At the Birthday Party, My Sister Brought Abortion Tonic

Foreword:

On the day of my birthday party, my sister brought me a gift.

Sis, ever since you came back to the family, you've taken such good care of me. Thank you.

Looking at that bowl of clear, glistening tonic, my eyes went a little warm.

We're real sisters. I don't need it. You drink it yourself.

Right there in front of everyone, my sister rolled her eyes and said something that left me stunned.

"Sis, you're the one who just had a miscarriage. I didn't have an abortion. Why would I need a tonic?"

The lively party went dead silent in an instant.

Antonia Farley's words left me frozen where I stood, cut clean through.

I'd been single since the day I was born, twenty years of it, and even my blind date was someone my parents had just set me up with. How could I possibly have had an abortion?

My mouth twitched a few times. I forced a light tone and asked, "Antonia, this isn't the place for that kind of joke, is it?"

But Antonia said coldly, "Sis, if you'd just cleaned up your own mess, none of this would be happening, would it?"

My parents jumped in the moment they heard her. "Enough, both of you, keep it down. And Sabina, how could you keep something this serious from us?"

I wanted to cry and couldn't. Looking at the smug expression on Antonia's face, I understood that only the person who wrongs you knows exactly how wronged you are.

Seeing my silence, Antonia put on a wounded look. "Sis, I made you a tonic out of the goodness of my heart, and here you are blaming me for it!"

My head was buzzing. I never imagined Antonia could lie so brazenly, staring me straight in the eye.

But I'd spent years clawing my way up from the bottom, and even though I'd only just been reunited with the Farleys, the instincts carved into my bones hadn't faded.

The mockery in her eyes told me everything.

My parents had arranged a blind date for me with the Head family's eldest son, which meant the Farley family would one day be mine to inherit.

Antonia, the adopted daughter, wanted to protect her place in this house and her claim to the Farley fortune. That was why she'd chosen this moment to come after me.

Before I could get a word out in my own defense, the blind date my parents had set me up with rounded on me. "Sabina Farley! I never imagined you were this kind of woman!"

"You put on such an act of being pure, wouldn't even let me hold your hand. You disgust me!"

I looked at this so-called eldest son of the Head family, and my gaze turned to ice.

I hadn't wanted the blind date in the first place. I'd only agreed because I'd just come home to the family and didn't want to embarrass my parents.

But now these two rotten fools were attacking me without even asking what had happened, and I saw right through these so-called great families.

And Antonia's whole little performance slammed shut the heart I'd finally started to open.

I couldn't be bothered with the Head family's eldest son and his barking, so I turned to Antonia. "Antonia, you accuse me of an abortion with nothing but your word. All you've got is one bowl of tonic?"

Antonia let out a cold laugh. "What else? Do you want me to scoop the thing they took out of your belly and throw it in your face before you'll admit it?"

"Stop making a scene, all right? Hurry up and eat it, it'll be cold soon."

I'd seen this kind of mudslinging trick far too many times.

At that, I gave a faint nod. "Dear sister, you really have given me a surprise."

Antonia thought I'd given up resisting for good, and laughed with real satisfaction. "It's only because you went and did something so filthy, Sis. I was worried about your health."

I looked calmly at the Head family's eldest son shouting about calling off the engagement, at my parents' faces gone dark, and at the ring of high-society onlookers around us.

I'd already made my decision.

So the so-called great families were nothing but scum wearing a coat of noble skin.

How was the way they behaved any different from us, the people who scraped along in the streets?

"Mom, Dad, do you think I'm dirty too?"

I looked at my parents, asking their position one last time.

My father's face was livid. "Sabina Farley! I truly regret ever taking you back! You've dragged the Farley name through the mud!"

My mother's brows were knotted tight as well. "Sabina, how could you do something so shameful?"

Fine.

I had my answer. So then, are you all ready to face my revenge?

It's only the Farley family, and yet they'd let their adopted daughter sling filth at me like this. Do they really not know how I earned the name Reckless Sabina?

"Fine! You're the ones who started playing this game!"

"Then let's see who plays it better!"

With that, I walked out of my own birthday party without looking back.

"Sis, what's the matter? You're not going to drink the tonic?"

Antonia was still holding that bowl of tonic, her voice dripping with mockery.

The Head family's eldest son pointed at me and roared, "Sabina Farley! Today, on behalf of the Head family, I officially declare it: I'm calling off the engagement!"

Watching the scene fall into total chaos, my father bellowed in fury, "You dare walk out that door, and from this day on you don't get to carry the Farley name!"

But I didn't care about any of those voices.

I turned back to look at them all, so angry I laughed. "Heh. You're all something. We'll settle this when it counts."

Some of the guests watched me go, murmuring among themselves.

"That long-lost daughter the Farleys just took back has quite a background. If you ask me, the Farleys pushed this one too far today."

"Yeah, I've heard of her. Just some small-time street punk. What kind of waves can she really make?"

My parents and Antonia heard all of it too, but they only sneered.

Just like the guests said, a street punk, nothing more. How much trouble could someone like that stir up?

What they didn't know was that I wasn't some hungry-one-day, full-the-next little street girl. I was Reckless Sabina, the one who'd made the whole Downtown District of New York tremble.

Acknowledging the Farleys as my family was a favor to them.

I came to their house just to swallow this kind of treatment?

They all badly underestimated Sabina Farley.

The moment I walked out of the Farley mansion, I called one of my guys.

"Boss, weren't you off being a rich heiress? What do you have time to call me for?"

"Don't worry, the kids on Third Street and Sixth Alley all know you went off to play heiress. Every one of them's been keeping their heads down."

My voice came out cold. "Round everyone up. Every street leader on Third Street, every alley boss on Sixth. Anyone who doesn't show today can stop showing up for good."

The guy on the other end caught my tone and dropped the joking at once. "Got it, Boss."

Back at my home base, the heads of Third Street and Sixth Alley sat around me in a circle.

I laid out plainly what Antonia and my parents had done, then said nothing more.

"Damn it! The little Farley family really is done living!"

"Boss! I'll go hack every one of them down right now!"

A hulking man over six and a half feet tall, all quivering fat, shot to his feet and roared.

Another young man, pale-faced and refined, spoke up at once.

"What kind of world do you think this is? Still hacking and killing?"

"Boss called us together. She's obviously already made up her mind. What are you rushing for?"

Bruno Marsh bellowed. "Pretty Boy! If Boss hadn't saved you back then, you'd still be off farming in some backwater ditch right now!"

"Boss gets treated like this and you don't feel any heat at all?"

Julian Vance's face flushed. He shot up, worked up. "Say Pretty Boy to me one more time. Go on."

I waved a hand, irritated. "Both of you, sit down!"

"The Farleys want to play games with me, then I'll play along."

"They say I had an abortion? There's no smoke without fire. Go dig into it."

"And every one of the Farley freight depotstomorrow you blockade the gates. If even one of their trucks makes it out, don't blame me for showing no mercy."

They nodded, grave, every set of eyes fiercer than the last.

That night, countless people from Third Street and Sixth Alley poured out.

What waited for the Farleys would be nothing short of ruin.

Early the next morning, before I'd even woken up properly, my phone rang.

"Sabina Farley! The Heads have officially announced they're calling off the engagement with the Farleys! Look at what you've done!"

"And now you're hiding? So you think it's shameful too, do you!"

"Get home right now. Mom and Dad are already getting ready to take you to apologize in person."

Antonia berated me over the phone like she was scolding some misbehaving kid.

"Antonia. The Farleys' housekeeper's daughter. Your dad's a security guard at some apartment complex. Your mom spent a few nights with Arthur Farley and now she really thinks she's some heiress?"

I called out Antonia's origins without a shred of politeness. That was what my people had dug up the night before.

The rage in her voice stalled, like a punctured ball. "Sabinawhat are you talking about?"

"It's your business anyway. I was just being kind and giving you a heads-up. If you don't appreciate it, forget it."

Antonia hung up fast, but I had no intention of letting her off.

From start to finish, she was the one jumping back and forth in the middle of all this.

Now she realized she was wrong?

Too late.

Ding-dong

My phone chimed with a notification. A video.

In it, in a hospital corridor, a figure in a gray sun mask slipped furtively into the OB-GYN clinic.

Well, well. So it was the guilty one crying foul first.

And right then, my dad called.

I hesitated a moment, then picked up one second before it would have rung out on its own.

"Sabina Farley! Antonia called you alreadywhy aren't you back yet? Who do you think you are? Do we have to come drag you here ourselves?"

On the other end of the line, my father was in full blustering-patriarch mode.

I pursed my lips and didn't bother arguing.

Antonia had clearly gone crying to him about me again.

His stern-father act, all that weight he was throwing around, didn't scare me in the slightest.

I'd knocked around long enough to know this type. Loud on the outside, hollow on the insideI'd seen plenty.

Handling them is simple. The first time one bares his teeth, you crack him hard across that mangy mouth. After that, he'll flinch and cover it the second he sees you coming.

I said flatly,

"Enough. Save the impotent roaring. This is all about the precious Farley face, isn't it?"

"We'll settle it face to face. Sit tight and wait for me."

The calm reply threw him. He froze, then his voice climbed, red-faced.

"Sabina Farley! Have you lost your mind? How dare you talk to me like"

I hung up. I had no patience left for his shouting.

I didn't call in my crew. I just drove myself over to the Farley mansion.

Inside, my father sat sprawled across the couch, chest heaving. Antonia and my mother stood off to the side, tense, terrified of setting him off.

How impressive. The lord of the house, in all his glory.

"You still have the nerve to show your face? If you hadn't pulled that filthy stunt, the Heads never would have called off the engagement!"

"The market opened today, and Farley Group stock dropped two points! I know you've got some little business of your own out there. This lossyou're covering it!"

The moment I stepped in, he laid into me, cold.

Pfft

I actually laughed. "Are you all right? Stocks go up and downthat's the market. What does any of it have to do with me?"

Before he could answer, Antonia jumped in.

"How does it not? With the Head marriage on, Finance said the stock would climb at least ten percent!"

"If it weren't for you, would the group's stock have fallen instead of risen? You have to answer for this loss!"

I looked at Antonia, calm.

"Oh, so you've picked up finance now? Did that security-guard father of yours teach you?"

Her face went white in an instant.

"What security-guard father? I only have one father! Don't you slander me!"

My father's brow furrowed.

"Enough! Not a scrap of manners. You walk in the door and start fighting with your sister."

"We'll set that aside for now. Right now, you're coming with me to the Heads to apologize. Even with no proper standing, they have to take you in. We have to undo the damage this broken engagement has done to the group!"

I meant to lay it all out right there, but the three of them were hopeless. Wasting my breath on them would get me nowhere. Better to reach the Heads and settle the whole mess at once, in front of everyone.

So I didn't argue. I just nodded, as good as agreeing.

Seeing me give in, my mother brightened and came over to coax me.

"Sabina, that's my sensible girl. Don't worryyou've got decent looks, and the Head boy likes your type. Otherwise he never would have agreed to the match in the first place."

"If you're willing to go without a title, I'm sure the Head boy will take you in."

I flung her hand off with open disgust.

What kind of freak show was this family.

Pushing your own flesh-and-blood daughter to be some man's mistress?

How was that any different from shoving me into a fire?

I choked down my nausea and followed the three of them to the Head estate.

"Mr. Head, aren't your parents home?" My father swept the room with his eyes when we walked in, then turned to Victor Head, seated on the couch.

Victor lifted his eyelids, gave my father a glance, then started looking me up and down without a shred of restraint, his tone dripping with contempt.

"It's just taking on a mistress. You think I need my parents for that?"

"She's my type. As long as your daughter serves me well, I'll play along and let a few street shots of us get out. I just won't confirm it, won't deny itthat works, doesn't it?"

At that, my father lit up, not the least bit stung by the insult in Victor's words.

"Really, Mr. Head? That's wonderful! For you to take her in despite everythingthat's more luck than she's earned in several lifetimes."

Victor ate up the flattery, smiling.

"I'm an open-minded man. It's just a mistress. No need for anyone to feel guilty about it."

Then the smile dropped. He paused.

"But I have one condition."

My father nodded eagerly, fawning.

"Name it, Mr. Head. As long as we can manage it, forget one conditionwe'll grant ten."

Victor pulled that naked stare off me and said, flat,

"Just one condition. She goes for a full medical exam. I've already arranged it at the screening center under the groupit's closed to the public today."

"She's going to be my woman, after all. Wouldn't want her going out and embarrassing me."