5,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
This book both keeps the mind and heart going as each page leads you down a path uncommon. People who think they know the ending will be left completely blindsided! The mystery of today's relationships is changed and and challenged amongst trust and friendship.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Ähnliche
THE LIAR ABOVE
TIMOTHY DIGAETANO
Timothy Digaetano
The Liar Above
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2023 by Timothy Digaetano
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Published by BooxAi
ISBN: 978-965-578-272-1
CHAPTER1
“I can’t believe you!”
Yana paused while brushing her hair, aware of the argument brewing behind the bathroom door. She stood silent, listening intensely to hear if she needed to intervene.
“I need you to get out of my business!”
With a sigh, she set down the brush and hurried out to the kitchen. It seemed impossible for her to have a calm morning with her brothers around. It seemed against their very DNA.
“It’s not just your business when it comes to him!”
However, she did wish that they could at least have waited for her to finish getting ready for work.
“What in the world are you two fighting about this time?” She asked, stepping into the kitchen with her arms crossed over her chest. The two men froze and stared at her with guilty faces. She knew what she must look like- still in her PJs, with half-brushed hair and a full face of light makeup. She could see the very moment that they realized what they had drugged her.
As always, Charlie was the first to recover, in a light use of the word. He looked away and huffed, trying to act all high and mighty even though it was such a thin mask for embarrassment. “This idiot is taking a job from the Morris Family.”
“I don’t really like them either but don’t make it sound like I’m making a deal with the devil!” William shot back before giving Yana a shaky smile. “A very casual day at work, huh, sis?”
Yana gave him an amused, fond look, even as exasperated as she was, which just caused Charlie to roll his eyes.
“Sis! You can’t indulge him! Don’t let him do this!” He said, gesturing between William, the laptop
William was on, and she. “You know how awful the Morris Family is!”
She did indeed know how awful the Morris was, specifically, Mr. Morris himself, the head of that division of the company. He had been unpleasant from the first time she met him at five years old. Mr. Morris was as unpleasant then as he was now, even in the eyes of a small child. He had smelled of smoke, had reeked of fake politeness, and made everyone in the room uncomfortable in a way she never liked.
The impression had never gotten better, and as she had grown up and started working for the company under her own father’s division, she had really started to see how awful he really was to the people under him.
“I do know.” She answered simply, moving over to the stove and putting on a pan of water to boil. If she was going to be stuck in the kitchen instead of getting dressed, she was going to at least make breakfast. “I also know that William knows and doesn’t need a lecture.”
“Thank you!” William said, relieved, and Yana wondered how long Charlie was berating him on this.
“I just don’t see why you need to do this!” Charlie said. “You would have a job with us, under dad, if you would just-”
“Apologize?” William snapped. He stood up, grabbing his laptop off the table. “I’m not saying sorry for something so stupid!”
“Then why didn’t you just do it!” Charlie tried as William brushed past them. “William! Don’t walk away from-”
William slammed the door on his way out, shaking the walls of their cheaper apartment. Yana pushed the cookbook threatening the fall back onto the shelf absentmindedly as she said, “I told you to stop pushing the issue.”
“Someone needs to!” Charlie snapped at her. She gave him a look, and he deflated, looking away. “I just don’t get why he won’t try and fix it. Or why everyone seems to be content about letting him just walk out on this family.”
“He’s not walking out,” Yana said, looking away from her younger brother and back to the pan of now simmering water. “He’s still here. Just because he’s having a fight with mom and dad-”
“He’s only still here because you offered him a place to stay!” Charlie said. “And I can’t believe that he would go and work for the Morris Family! You know how mom and dad will react when-”
“Our parents will understand,” She hoped. “The Morris are our coworkers, Charlie. They aren’t all bad.” She tried to lightly scold, but her heart wasn’t in it. ‘They aren’t all bad’ indeed. By the look Charlie gave her, she knew he felt the same way.
“Which Morris are we talking about, then?” Charlie asked. “Mr. Morris, sleazy and womanizer? Mrs. Morris, who yelled at every woman that works under them? The goody-two-shoes second son, who does everything told of him? Or is this about Bradley?''
“It’s not about Bradley,” Yana said quickly and with a blush. Charlie raised an eyebrow and Yana looked away.
The first time she met Mr. Morris was a very unpleasant memory. The first time she met his son, on the other hand, was a much more pleasant memory. At first, anyway.
Don’t get her wrong- it was the same memory. But when Mr. Morris and his equally unpleasant wife, Mrs. Morris, left their son and her alone at the playground while they talked to her parents, the afternoon turned much better.
Her mother had been talking about the playdate for weeks. Mrs. Morris was one of her closest friends, and her dream at the moment was for Yana and her son to hit it off, fall in love as teenagers, and get married as adults. Yana didn’t know if she liked that plan, but that first afternoon with him really turned her around on it.
Bradley was a whole year younger than her, and she had been afraid he wouldn’t be much fun to play with. But she had been wrong! It had been the most fun she had ever had on a playdate.
When the playdate was over, and the Morris Family were saying their goodbyes, Yana tugged on her mom’s pant leg and said proudly, “I want to marry him, momma!”
Their mothers’ laughed, and their dads looked at each other amused. But Bradley wasn’t happy. He ran over and gave her a push, making her fall on the hard concrete of the sidewalk and ripping her tights. “I don’t wanna marry you!” He yelled, and she started to cry.
The next time she saw Bradley was when they were teenagers. He was much more handsome and much more pleasant to talk to, but as soon as the dinner between their families was down, he rushed out of the house and away from her. That had been soul-crushing for a fifteen-year-old with a crush.
After that, she had just seen him when they passed each other in the halls at work, never saying more than a hello. Yana wondered when the crush would end.
“You can do better than him,” Charlie said simply, handing her a to-go oatmeal cup from the pantry. She took a deep breath before picking up the boiling pot of water and pouring it into the cup with steady hands.
“Thank you for that advice, Charlie.” She said flatly, stirring the oatmeal before closing the lid. “I need to finish getting ready, and so do you. So go, focus on yourself instead of other people’s lives!”
Despite Charlie's grumbling, he followed her orders and left her alone in the kitchen. She let out a heavy sigh, feeling the weight of the situation on her shoulders. Leaning against the cold counter for a moment, she gathered her thoughts before making her way back to the bathroom. It was an uncomfortable situation, but she knew she had to handle it.
William refused to be what their parents wanted. Despite his parents' demands for him to conform and follow in his siblings' footsteps in order to secure a job, William opted to resist and continue with his own path. When faced with pressure to change, he only became more determined to stay true to himself, which a part of her admired.
A large part of Yana had mixed feelings about her brother's decision to pursue his passion instead of taking on their parents' preferred career path. While she admired his bravery, she couldn't fathom the uncertainty of not having a guaranteed job.
And it wasn’t as if Charlie didn't have a point, as pushing as he could be. He had a couple of points, actually. Yana didn’t know if she liked the idea of William working under Mr. Morris, and as much as she would like to trust him and think he knew what he was doing, she couldn’t help the doubts creeping in.
She loved her little brothers, but both of them could be pretty blind to the world. They always had each other and her, while she had to be the one to look out for them.
And William always had a bad habit of being petty. Something about this screamed of wanting to get back at their parents, and Yana didn’t want it to blow up in his face.
But it was fine. William was an adult that could make his own choices. She didn’t need to get involved.
CHAPTER2
Half a day later tested that resolve, leading to Yana walking with as much confidence as she could muster along the halls of the office. She was determined to blend in seamlessly, despite being far from her own division.
Lunchtime was the perfect opportunity for Yana to do some snooping around. She knew that her brother William had a job under Mr. Morris, but that was all she knew. When their parents found out about him getting a job under Mr. Morris, instead of just apologizing to them… she didn’t even want to imagine the backlash. The future awkward family dinners, if he even would be invited to those. The pressure she and Charlie would go through from them to not talk to William while he worked for the Morris Family. The yelling matches that would occur when he did decide to go back home.
