My Toxic Family is Built Different

"Wren. She's about to accuse you of something. Quick, slap yourself first!" That's my brother. Every single person in my family is a faker. I'm the only normal one.

So when my dad's kid from an affair came at me, I skipped that part. I stepped forward and slapped her instead. The crack of it went all the way up the stairs. She froze.

Then one hand came up to her cheek and her eyes filled all the way to the rim. "Sis, I'm sorry.

I didn't come here to break up this family… I just wanted a family so bad." She bit her lip. "But why did you hit me?" My parents came around the corner, saw the whole thing, and stopped dead.

Then they both shrieked like smoke alarms. "Where did this syrupy little snake come from?

She's trying to frame my daughter!" Chapter 1 My brother was crying into a phone for money the day Brielle Lane came pounding on our door. "Sabine, this is all my fault.

I never should have gotten in the way with Ben. He's the one who's right for you. As long as the two of you are happy, I can take a little hurt." His voice shook.

Wounded, but holding it in. "I'm not good enough for you. Maybe we shouldn't see each other anymore." My mouth twitched.

The woman on the other end of that call was Sabine Harrington. Old money. Worth about fifteen billion. We had money too. Eight figures, give or take. Not the same sport.

So the second my brother heard that Ms. Harrington's childhood friend was back stateside and the two of them were going to a gala together, he pulled the strategic retreat.

Again. "You're not scared she actually dumps you?" He shot me a smug little wink and looked me over like I'd disappointed him. "What would you know?

You've got the instincts of a houseplant. A man who cries never goes hungry." Right on cue, his phone chimed. Deposit confirmed. One hundred thousand dollars.

A message came in right behind it. Ten minutes. I'll be outside your gate. I gave him a thumbsup and stared at that number like it owed me something. "Look at you.

Kept man of the year." "Easy money." He tipped the screen toward me. "You want in? I'll teach you. Moneyback guarantee." I turned him down flat.

I'd spent my whole life watching this stuff up close and none of it ever stuck. Some people just aren't built for it.

That was when the pounding started downstairs. "Let me in!" My brother and I looked at each other and headed out to the landing.

A girl in a white sundress stood at our front door with two of the security detail blocking her. We stared at her. Then we stared at each other.

Neither of us liked where this was going. "…That's not my future sisterinlaw, is it?" My brother flicked me hard in the forehead.

He had the face of a coach watching his worst player. "What is wrong with you? Look at her. Who does she look like?" I studied her for a second. "Huh. You." My brother said nothing.

Down at the door, the girl threw her chin up and yelled. "I'm a Lane by blood! You can't throw me out!" Oh. So that's what this was.

Then again, my parents both had their runningaround days, and they were about evenly matched. Which left exactly one question. Whose was she?

Chapter 2 "So what do we do?" I turned around.

My brother was crouched at my feet with both arms over his head. "What are you doing?" His face was grim. "Those ten minutes are almost up.

I can't have her getting the wrong idea." Downstairs, the girl had already pushed her way into our entry hall.

She turned a slow circle, taking in the ceilings, and she wasn't hiding any of it. Not the envy. Not the resentment.

Then she spotted me at the secondfloor railing. "Sis, why won't you come down? Am I not welcome?" My brother hissed from somewhere around my ankles. "Wren, listen to me.

Nine times out of ten, a girl like that is a faker. You can't handle her." I pressed a hand to my forehead. "It's not nine times out of ten.

It's ten out of ten." It didn't matter whose affair produced her. Either way, she'd inherited it. It runs in the blood. Downstairs, she was still standing in our entry hall.

Nobody had asked her to leave yet. Both my parents grew up in the same dirtroad town in Kentucky. Both got into an Ivy on a full scholarship. Neither one planned to stop there.

They built the whole thing themselves, and they built it on sugar. Within a few years they were moving through oldmoney circles like they'd been born in them.

Dad sold himself as the son of an East Coast political dynasty. Mom sold herself as the only daughter of oil money. Beautiful boy, beautiful girl.

They fell for each other fast, and each one thought they'd landed a rich catch. Right up until the week before the wedding, when it all came out. They weren't just both lying.

They were from the same town. Dad ground his teeth. "No wonder you looked familiar. Fate, my ass. You're Bobbie Jean Slocum.

You stole our chickens." "Dwight Skeeter Puckett." Mom didn't even blink. "You think you're all dressed up like somebody.

You still stink like a chicken coop, and no amount of scrubbing is ever getting it out." They screamed at each other all night. Too late, though. Mom was already pregnant.

Boygirl twins. They'd also put away a decent pile by then, and the business was just getting off the ground.

So they thought about it, thought about it some more, and decided to let it go and build a family instead. Having us didn't slow them down any. Kids are expensive.

Mom would shut herself in the bedroom and pitch her voice up small and sweet. "Baaaby, I want the pretty car. Will you buy it for me?

Please?" Dad's voice would drop low and warm. "He treated you like that? The man's blind. Not me, sweetheart. All I do is worry about you." They spoiled us rotten anyway.

In our house, whatever their kids did was right. When I was five, my brother took a header down a full flight of stairs trying to catch me.

I held onto him and cried until my whole face was wet and I couldn't get a clean breath. He reached up and wiped my face. "Wrennie, don't cry. I'd do anything for you.

Just love me forever, okay?" Then, "Oh. Also.

I think a new action figure just dropped." Fiveyearold me hugged him and swore I'd make a lot of money someday and spoil him for life. He never needed a lesson after that.

Selftaught, and very good at it. The things he talked me out of over the years could have filled a room.

Then he reeled in the icequeen heiress who'd famously sworn off men, and I finally understood how deep it went with him. At least he had someone new to milk.

Which left one person in this house who couldn't fake a thing. Guess who was standing at the top of the stairs. Chapter 3 I gave Ms. Harrington about one second of sympathy.

Then I noticed my brother was gone. I called him. All I got back was the roar of a sports car engine. Behind it, a woman's voice.

Warm, and used to being obeyed. "Am I not good to you? Hm?" My brother yelped into the phone. "Wren, listen to me. Mom and Dad are almost home.

That little faker is going to accuse you of something. You have to slap yourself first!" Touching, honestly. Even in the middle of all that, he was thinking of me. He hung up.

I looked down at Brielle strutting around our entry hall, and none of it added up. She didn't look like a faker to me.

Fakers were supposed to be soft and sad and one blink from crying. Brielle lifted her chin.

Her eyes had an edge in them. "So you're the Lane heiress?" I hesitated, then took the stairs down with one hand on the rail. "So you're the affair kid?" That one landed.

Her face got uglier, and she quit bothering to hide what was in it. "What if I am? Just you wait, Wren Lane.

Everything you have right now, I'm taking back, piece by piece." I had no idea what she was talking about. What did I even have? A faker dad. A faker mom. A faker brother.

Was she here looking for her own kind? Out front, a key turned in the lock. Voices, laughing. My brother's warning came back to me.

Except I was pretty sure he'd just watched too many bad soap operas. Overreacting. As usual. There was no way my parents would take an outsider's side.

So I stepped forward and raised my hand. Brielle went still, wary. "What are you doing? You're going to frame me?" Then she scoffed. "Please. Those are tricks I outgrew.

You're nothing special." I raised an eyebrow. "Frame you? You think you're worth hurting myself over?" I swung. Crack. Her head snapped sideways.

A red handprint came up across half her face.

Her mouth fell open. "You… you hit me?" At the door, my parents took in the scene, and every shopping bag in their hands hit the floor at once.

The second Brielle had an audience, everything about her changed. Her chin came down. Her shoulders came in. Her hand floated up to her cheek.

A sob got out of her, wet and hitching. "Sis, I'm sorry. I didn't come here to break up this family… I just wanted a family so bad." She bit her lip.

Her eyes filled right on cue. "But, sis, why did you hit me?" That was the moment my brother stopped sounding paranoid to me. She really was a faker.

The words were barely out of her mouth before Mom came flying across the room. Brielle's shoulders came down. She had the look of somebody who had already won.

Mom grabbed my hand and blew on it. "Oh my god, baby. Did you hurt your hand?" Then she turned around and gave Brielle a small frown. "Is this the new help?

Since when do we take in strays?" Brielle damn near swallowed her own tongue. She turned to Dad with her eyes swimming. Chapter 4 "Dad, I'm your daughter.

Are you really going to throw me away?

I grew up with no father at all, and now my own sister can't stand the sight of me…" At that point a blind man could have told you whose affair kid she was.

Dad looked at that face with half of his own staring back out of it, and he had nothing. His mouth opened. Nothing came out for a long moment.

Then he turned to me, guilty as a dog on the couch. "Wrennie. Tell me what happened." I gave him my most innocent face. "She forced her way into our house.

She said she was going to take everything I have.

Then she slapped herself on purpose and told everyone I did it." My parents shrieked like smoke alarms, both at once. "Where did this syrupy little snake come from?

She's trying to frame my daughter!" Brielle looked around at all of us.

Getting slapped hadn't cost her half of what this was costing her. "I'm not— I'm not a faker." Her voice climbed. "She really did hit me!

Why won't any of you believe me?" Mom didn't even look at her. She turned to Dad instead. "Your affair kid, all right.

With genes like yours, drugstoregrade sugar is about all you were ever going to manage." Dad swallowed it. Then he called in the family's private physician and had a DNA test run.

Nobody in that room pretended to be surprised when it came back. She was his. Brielle used the opening. It had just been the two of them, she said, her and her mother.

Then her mother died and she came looking for her real father. She lowered her head. "I'm not asking to be loved the way my sister is. I just want somewhere to belong.

If my sister doesn't want me here, I'll go. I just don't want to make things hard for you…" Anywhere else, that would have had the whole room reaching for her.

Unfortunately, she'd walked into headquarters. I'd give her a Cminus. Mom rolled her eyes and told Dad to handle it himself. "You made this mess. You clean it up.

Leave me out of it." Brielle turned the hopeful look on Dad. Dad had a way of looking at a woman like he could drown in her. That look went straight to the floor.

Brielle twisted her skirt in both hands. "I only want to be part of this family. I won't take anything from my sister.

I just hope she can hate me a little less." I frowned. "You literally just told me you were taking everything I have." Her eyes skipped sideways.

Then she found her footing again. "Sis, how can you accuse me like that? I know you don't like me. But making up lies about me isn't fair." She should have left it alone.

That last part was syrup thick enough to snap Dad right out of it. He straightened up and got righteous. "Wrennie is too sweet. She can't handle someone like you.

You should keep your distance from her." Her jaw set and one corner of her mouth pulled wrong. For a second the act almost slid off.

She forced it back down and shot me a look with teeth in it. On her way past me, she dropped her voice. "Just you wait, Wren Lane." My hand shot straight up. "Dad! Mom!

She just said, 'Just you wait!'" Chapter 5