Chapter 9
Cora
The time on my broken phone screen reads just after seven p.m. Danny is supposed to be here soon and my window is unlocked. Dean's home. I can hear him and Glenda shouting at each other about some survey or property limit nonsense. They're always going at it. I swear Glenda knows he fucks his secretary and just takes it out on him in ways to make him miserable. If Danny fucked another woman, I'd chop his dick off.
I flip through the channels once more. There is nothing on. I've been bored all afternoon waiting for Danny to get here. He had some college admissions test or something. We were supposed to go to OSU together, but he got a scholarship to Michigan. Nothing worse than going to a different college than your boyfriend, except when he chooses the rival school. I told him as much too, how I'd be embarrassed to even be seen with him on campus. I probably won't even tell anyone I date a guy who is a Wolverine.
"Cora Elaine!" Glenda's shrill beckons me, and I'm already rolling my eyes. I flip the TV off and toss the remote onto the glass coffee table. The leather squeaks as I pry my ass off the couch and stand. My knees hurt, bent in the same position for too long, so I take a moment to stretch before I answer her, and she acts like I'm the worst person in the world. "My God, Cora, get in here!"
I want to scream a big "fuck you" but that would only earn me a backhand, so I move that direction. My toes sink into the plush throw rug. Soon I'll be living amongst poverty, or it will feel like that. This place is luxury to the max, and a college dorm--shared with some bitch I've never met--will feel more like prison. They have a ridiculous policy that freshmen have to stay on campus, but Dean makes enough money to pay for me to rent a house there. He could even bribe the administration to accept me even though I don't live on campus, but he wanted me to "learn from the bottom up." He says it will give me an appreciation for money and life. I say it will make me loathe him. At least he bought me the right to drive my own car. Some of his superpowers are still working on my behalf the way they used to when I was little--when he actually cared for me.
"There you are, dear." Glenda's nasally croon is too obvious. She's about to manipulate or force me into doing something she wants done, which I have no interest in doing.
"What do you want?" I make the mistake of having a tone in my voice that she doesn't like, and Dean is right there to correct me before I even finish the sentence.
"Cora Elaine Knapke, you will respect your mother." His scowl doesn't scare me. I'm nineteen now. Even if they back out and refuse to pay for my college, I will just move in with Danny in Michigan and eat the shame of being a Wolverine instead of a Buckeye.
"Sorry."
"Dear, we may have found a buyer for the car, so we'll need the keys to let him test drive it this week. Also--"
"What? It's my car!"
Glenda stares at me like I'm a three-headed alien. "No, dear. It was my father's car and we are selling it to pay for your college. Remember?"
I can't believe this is happening. It's so wrong on so many levels. If Gus hadn't died, they'd be paying for my college and everything in Dean's business would have been fine. Suddenly they see dollar signs, and I'm getting fucked up the ass worse that Jess and her stupid toy guns.
"That's not fair. You can't do that. Grandpa Gus--"
"Grandpa Gus didn't give you that car, young lady. I did." Dean glowers at me and shoves his hands into his pants pockets. "Like it or not, we are selling it and paying for your college with the money. Or we can just give it to Jess, who rightfully owns it."
"I hate you." I don't even try to hide my vitriol. My parents are horrible human beings with zero moral code. Some people think I should be thankful for my upbringing. I came from money. They're paying my college, sent me to the best private school. I think all I've learned is that money is God and without it the world doesn't rotate. So now, I'm stuck with no car, no money, and no desire to go to college or work for Dean's company at all.
"You'll thank us later when you're grown and understand how the real world works." Glenda crosses her arms over her pink Chanel suit, and her head bobs.
"I still don't see how I'll get around campus. I can't just walk, and I'm not doing public transportation."
"Well, I guess if you want a car you'll have to get those guns back from Jess." Dean pulls a hand from his pocket and drums it on the table. "And it'd be nice if you do that soon too."
"Why?" I'm annoyed. They expect me to go to that bitch and ask for my property back after they gave it to her? And what's the go anyway? Why do they need me to have the guns and not her?
"Because we said so. I think you go ask her for them, and if she doesn't cough them up, you take them. Just don't get caught." Glenda perches on the edge of a barstool and dangles one leg, her hot pink pump hanging from her toe.
"You want me to steal them?" I can't believe what they're suggesting. Is that how Dean built his business? Stealing?
"Don't think of it like stealing, Cora." Dean nods his head, nostrils flared. He looks around the kitchen and meet's Glenda's gaze. "It's not stealing if the property is rightfully yours."
"Yes. Think of yourself more like the repo man. She has something that belongs to you and you are going to repossess it." Glenda gets a smirk on her face, and I hear a noise upstairs, probably from my room. Glenda's eyes shoot to the staircase, but I don't think Dean heard it.
"I'm out. I am not going to steal the guns." I walk toward the stairs and pray Danny doesn't make any more noises. But Dean calls after me.
"Get those guns, Cora or you won't have a car for college. You hear that?"
I roll my eyes at him and march up the stairs in a huff. It doesn't make any sense to me why they don't want Jess to have the guns. They're right though; I do need a car for college. Still, stealing? What if Jess were to say something about the way they moved the car before the reading of the will? Where would that leave me in this mess? I don't want to go to prison before I even finish my degree.
I burst into my room to see Danny strewn across my bed. He's naked and stroking himself with his phone out. Moaning and panting noises vibrate out of the speakers. The curtain rod is lying on the ground next to the window--probably the noise I heard. I shut the door quietly and lock it before harshly whispering, "What the fuck are you doing?"
