Liesl was in the gallery working on a restoration piece when the sound of Sandy’s voice carried into the back room.
“Not again,”she muttered furiously.
By the time she got to the front,Mallory and two other guards were already there,and they were forming a barrier between the sisters.Janka was behind the counter with a customer standing at the end with a startled look on her face.
Sandy pulled a gun and held it out with trembling hands.
“Aw shit,”Mallory grunted as he put his huge frame directly in front of Liesl.“Sandy,what are you doing?”
“He took everything from me so I’m going to take everything from him.”
“Who?”
“Isaias Machado.If Liesl hadn’t met up with him,my life would be perfect!He ruined everything.He loves her so much he can live without her and feel my pain.”
“You’re going to kill her?”
“Yes!She is going to die so he knows what it’s like.”
“Sandy,”Liesl tried to peek past Mallory’s shoulder on her tiptoes,“you can’t kill me.”
“Why not?You’re not my sister anymore,right?”
“You can’t kill anyone,sister or not.You’ll go to prison.”
“I’m already in fucking prison Liesl.I can’t travel.I can’t have sex.I’m stuck with Merlin’s stupid iron clad prenup thanks to Isaias giving him all the evidence of me cheating on Merlin.Merlin put me up in an apartment,but I know he has someone watching all the time.I can’t breathe Liesl.Isaias did this.He took my freedom away from me.”
“You did it yourself,”Mallory interjected.“If you weren’t such a horrible human being taunting,tormenting,and torturing Liesl all the fucking time,you wouldn’t be in this mess.You were the one who went after her husband because you wanted what she had.You can lie all you want and say Merlin wanted you and chased you hard but the minute she moved on with Isaias,you made a play for him too.You are a sick,demented bitch.”
“He needs to suffer too!I hate him.He didn’t have to get involved.”
“He told you if you continued to harass me,he would make sure the world knows who you really are.Did you think he lied?”Liesl asked,strangely calm about the entire situation.“Sandy,you want to kill me to get back at him.What about Mom and Fred?You would kill me knowing it would hurt them?”
“I’ve already lost them too!”
“Again,it was your doing for your family to shun you.Your behavior in trying to destroy your sister’s sanity and life caused the people who love you to alienate you.You’re done Sandy.Hand over the gun.”
“No.Not until I put a bullet in her brain.”
“Why?”Liesl questioned curiously.“Why do you hate me so much Sandy?Why?It’s been twenty-six years of you hating me and I don’t know why.If you’re going to kill me,shouldn’t I get to know why you hate me so much?”
“Because you’re everyone’s favorite.Everyone loves you more.You would make paintings and drawings,and everyone would gush over them,but nobody cared I could do math in my head from the time I was little.I was reading by the time I was three but who gave a fuck so long as Liesl was painting pictures and passing them out like candy to anyone who wanted one.For my birthday people gave me toys I was never going to play with because they didn’t know anything about me but you,they always gave you everything to inspire your creative mind.They gave me things like nesting dolls!”
“Yeah,because you used to add and subtract and multiply all the time.The dolls from auntie were meant to entertain you with adding and subtracting.Interactive and educational.”
She was peeking around Mallory’s arm and saw the shocked expression on her sister’s face.
“What?”
“They bought you things they thought you would want to play with.Eventually everyone stopped trying because you were an ungrateful bitch.I remember for your eleventh birthday granddad bought you tickets to the play Matilda at the theatre.He always said you were as smart as the kid in the show.You ripped them up in his face and said it was a stupid gift.”She stepped sideways to look at her,“Sandy,he thought he was getting you the best gift ever of taking you to a show so you could see how he saw you,as the really bright one and instead you tore it up.You wonder why everyone liked me better?It’s because I wasn’t a grade A bitch.”
When she lifted the gun angrily,Mallory easily reached out and grabbed it,disarmed it,and put it in his pocket.Sandy squealed and started throwing futile punches.He restrained her and held her hands behind her back.
“The camera caught everything.If you listen carefully Sandy,the cops were already called,and you can hear the sirens.You’re going to be arrested for attempted murder of your own sister.”
“No!Liesl I was kidding!Make them stop.”
“You think you can walk into a public establishment,with customers,”he waved to the woman standing there shaking next to Janka now behind the counter with one of the security agents protecting them,“waving a gun and threatening to kill your own sister and not be punished?Liesl doesn’t get a choice in this Sandy.This is a criminal matter,not civil.Attempted murder is a criminal offense.”
“No,no.Liesl,make them listen.
“Sandy,you just came in here,waving a gun and telling me I needed to die.You need psychiatric help.I’m done with you.I have a child to think about now and a fiancéwho loves me.I don’t need to keep trying to placate you and make you feel special or more important than me because your self esteem is in such tatters.I’m done.”
“I’m your sister!”
“That you just tried to murder!”Liesl screamed back,furiously losing her temper for the first time in a long time to the point she was yelling.“You came in here with a gun with the intent to kill me!Do you even understand how fucking depraved this is?I am not your sister anymore.You have been making my life a living hell since I was a child.I’m convinced this,”she pointed to the gun Mallory had now in his possession,“was always your end goal.This isn’t about Isaias.This is about you,hating me and being jealous of me to the point you want me completely gone.If you can’t get pleasure from torturing me anymore,then I may as well not be here,right?You were just using the excuse of Isaias.He gave you an out and you can use the pressure of what he did as your catalyst to shooting me,but it was always your end goal,wasn’t it?”Her heart thumped furiously as she waited for her sister to confirm her worst nightmares.
Suddenly Sandy’s face stopped the crying and snivelling and she stared at Liesl and calmly said,“yes.Exactly right.I hate you.You stole my parents,my brothers,my aunts,and uncles with your self-righteous,Liesl cannot do anything wrong attitude.Fuck you.I hope Isaias turns out to be a bigger cheating man whore than Merlin.For the record,I did blackmail him.He was wasted in the bathroom when I sucked his dick.I made sure I videoed it.Most of the time he fucked me he was limp dicked.I used to wait until after you two got back from a date night because I knew he would have taken his Viagra the night before.I wanted to hurt you,so I used faulty condoms to get pregnant to destroy your marriage.”
“You manipulative psychopath.”Janka finally spoke up.“You are legitimately insane.”
“Yes,and it’s going to be my plea defense when I’m in court for this.”
“Good luck,”Liesl snorted,“the cameras are still rolling.We have witnesses and you can’t simply create an insanity plea for murder.”
“Watch me.I’m really good.”
“I bet.You still forget there are cameras rolling.”
“I can argue they were tampered with.”
The cops burst through the door.Mallory held up the weapon,“I just disarmed her.She has admitted her plot to kill her sister.The cameras caught everything including her saying she was going to argue the cameras were tampered with.Can I suggest you take the video now to avoid this?We’ll be keeping a copy as it livestreams to our security office.”
Mallory turned and hugged Liesl tight,“Isaias is on his way.He was at the new house with the general contractor but he’s coming.Don’t worry.He’ll be here.”
