The Whole Family Went Mad After I Stopped Sister's Game

On the day of our engagement, Amos Harris went off to play hide-and-seek with his autistic sister again.

The elders had been waiting a long time up front, so I found Amos on the balcony and started pulling him back inside.

Get engaged first. Don't keep everyone waiting.

We hadn't even made it off the balcony before the girl came barreling straight into me.

"Bad, bad, the bad person who won't let Lily play her game."

I was standing too close to the railing. There was no time to react.

My whole body tipped backward over it.

My back slammed hard into the flowerbed, and a crowd came hurrying down.

Lillian crouched beside me, balling up her little fist and driving it into my cheek.

"Bad person, bad person."

Amos gently closed his hand over her fist, and the look he gave me was reproachful.

"I was in the middle of a game with Lily. Why did you have to come cause trouble for no reason?"

Then he turned back to soothing her.

"Stop hitting. You'll hurt your hand."

Everything ached. I struggled to grab hold of him, to stop him from leaving.

He pulled free of me in one motion.

"Just lie here and take a minute. I'll finish the game with Lily first, or she'll be miserable all day."

My parents watched Lillian bounce along behind Amos, playing her game.

They smiled at her, warm and doting.

The rest of the guests didn't even glance at me. They followed the two figures back into the hall.

The same as so many times before.

If this was how it was, then finecall the engagement off.

...

The painkiller had just started to take effect.

The door to the hospital room opened.

Amos's eyes landed on the hanging IV bag, and he paused.

"You got hurt?"

I nodded.

"I fell. Cracked a rib."

His brow eased a little.

"If only I'd caught it in time back there."

He rarely ever admitted he'd done anything wrong.

Something in me loosened. I thought he really understood he'd been in the wrong.

The next second.

"It's just a cracked rib, though. It's nothing."

"In a bit you'll check out and go apologize to your sister. She didn't get to finish her game because of you, and she's been throwing a fit at home."

"She says unless you play horsey and let her ride you, she won't eat a thing."

Playing horsey is a deeply humiliating game.

You get down on all fours on the floor while someone sits on your back, and you carry them along step by step.

He patted my shoulder as if to comfort me.

"Once she's had her fill, I'll have a talk with her, get her not to make trouble at our next engagement."

I pushed his hand away, my chest packed tight with something I couldn't let out.

"I'm getting engaged to you, and I'm the one who has to go begging her?"

"At the engagement you shoved me aside because you were scared she'd get upset. I got hurt and you didn't even look at me, you just ran off with a whole crowd to fuss over her."

"You care about her this much, then go and"

I didn't get to finish. The door burst open again. Lillian came charging in clutching a doll, puffed up with anger.

She swung the doll straight at my face.

"Sister's bad, sister's mean."

The IV needle was yanked loose, and my head throbbed with each blow.

I grabbed the doll, trying to wrench it away and throw it aside.

Amos dragged me straight down onto the floor.

"Lily, don't be angry. You wanted to ride the horse, didn't you?"

My chest hit the ground hard.

Lillian plopped down onto my back, her body bobbing up and down.

Her voice was bright with delight.

"Ride the horsey, ride the horsey."

Afraid I'd fight back, Amos pressed his hand down hard on the back of my neck.

"Right now the most important thing is that Lily's happy. Let her play a while."

"As long as Lily's happy."

So, as long as she was happy, whether I lived or died didn't matter.

My eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

The promises he'd once made surfaced in my mind, tangled with the laughter on my back.

It turned utterly grotesque.

At least now I saw it clearly.

There was no telling how much time had passed.

The door to the ward opened.

The nurse cried out.

"What are you doing to her?"

"Doctor, Doctor"

She didn't care who Amos Harris or Yvonne Henson were. She pushed them off me with her own hands.

Then she came to check on me.

When she saw I was in too much pain to even make a sound, her anger sharpened.

"This patient has a cracked rib. Are you trying to kill her?"

Amos stepped back and steadied Yvonne.

He hadn't heard a word the nurse said.

"Susie, Lily isn't having fun here."

"Go and check yourself out right now."

"Once we're home, once Lily's had her fun, then you can get engaged to me again."

The nurse looked at him like he was insane.

"Amos."

I called after him, quietly.

My voice was as soft as it had always been.

"Whether she's happy has nothing to do with me."

"I'm hurt. And even if I weren't, I'm not getting down on the floor for her to ride again."

"You used to let her ride you like a horse. Why not now?"

So he was bringing up the past, too.

When my sister was diagnosed with autism, everything at home changed.

Mom said,

"Your sister isn't like normal children. You have to give in to her."

"She only took a few of your things. You're her big sister."

"Whatever your sister wants, you give it to her"

She wanted to ride a horse.

So Mom and Dad pinned me down on the floor.

My knees, my arms, scraped raw against the ground over and over.

If I resisted even a little, she'd shriek that she wasn't happy.

And Dad would grab hold of me.

He'd let her claw and take it out on my body.

Amos came to my school and walked in on it many times.

He never made Yvonne leave right away. He stayed and coaxed her instead.

"Be good, Lily. Big brother will give you candy. Just don't make your sister be your horse, okay?"

He'd help me settle her down.

After that, she spent every day waiting for him to come.

That memory, of being treated like I wasn't a person, I'd buried it deep.

Now it was awake again.

"She's your sister. She just wants to play a little. Can't you stop being so precious about it?"

Yvonne was still cheering off to the side.

"Horsey, ride the horsey."

"Horsey."

She called out, and reached again to yank my hair.

I twisted around and pulled her long hair, hard.

For the first time she felt pain. She let go at once, clutching her head and wailing.

"Bad person, my hair hurts."

I looked at Amos, cold light in my eyes.

"Yes, I'm being precious. If you're not, then you get down and be her horse."

Amos glared at me and reached out to stroke Yvonne's head.

"Your sister's bad. She's a bad sister."

"Big brother will take you out to ride a real horse."

The ward finally went quiet.

The doctor examined me.

The crack had gotten worse.

The next time it took any pressure, it could easily become a full fracture.

I closed my eyes, wanting to rest.

But the company's management called me one after another.

"Ms. Black, the president says he's taking leave. He wants you to come in and hand off the work."

"Ms. Black, get to the office quickly. Don't hold up the handover."

"Ms. Black, the West End project is about to start. You need to hurry"

Mom and Dad sat in the conference room.

Fussing gently over Yvonne.

"We'll leave in a day or two. You want to go to Miami? We'll go and have all the fun you want."

Amos said with a smile,

"A friend of mine has a stable there. I can take you to ride the ponies."

So they'd hounded me out of the hospital like it was life or death.

All of it just to go on a trip.

"Mom, Dad, I'm hurt."

"Can't you put off the trip a little and let me recover?"

Whenever Yvonne wanted to go off and play, they'd drop everything and dump the company on me too.

I was still a kid who should have been growing.

Instead I started staying up late, studying, reading files.

Meetings, studying, and then scheming against a room full of crafty old men.

This was the first time I'd ever spoken up against them.

Amos's hand paused on Yvonne's hair.

Are you never going to let this go?

He looked at me with pure resentment.

When Mom looked at me, it was with the same displeasure.

Recover from what? You just took a little fall.

You can walk out of the hospital on your own, so obviously nothing's really wrong.

Your sister's had autism for years now. Would it kill you, as the older one, to give in to her a little?

Dad wouldn't look at me. He smiled and pinched Yvonne's cheek.

Your sister's this selfish already. Once we're gone, who knows how she'll treat you.

Your sister's really no good. Mom and Dad are going to take you on a nice trip.

Whatever our Yvonne wants, our Yvonne gets.

They shut me out, took her by the hand, and walked away.

The assistants who'd been waiting outside rushed straight in.

Files and work closed in around me.

By nightfall.

Mom sent me a message.

Yvonne isn't happy just looking at you.

Stay at the company. Don't come home.

My chest was so tight I could barely breathe.

Mom, I need to rest.

Yvonne needs to rest too.

You're a grown adult. Why fight with your sister over nothing?

The time you spend at the company at night, you can get more work done.

The call ended.

The pressure hanging over this family left me unable to catch my breath.

I buried my head in my arms.

Early the next morning.

The company was in an uproar.

An assistant rushed into my office:

Ms. Black, a bunch of strangers just showed up, and they're running wild all over the workstations.

I saw the second young miss too.

I rubbed my aching brow and pushed the door open. Yvonne was clapping away.

Rip it, rip it.

Paper scraps are fun, so fun.

The employee whose contract had been shredded looked ready to cry.

I stayed up all night finishing that, and she just deliberately broke the computer I had it backed up on.

Can't they go play somewhere else?

I was so furious my breathing went ragged.

Where's security?

Why aren't they stopping this?

Who even are these people?

Amos stood outside the crowd, looking pleased:

I held security back.

Yvonne's finally willing to make friends. It's just a few of your files.

They're at a rowdy age. Don't make such a fuss.

The friends Yvonne had brought were already reaching their claws toward the other computers.

I pulled out my phone.

A rowdy age, is it?

So what if she's sick? We're all adults. No one has to give in to anyone.

I reported it straight to the police department.

Yvonne's eyes flickered, and she charged right at me.

Bad guy, the bad guy wants to let bad guys bully Yvonne.

I stepped back and dodged her.

I didn't expect her to just fall flat on the floor.

She burst out crying.

Amos rushed over and helped her up.

He looked at me like he wanted to tear me apart.

Susan Black, can't you stop bullying your sister for once?

I turned my face away.

The police department came fast and had the troublemakers under control in no time.

Only afterward did I learn they were all patients from a psychiatric hospital nearby.

None of them were mentally sound.

All the police could do was warn them; they had no authority to take any real action.

They couldn't even detain Yvonne.

After giving my statement, I got ready to leave.

Amos actually snatched my keys right out of my hand.

Yvonne wants to go home now, but she doesn't want to see you.

Find your own way back.

Before I could say a word, the car door closed.

I watched the car pull away, and the last shred of feeling I had for him vanished for good.

Seven that evening.

My assistant picked me up and brought me back to the company.

The staff had spent the whole afternoon and finally rebuilt the ruined files.

I gave them the day off.

I just wanted to breathe, to rest a little.

But the call from home came.

Susan Black, if you're not back by nine, don't bother coming home at all.

My assistant drove me over.

The car reached the mansion, but there was no getting it inside the gates.

Security stopped me.

"Sorry, Ms. Black."

"Your father and mother revoked your access. You're not allowed onto the property now."

My assistant looked at me, awkward, at a loss.

"Boss, what do we do"

I pulled out my phone and called.

"Mom, have you had enough of this yet?"

"You want me home, but you won't even let me through the door."

At first there was only silence on the line. Then it turned into my mother's shriek.

"Lily! Why would you cut yourself with a knife?"

"Susan Black, what did you say to Lily on the phone?"

Before I could even make sense of it, security blocked my way.

A group of them hauled me out of the car.

Straight toward the mansion.

Inside.

The family doctor was bandaging Yvonne's wrist.

Amos Harris toyed with a small dagger, watching me with a grim, poisonous stare.

"No wonder Lily always says you're a bad person. Turns out it's because you're always driving her to hurt herself."

"I did no such thing."

Mom stepped forward and slapped me across the face.

"You didn't?"

"You didn't what?"

"When Lily did this, the only call she took was yours."

Dad glanced at the bodyguards.

"What the Black family values most is a harmonious household. Since you broke that on purpose, you'll accept punishment under house rules."

My face was pinned hard against the floor, the breath crushed out of my chest.

The pain in my ribs sharpened until every breath felt like torture.

What shamed me most was this.

The back of my shirt was cut open, and a female bodyguard held a lash soaked in salt water.

The men spread out.

The whistle of the whip, and then it came down hard.

Amos's voice drifted on the air.

"Susie, admit you were wrong and your aunt and uncle can still forgive you."

"From now on you just take good care of Lily."

I bit down and held on, all the way to the last stroke.

Mom and Dad had already gone to comfort her.

I was dragged to the dark room where I used to face the wall and reflect on my sins.

Drifting in and out, I felt my phone buzz.

I struggled to work it free and answered.

It was my capable assistant.

"Boss, we've finished looking into what you asked for."

"And whatever ties you had to the Black family, this time they're truly finished."