Free The Bitter End by Rue Volley

reminds me of Ryan so much it pains me.
    We stopped in the half circle and I let myself out as Ryan reached for me. I looked back wanting to ask him to come with me but knowing if he did it would not be easier, just harder and giving my Father another target. He truly hates Ryan now, as if he did not before. I mean prior to his/their arrangement , I am sure that Ryan was just a blip on the radar as far as my Father was concerned but now he was a focal point for my Father’s rage against me and he had made that very clear when he disowned me. He would have taken my last name too if it was allowed and I am sure he is looking into it. I know him too well as I know myself most days.
    The gardener stopped me as I walked up the steps and looked around. This house was as it always had been, built of cold stone and mortar. The steps beneath me were hard too. I had found that out when I fell down them playing once when I was lit tle and I lay there bleeding from the mouth as my Father stepped over me and let the nanny pick me up. I touched my lip and felt the small scar from it and then looked at the gardener.
    “Is he home?” I asked him and he looked back at the house and then to me.
    “Miss Beth, I would advise against it.”
    “As would I, ” I said as I passed him by and walked to the large doors. I looked up and saw the demon with his tongue hanging out above the door. It had scared me as a child until Mother made up a story for me that Father had sat for the likeness of it when it was made which made me giggle. I always thought it was funny that she chose a demon to represent him, as a child I thought it was her being humorous, now I know it was a warning she was leaving behind for me to understand. He would always be a fucking demon for me, alive or dead, and I knew it more now than ever.
    The maid opened the door up and smiled at me quickly but it faded as Miko stood on the large steps behind her, steps that always reminded me of a museum and this house is just that, a museum full of collected things by him, trophies and nothing more. I guess I was not good enough to remain among them even before I truly turned on him. I sighed as Miko called out to the maid.
    “Let her in.”
    I stepped in as the maid held her hands out and I removed my coat and handed it to her. I adjusted my hair and my skirt as Miko walked down the steps slowly as if she was savoring her claim to this place. She does own it now and him. She has won everything with one incision and two boys who now held the keys to everything.
    She stopped about 10 feet from me and looked me over. I waited for some venomous shit to spill out of her but none came, just a stare that could wake a dead man. I cleared my throat and it echoed a bit as I looked up at the chandelier I always dreamed of swinging on as a child and never did.
    “Do you not eat anymore?” she asked me and I looked down at her and smiled.
    “I eat, as much as I always have.”
    “You were always a bit picky, too bad it did not carry over to choices in lovers.”
    There it was. Finally a good kick in the teeth by her that told me she was exactly as she had been, a snake and very poisonous.
    “Well, we all make out choices and then have to live with them.”
    She grinned and looked me over.
    “That we do. So why are you here?” she asked and I adjusted my weight from one heel to the other.
    “I came to see Father.”
    She laughed and it echoed in the large entryway. I then noticed her pearls had grown from two strands to 6. Evidently popping out two boys gets you more shit.
    “Nice pearls, ” I said as I followed it with a grin that she had seen before. My ‘fuck you whore’ one. She smiled back and if we had knives I am sure we would be on the floor trying to stab each other.
    “Your clothing looks used, second hand shopping now?” she asked me and I stepped towards her as Father entered the room and I stopped and looked at him, so dreading the reason I came now.
    “Beth?” he