Page 44 of Consequences

Crashing from the main room have both of them snapping their heads to the door, and Lex knows exactly what it is. “Zane smash,” she mutters as they hurry out to see what the damage is.

It took hours to set up everything, and Lex holds out an arm to stop her mother while they stay in the hallway. Zane stands in the middle of the room holding a pool cue with everyone else standing in shock.

After what he did to Lex at her house, she has no doubt her brother would use the pool cue on Emma. Especially when he begins smashing every present on the table, the glass and plastic breaking.

Once all the gifts have been sufficiently destroyed, he breaks the rental table in half. It doesn’t satisfy his desire for destruction, so he takes the now-broken cue and breaks the glass shelves behind the bar. Liquor and glass being to fly everywhere, and a few pieces even cut Zane’s skin a bit.

“That whoremyfather cheated with doesn’t get to live happily ever after! Not when she probably killed my mom the same way her spawn of Satan killed my wife!”

“Zane, what the fuck?” VP shouts as he tries to grab him.

He pushes VP back, knocking him over a table. “Don’t you fucking touch me, traitor!”

The cue continues swinging until he’s broken everything in sight. No one moves, which surprises Lex. They just stand in shock as Zane destroys his own clubhouse.

Undertaker walks into the room and steps in to fix this. He tosses Zane outside, and the destruction has finally stopped. No one says a word, and Lex feels like throwing up.

“Why the fuck would he do this?” VP mutters as she stands and examines the carnage.

“Are you fucking kidding?” Ky asks. “Everyone in here but you knew this was going to happen.”

Lex moves with her mom to stand by the bar and looks around. “Welcome to my life, VP.”

“It was never this bad,” he says as he stares with wide eyes. “It’s like a tornado tore through here.”

The regression of her father and the psychotic fury of feelings he calls a son pisses Lex off. How can he not remember any of this?

“No, you’re right,” Emma says and sighs as she looks at the smashed wedding cake along the wall. “What he did to Lex was worse than this.”

“No, I’d remember that.”

“It was never directed at you until now, so you never cared. And when you don’t care, you don’t notice. It just doesn’t happen,” Lex snaps.

He glares at her as his nostrils flare. “That’s not fair.”

“Fair?” Her hands shake at her sides, and everyone but her mother keeps their distance from her. “You wanna know what’s not fair? I never got a Christmas present with Zane around that didn’t end up broken or stolen until I moved to Arizona with Mom. Not fair? I fucking hate my birthday because every party Mom ever tried to throw ended up just like this.”

“She goes all out for our birthdays to make sure our kids never feel how she did,” Colt says.

Tears sting at her eyes, and she furiously blinks them away. She will not cry over her father or brother ever again. “I need to make sure they never know what it feels like to have the men in your family hate you.”

“Oh, no,” Emma gasps.

“What?” VP asks, turning his back towards Lex and ignoring her comment.

Bending down, she picks up a piece of what looks like the neck of a glass swan. “My crystal.”

“We’ll get you new stuff.”

Tears fill her eyes, and she steps back like he just slapped her. “This was my mom’s crystal, Nash. It’s the only thing I have left of hers.”

Lex realizes Zane destroyed absolutely everything. Priceless heirlooms belonging to her grandmother. Her mother’s spirit. Her parents’ relationship. None if it can be replaced or repaired. Not anymore.

“He won’t get away with this, Emma,” VP says and tries to take a step towards her.

“Get real, Nash,” she spits out and moves away from him. “The reason Zane felt he could do this was because you have never reprimanded him for anything in his life. You let him do this to our daughter, and you made it okay for him to do this to me. To us. He took the only physical piece of my mother I had left, and there’s nothing you can or will do about it.”

“That’s not true. I’ve gotten after Zane, and I will again. He’ll apologize.”

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