Chapter 15: Visual Aids

I was camped out on the love seat. I’d taken one of the panels from the folding closet door off and was using it as a makeshift workspace. I was normally okay with just sitting my laptop on a cushion or the loveseat’s arm, but I was going through everything I had. I’d printed various snippets and glued them to posterboards which were taped up along my shelves.

I glanced up at the television and the small glass jar next to it. I wasn’t sure why, but the handful of stolen dirt from my mother’s grave was important to me. I was going over the data I’d amassed while The Bitch stood around, “You’ve been down here for three days; since you came back from Boston.”

“I’m working.”

“We’re supposed to be fixing things and you’ve been hiding down here.”

“Again, I’m working and I’ve had plenty of visitors. Daisy and Helen both came down. Annie has been down here twice. Sylvie came down every day to talk and use her old weights. You’re the only one who hasn’t checked on me.”

She stared down the poster board I’d put up, “And the weird murder board type art project?”

“I’m mapping out everything I know about this mess.”

“Why does it have ‘bad parents’ under Helen and Daisy?”

“Cause it wasn’t just me. I thought that they were loving and involved parents with the rest of you, but they weren’t. That was my mistake. I received the full on ‘neglect’ package, the rest of you just got detached and not emotionally invested. They were withdrawn and disinterested in your daily lives. Helen just threw money at you and Daisy did what you directly asked her to cause it made her feel like she was a ‘good mom.”

“Walk me through the board.”

I sighed, “I’m working.”

“Please.”

“I can just gag you.”

“There aren’t any gags in your toy cabinet.”

“No, but I have socks and duct tape.”

“Walk me through it and I’ll wait quietly till you can pay attention to me.”

“Fine.” I pulled out my keys and pulled the laser pointer key ring off them. I used it to aim at the visual aid, specifically a diary page I’d found going through my father’s locked office.

“It starts with Dad. Dad was apparently an asshole. He found out Daisy and Minnie were mentally ill and took advantage, coercing them into a sexual relationship and made sure they became increasingly dependent on him for decision making. Their family having the weird incest tradition was a bonus. I don’t know if he planned on fucking his daughters, but I know he like the twin experience.”

I aimed at a photo of Helen, “Helen fell for Daisy; Dad used that to coerce her into joining the weird poly thing. He wanted her for that family money of hers and the business acumen, not to mention the ass. I’ve had it and it is worth the hype.”

I aimed at a photo of James with an accompanying diary page, “James was a bully back in high school; like you. He shit on Dad. Dad wanted revenge. Dad had Minnie pretend to fall for James. James and Minnie got married and Dad made sure James raised Dad’s kids ... specifically Marky Mark and I assume he intended the same for me and Connie.”

I aimed in a downward stroke over the words ‘Caught’, “Divorce”, and “Separation.” Then I spoke, “Dad and Minnie got caught fucking by douchebag James. James got pissed and threatened to go public. They divorced, but James was allowed in on the ‘family tradition.’ Basically, Dad planned to pimp you out. Minnie got cut off and divorced and ended up using. Dad died. Daisy took me, Jenn took Connie. Minnie sobered up and tried to get us back.”

Then I started pointing at printed texts, “This pissed all of them off; Daisy had decided I was ‘hers’ and wanted to fight Minnie taking me back. Helen was pissed cause Daisy was. James started encouraging them to cast Minnie out and using the existing ire to further his end. It worked. Minnie gets disowned. She goes to Boston and starts using again. Connie disappears, Minnie dies. James is informed, but doesn’t care.”

“From there, emotionally neglectful parents are encouraged to ignore one of their kids. Probably because of Daisy’s disorder, she was quick to buy into the Alpha Male/Toxic masculinity shit James used to make them ignore my very valid concerns. You pull your bullshit. Heather dies. I hit you. I get thrown down here and everything compounds. James encouraged everything the whole way. He wasn’t even particularly subtle; you joining in on the ‘shit on Silver’ bandwagon made it easier. Faced with emotional abandonment I withdrew and built my own support system. The truth is I wouldn’t have been willing to listen if one of you did reach out ... I was too angry and hurt.

The question I don’t have an answer to is ‘why?’ Is it cause he just didn’t like me? Cause he wanted to pay Dad back for his sins? Did he just want unfettered access to the available teen pussy? I’m going to have to talk to him and find that out, before I send him to jail.”

“Jail? Can you really do that? What about Mark?”

I aimed the pointer at the last board, “Let’s start with our wannabe alpha uncle/stepdad. James has been embezzling since the day after Dad died. So, I can turn him in. He’ll go to one of those white-collar golf course prisons or I can turn in the tape of him trying to rape Daisy and send him to a lower quality prison and get him labeled as a rapist.”

“Which one are you going to do?”

“The former. Though I’ll need Helen to hire one of those PR firms to do a blitz on him and maybe find some more leverage, so he doesn’t send Helen, Daisy, Pete, and Jenn to jail too. Oh and you and Sylvie too.”

“I haven’t committed any crimes.”

“That’s a lie. Even if you ignore what you did to Heather which violated a few laws and would’ve opened you up to a wrongful death suit if her parents weren’t the lowest kinds of trash and your attempt to rape me ... you’re an adult. Incest is a felony in Massachusetts with a 20-year sentence possible. Trust me I looked it up. Not to mention, you, Sylvie, Daisy, and Helen all slept with Annie when she was 15. That’s a felony too. I didn’t touch her till she was legal. That also assumes he doesn’t point out the child abandonment issues regarding that first vacation too.”

“James did all that too, well, Annie never let him touch her. He fucked me and Sylvie though.”

“Which is why she is my favorite.” I watched her eye take a sudden turn towards sad, “It was a joke. Honestly, Sylvie seems to be trying the hardest. James spills the beans; he goes down for it too; which is why I don’t want to send him to jail for the rape. I don’t want to give him a reason to go scorched earth. He needs to have more to lose if he pisses us off.”

“Isn’t that a risk either way?”

“Yes, but he’s self-serving and three years in a minimum-security prison would be easier than potentially a lifetime in a normal one with a sex offender label. He’ll likely fall in line, particularly if we don’t make him give up the assets he stole. If Helen covers the amount out of pocket that is.”

“What about Mark?”

“That depends on you.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Do you want him to go to jail for trying to rape you?”

“Wouldn’t he just reveal everything too?”

I sighed, “I don’t know. If he doesn’t go to jail for that I’m not sure what to do. My next best option right now is Helen covering his college in exchange for quietly going away, but there isn’t anything to prevent him from coming back or trying to blackmail you people. I can probably work up some fake documents and put them on his laptop, phone, and cloud storage to discredit him. That plus some bribery might work. Scrubbing the legitimate stuff like your family fun discord server will be harder.”