’t have money like that.
“Well, Dad left all of us some money in his estate. Kel told me he’s been managing yours and that it’s doubled in the time he’s been investing.”
Again, she didn’t understand where Kass was going. “So?”
“So, dear sister, I need you to loan me some money. Though to be honest it may take a long while before you see it back. You should just gift it to me instead.” She grinned as if she weren’t actually telling her to give her money. They’d never been close to begin with, far from, so for her to act like asking Karla for money wasn’t a big deal really ticked her off.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Karla jumped to her feet. Hands curled into fists. “What makes you think I’d give you money?”
“No need to get all angry. I really need it. I’m your sister. How could you just ignore the fact I need you?”
The anger she’d been tamping down flared out of control. She moved away from Kass before she punched the slick smile off her face and started pacing around her sofa, mentally counting to ten and back. “You’re my sister and haven’t taken a moment to care about anyone but yourself in as long as I can remember. Kel and I have lived here for years, and you have ignored us both. Unless it’s something that benefits you, you don’t bother.”
Kass’s face twisted in rage. She jerked forward on the sofa, back arrow straight and nails curled into her knees. “Can you blame me? You two left me behind like a bag of day’s old garbage. I wasn’t good enough to be with the two of you.”
“That’s not true! You chose to stay with Laura.”
“She’s your mother!”
“She’s never acted like it! She’s never acted like family!” She hurled back. Pain and disappointment for the mother and sister she would never be close to loosened her tongue. “For that fact, neither have you.”
“So you deserted me?” Her bottom lip trembled as if she were getting ready to cry, but the fire in her eyes spoke of the anger she was trying for Karla not to see. “You leave me behind and take Kel, the only other sibling I have and get angry when I come here because I need you. No seas asi manita.”
“What do you mean don’t be like that?” She ground her teeth hard, waiting to hear the sound of her jaw breaking.
“I need you. Stop being such a bitch.”
“Dios mio!” She threw her hands up before slapping them down on the back of the sofa in front her. She clawed at the material to keep from launching herself at Kass and punching her in the face. She was not a violent person dammit! “You have some nerve. I’ve never asked you for shit. I’ve sent you Christmas cards. I’ve sent you birthday presents every year, hoping that you’d take a step to come closer to us. I’ve called you enough times through the years Kel thought you’d surely call me back at some point. You never did. I gave up trying. You say this now, but you never wanted to be with us. A part of us. It was what Kass wanted or nothing.”
“I’ve been busy. I have a life.” Her lips twisted in an angry pout, and her eyes shimmered with cool detachment.
“I don’t care. For too many years I was hanging on to every email I sent you. Every letter or card, hoping that you’d come or call or return my messages.” Fury bubbled up inside Karla. Her voice grew louder. Angrier. Rage threatened to make her say things she’d later regret. “But you didn’t. You have been very clear in what is important. And I am not it.”
“It doesn’t matter. The past is the past.” Kass lifted a shoulder with little care. “I need you now.”
“It matters to me. I don’t care how much you need money.” She hated that she sounded heartless, but she was through being treated like a convenience by Kass and Laura. “I don’t have money. And if I do have money, then it will go to my children.”
Kass opened her angry brown eyes wide. “What about me?”
“What about you?” Karla paced behind the sofa she’d been sitting on.
“What will I do?”
She turned to meet Kass’s angry glare with her own. “What most normal people to do earn money. Get a job!”
Stomping away from Kass and the conversation that had brought her blood pressure through the roof, she tried to ignore the pain pinching at her heart. She’d known that Kass wanted something. But it hurt, oh yes, it hurt to know that her sister cared so little. That she truly had only Kel when it came to family. She slammed her bedroom door closed and wrapped her arms around her waist. It was okay. Her babies would be able to depend on her. From the looks of it, Nate wanted to be a full time dad too. She hoped she could spare her children the past experiences she’d lived.