A Dish Best Served Cold - NaNoWriMo 2025 Challenge

[Shocker]

Amen indeed, you are pulling of the almost impossible job of me cheering for Natalie Daniels.

[LtBroccoli]

Amen indeed, you are pulling of the almost impossible job of me cheering for Natalie Daniels.

I know, right? She might be my Walter White, though I think Bob is still the king of that. I think it's a combo of "hero of her own story" and "the path to Hell is paved in good intentions." We know how her story goes, but seeing the journey there is the fun part.

Speaking of parts, there's two more chapters in Part 1, then I can dive into Part 2.

[LtBroccoli]

Chapter Tags: Nosex, setup
Content Warnings: Drugs and Plans
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Natalie makes sure the family sleeps good tonight...
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Desserts and Phone Calls




The family arrived home at the mansion exhausted. After the long day, everyone but Natalie decided to carpool home in one of the church’s vans. Someone would make a trip to pick them up in the morning. Natalie decided to have another cup of coffee and drive home herself. As she grabbed more go-go juice, she checked her pager. It looked like a call from Alex came in during the morning, one from Tony came in during the evening, and one from a number she didn’t recognize. She’d have to check them out later tonight as the pay phone at the gas station was in use.

Somehow, she arrived home before anyone else did. That gave her the chance to put her plan in motion. Natalie grabbed some pumpkin pie from the fridge, some whipped cream, some powdered sugar, her allergy medication, a plastic baggie, and a can of veggies. She used a trick she saw Jacob perfect with his Aderall and put the pills in the baggie and crush them with the veggie can. It kept the pills in one place, ground them into a fine powder, and she wouldn’t have to explain why she had the mortar and pestle in the kitchen during dessert. The powdered sugar was to help cover up the dusting of the Histavax, and the ice cream she chose was a Vanilla Praline flavor. The praline chunks would mask any pill chunks that weren’t a fine powder.

Natalie spent some more time during the past week researching Histavax and it’s side effects. It was developed recently as a nighttime allergy medication meant for those that have trouble sleeping because pet allergies make it difficult to breathe. The recommended dosage is one pill at night. There shouldn't be any unintended side effects, and it was safe for anyone not pregnant. Considering that Mother insisted on her own birth control and it would be next to impossible for the men to be with child, they were safe.

The family arrived and as soon as they plopped down on the couch, Natalie motioned them to get up and get some dessert. “You’ve all had a long, busy and could use a snack. Dessert is served in the dining room. Come, come.” She waved them to get up and head to the Dining Room and sit. Jason looked at her as they walked, obviously dragging his exhausted form forward.

“How are you still up?” Jason asked.

“11 cups of coffee. I’ll sleep eventually. Come on, I have pumpkin pie from the Greenville Bakery.”

Jason’s ears perked up. Greenville Bakery was one of those out-of-the-way places that made great fresh food but was located across town. They had delicious pies and cakes, but also had a waiting list of 3 months for the holidays.

Manners went out the window during dessert. Mother and Wendy each loudly enjoyed a slice while Father, Jacob, and Jason each had seconds. No one bothered to ask how Natalie came to acquire a pie on short notice from a bakery that had a 3 month waiting list. They didn’t ask to see a receipt or wonder why there was powdered sugar on the pie, which they ate without a notice. They didn’t ask why Natalie’s pie was the only one without the powdered sugar. Hell, they didn’t ask to see the box. They were too tired to be suspicious. If they had asked, they might’ve seen that the pies were the exact same as they served a few hours ago, the ones they claimed were ‘for the poor people’ and therefore beneath Mother. If they asked to see the box, they might’ve noticed it was from 6 months ago and that the staff had been placing other pies in the box all this time to keep the family thinking that the pies they bought when ‘time was unavailable to make a pie from scratch’ was actually from the local grocery store and not from some fancy bakery.

But they didn’t ask to see any of this. They were too tired to be suspicious.

The family didn’t stay up for much longer after that, but just to be on the safe side made sure to give a little extra Histavax powder to the men in their dessert drinks. Mother was already falling asleep so she only put a little in her decaf tea mixed in with some sugar. The men each had a decaf tea as well, but Natalie was much more generous with the sugar and Histavax. Natalie asked Wendy to help and take the drinks to the table. It gave the younger girl something to do and kept her distracted from asking things like ‘what’s that white powder in the baggie you’re pouring into their drinks?’ It didn’t take long before the men were yawning and made their way upstairs to their rooms. Wendy soon followed, saying she was “too pooped to party.”

Natalie waited until everyone was secure in their beds before she called the numbers left on her pager.

First was Alex to confirm what time he’d be over tomorrow. He started work at 9AM, and would be on premises after that. She could expect to see him anytime throughout the day but if she was planning on dropping this bomb on her family, she would need him by her side. He would meet her in the Library at 11AM and they’ll play it by ear from there. They talked for a little bit and flirted a bit more before she had to end the call to catch up on the rest of the work.

Next was Tony, who confirmed the contingency plan. If anything happened to her, like they attacked or killed her, or she went missing, or she missed her check-in calls at Noon, 1PM, and 2PM, he was to make sure that the contents of the safety deposit box went where they were supposed to go. If she couldn’t answer the phone directly and the help answered, he was to stay on the line until she could respond. Green was everything was good, Yellow meant that things were dangerous but could still be salvaged. Red was that everything was falling apart and she was either being beaten, raped, or killed and to release all of the footage to the designated people. He asked her if she was sure she wanted to do this. For the first time, she admitted some doubt but said it was going through anyway. She looked at her bedroom door, the attempts to put a chain lock on the inside to stop the rapes, only to have them removed the next day, and that steeled her resolve. She would make them pay for what they did, and their time was coming soon.

Finally she called the last number, one she didn’t recognize. She wasn’t sure who this was, but had a feeling when Suzy’s father Ron answered the phone. Natalie was relieved, and talked with Suzy for what felt like forever going over everything that happened for the day. Suzy listened and was excited for her friend. Natalie felt more excited as the conversation went on, and switched to Suzy’s Thanksgiving. It was rather low-key with her family coming over for dinner in the early afternoon. Her cousins were being weird and she wasn’t sure how she fit in. Suzy said that she was between generations. She was too young for the grown ups table, but too old for the kids table. It was either sit next to her uncle talk about how the world is turning to shit and blaming everything wrong in his life on black people, or sit with kids who were barely old enough to sit still through dinner. She also said that she received a letter from the Honor Council and that her next meeting with them was early next week. She jokingly said “if they don’t expel me during the meeting and it looks like they won’t, don’t be surprised if I come up to you in the quad and kiss you in full view of a hundred people. Try to act surprised. Nothing gets those old people more riled up than a gay to hate. And they view gay kissing worse than straight sex. Like, I could have sex with a man in our room with the door open and might still just have a suspension or a paper to write, but kissing another girl on the lips is immediate expulsion. How much bullshit is that?” Natalie played along, acting like that would be a funny joke, not letting it out that a part of her wished that would happen.

As she prepared for bed, she set up the traps in her room, and barricaded the door as best she could. The one thing that helped was that the door hinges were still on the inside. They hadn’t rehung the door yet, and it would be too suspicious to do so without Natalie appearing as crazy to the help. Rehanging the door as anything other than a safety issue would raise red flags, and Natalie remembered a phrase she heard attributed to Ben Franklin. ‘Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.’ She didn’t doubt that her family is above killing - they’ve done it many times - but whacking a carpenter for asking questions about why a door is being hung hinges out so that the door swings into the hallway is probably a bit too much, even for them. Instead, she relied on the help talking and knowing that one of those stories could get to the wrong person. It’s one thing if it’s a little orphan girl being led down to the studio, that happens all the time and there’s legitimate work being done down there, enough that no one that works in the main house bats an eye and those that work near the studio are on a strict code of silence. But eventually someone will say something if Father or the twins are seen sneaking into Natalie’s room and then screams and sounds of sex emanate from her room. All it would take is one maid to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to bring everything crashing down. Hence the cat and mouse game that ends tonight.

“Tonight will be the last night I’m afraid to sleep in my own bed.”
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To Be Continued. 2 more chapters left in Part 1.

[Shocker]

That is pretty much how I expected Suzy to get expelled from the get go.

[LtBroccoli]

Chapter Tags: Nosex, setup
Content Warnings: The existential essence of forgiveness, revenge, and jealousy
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Natalie prays over what she has done and what she has to do...
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Thoughts and Prayers




Natalie prayed long and hard before bed, as she went over the events of the day and what was planned to come. She prayed for the strength she would need to do what she needed to do. She asked for forgiveness, but what she needed forgiving and to forgive, she wasn’t sure.

What is forgiveness? Is it a tacit acknowledgement that one was wronged? Is it a blanket pass for all ills done to one another, or is it conditional? Is it one-directional, bi-directional, or communal? Which starts first, the act of wanting to forgive or the forgiveness itself? Is forgiveness without redemption even possible? And at what point is it too far to forgive?

She weighed over and over the contradictions she’s seen over her life from the teachings of the church, and other churches in general, and was torn. She knows of sin, and has been saved for years. She accepted the Lord into her heart as soon as she was old enough to make that decision on her own, and her faith has always been a source of strength to her. She believed in the values of the church, of Christ, of what she was taught about the Bible and the words of the Lord. When others made fun of her for being devout, she held close that her unshakable faith would hold her steady and lift her to Heaven while those bastards and heathens would spend an eternity in Hell. She knew that suffering here would guarantee happiness down the road. But something changed in the last few years. The message has shifted from a life of service and humility to one of honor and celebrity in worship of the Lord. Gone are the days of ‘the meek shall inherit the Earth’ and they’re now replaced with ‘God wants you to prosper’ and ‘Live your best life now.’ How can one live their life in service when putting their own interests above the Lord’s?

Well, that was easy. Preach the message that the Lord WANTS you to be successful. Preach that the Lord NEEDS you to be successful and if you aren’t, that is your failing, not the Lord’s.

The change happened almost overnight. Natalie was still a young girl when she heard it the first time, but old enough to know it was different. People stopped coming to church to feel bad about their lives and started living the loving the message. They tithed more, because those that have tithed more have invested in their future. The more money came in, the fancier things got. Father went from off the rack suits to tailored ones and lots of jewelry. The family moved from the starter home in Ambrose to the gated community in Hillside Estates and then to this mansion a few years ago. They went from half-empty pews on Easter Sunday to a packed houses on random Wednesdays because they pushed a message the people wanted to hear. They want to be successful but aren’t because their faith isn’t strong enough. By the time Natalie was in middle school, her family was wealthy. A couple years later, they live high on the hog, and now the church makes enough money to launder all of their ill-gotten gains from the drugs and porn and human trafficking.

Slaves, really. Human trafficking just sounds better. Sex slaves, working slaves, cattle slaves for slaughter, it doesn’t matter. All that does is that the church finally makes enough to where the family can finally trickle out some of that worth and make some real changes in the world.

She thought about whether or not to forgive herself for what she was about to do. No. She didn’t need forgiveness for telling her family to stop raping her. She didn’t need forgiveness for threatening to expose them to the world. She didn’t need forgiveness for breaking their spirits. No. She didn’t need forgiveness.

But what about forgiving them? Have they, even for one second, even shown a morsel of regret for what they’ve done to her? Has Jason ever shown remorse for how he made her asshole bleed after the first time he assraped her? Has Jacob implied even a little bit of regret about making her choke on his cock? Has Father ever shown any sympathy for the pain he put her through outside of her room? Has Mother once, just once, offered a bandaid or an icepack for the cuts and bruises she’s caused? Natalie laughed at that thought. Forgiveness requires the 3 R’s: Regret, Remorse, and Redemption. Unless the person shows regret and remorse for their actions while seeking redemption, than forgiveness is nothing more than a pass to do it again.

No, she will not forgive them. And knowing how they see forgiveness as transactional, it will never come. They care more about their reputation than they do anything else. She will never forgive them, because this happened behind closed doors. The only way they will ask for forgiveness is when they need it. Sure, they’ll beg and plead to keep things quiet, and Natalie will as long as they play ball. There may be some words here and there, but for the most part true forgiveness will never happen. They will never be restored to equality, their relationships are ruined forever. They’ll say they were ruined when she approached them. Natalie thinks the relationships were destroyed after the first series of rapes. Somehow they’ll twist it in their hearts that Natalie’s actions are worse. ‘How dare you blackmail us? All we did was take what the Lord gave, but you act like there’s something wrong with that.’ She can hear Mother’s hypocrisy now.

Natalie wished for a simpler life and time, one where she didn’t have to do what she was about to do, but knew that would never happen. Not now, not ever. She had a plan, and it was in motion, too. She knew she had to leave, but could only do so as the dutiful daughter. Any signs of rebellion and dissent were shot down immediately, so her getting up and leaving one day without so much as a note was not going to happen. Father would send security after her to find her and bring her back, and with his ties in the Underworld there was almost nowhere she could hide. Instead, she’d have to leave the family the only way that was acceptable for an 18-year-old good Christian woman. She’d have to get married and have babies. But the problem was she never dated. Before camp this year, she hadn’t kissed a boy, let alone had sex. She had no desire save for Chad Swanson. He was cute, from a rich family, and very kind. He also had a secret that would destroy him in the church.

He liked boys.

Natalie knew that Chad was at least somewhat gay, but coming out would be deadly. Not just his reputation, but she knew that the church’s stance on homosexuality was brutal and backdated at best. She heard how other kids talked at school, and planned to use that to her advantage. She had a list of names she’d found like Charlie Howard and Robert Hillsborough who were killed just because they were gay. She’d imply that Chad Swanson might be the next on that list, but she could help him. She knew his parents had put away a ton of money for him to get married and have kids. They’d get married right after he graduated high school, have a kid, and then move away so that they’d never have to see her family again. She even had names picked out. Joseph for a boy and Emma for a girl, in honor of her grandparents. Then, once the money was secured she’d find a way out of the marriage. Since divorce is so frowned upon, poisoning or driving him to suicide was an option. She knew church women. They view a woman getting divorced as a failure of the woman, not the man. Doesn’t matter what he does, it’s always her fault. But a widow, she was to be honored and revered. So the young widow Natalie would move far, far away with her husband’s money and disappear, never to be seen again. That was her happily ever after, to disappear.

But Bob took that from her. He took everything from her that night in the cabin. He didn’t just take her virginity. He took her innocence, her protection from her family, her friends, and her escape plan.

When she heard what happened the night of the cabin, she was shocked. While she was being raped by Bob, Stacy, Jen, and Angie, her friends were attacked in Veneto. Michelle was raped by at least a dozen men while Chad and Melissa watched and were forced to screw each other. At some point in the intervening weeks they fell in love and found out Melissa was pregnant. They just had a quick wedding a few weeks earlier. Melissa didn’t even know about the trust funds, so imagine her and her family’s surprise when a pregnant 18-year-old high school senior is given a check for $5 million along with with the deed to a house in a gated community.

That should’ve been Natalie’s house. That should’ve been Natalie’s husband. That should’ve been Natalie’s baby. That should’ve been her Emma. ‘Melissa’s not even that good looking. I’m prettier, richer, and hotter than that bitch ever will be.’

Natalie recognized the sin of jealousy wash over her, and immediately prayed for forgiveness for her thoughts. As she was indeed worthy, she felt herself feel better almost right away.

As the night wore on, she knew at some point that it was finally safe enough to sleep. No one was coming to visit tonight. She eventually drifted off around 1AM, with an alarm set for sleeping in of 7AM.

“Tomorrow, they won’t know what hit them.”
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To Be Continued. Part 1 wraps up next chapter...

[Shocker]

Ok this is more the Natalie we know and despise.

[LtBroccoli]

Chapter Tags: Drugs, MF, M+F, MM+, Oral, Anal, Blackmail, Bond, Cuck
Content Warnings: Descriptions of off-screen child abuse and murder, bigotry
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Natalie confronts her family with what she knows, and how things will work going forward...
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A Black Friday to Remember (Drugs, MF, M+F, MM+, Oral, Anal, Blackmail, Bond, Cuck)





It was common practice that the help would generally have holidays off except for volunteers or if there was a need for them. Thanksgiving is a day where almost no one works at the Daniels Estate because the family is out dealing with the food drive. The day after was when the staff would work, but it depended on the position. Unless someone volunteered to work that day, it was usually the lowest ranked person for that responsibility that came in while the others took off. The only department that was fully staffed were the personal shoppers. They would talk about ‘Black Friday’ for weeks ahead of time, organizing and planning shopping trips through the various stores and malls. Wednesday night was usually spent with them making a battle plan on which stores they’d go to for what items and when. They insisted on everyone having their wish lists prepared long ahead of time so that they could deal with crowds. Mother remembers how difficult it was finding a Cabbage Patch doll back when Natalie was a little girl and one of the first things she spent money on once they had a lot of it to spend was hiring professional shoppers to do the big store purchases like the day after Thanksgiving sales. Why should Mother wait outside of Toys R Us at 4 in the morning in the freezing cold for a special edition Barbie when she could pay someone to do that for her?

The holiday decorators would arrive around 10AM, which is why Alex needed to be at the house by 9. The young man dressed in a pair of black tactical pants, military boots, a black polo shirt, and a black bomber jacket. The holstered Glock 17 on his right hip hung on his duty belt, along with a radio attached to an earpiece and a flashlight. He recently changed from an old Makarov PM because the ammo was harder to find and therefore more expensive. Everyone else had switched to a Glock or a Beretta 92FS, which all used standard NATO 9x19mm. The Makarov used 9x18mm rounds, common in the Eastern Bloc. But since he was in Harbor City and not Leningrad… St. Petersburg, it was a lot easier to find the other ammo. He heard a story about his cousin Vlad who didn’t pay attention to what ammo he loaded and somehow fired a NATO round from his Makarov. It went bad. Vlad now has to go as a pirate for Halloween every year since he has the eyepatch. His zip cuffs were packed behind a pair of metal handcuffs, next to his two small cans of pepper spray. Since he rarely carried his AK-47 on patrol around the house, his extendable baton worked good since it was much better for swinging than his MagLite flashlight. He preferred the AK for pretty much everything, but this one that his cousin Stefan brought from home was highly, highly illegal in the states. Alex only used it on Tower Duty or at the range. Sure, he’d catch some guff from the Yanks about using an AK, but Alex would point out that while their AR’s might be 'technically better’, the AK was superior in every combat scenario in the world. The AR might be more accurate over long distance, but the AK was designed to work in the worst conditions without fail. ‘Just ask Charile how well the AK did in Vietnam.’ That would piss off the veterans at the range every time.

He watched the main gate as Wendy and her nanny left around 9:30AM. Natalie told him this part of the plan. She didn’t want her younger sister anywhere near this mess. Wendy still had a sense of innocence and happiness that hadn’t been snuffed out yet. Her walking in on video of her brothers doing some gay shit or seeing pics of Mother beating Natalie’s tits off is not a way to lose that.

It was part of the plan. Everything was part of the plan, even the day was part of it. She knew, once she calmed down the previous Saturday night in the hotel and decided to not go in guns blazing on Sunday, that today was the best day. She’d have a perfect excuse for sending Wendy out of the house, the only security on site would be Alex and a handful of others that reported to him that he chose, and that the help that would be in were loyal to her or no one in particular. The only things she couldn’t control was access to the studio and its vault, but for this she didn’t need it. She knew exactly how things would go if it moved down there too early. At least this way, the confrontation would happen in the main house. Besides, no one was in the studio or video vault today. He made sure that the only security detail to be in that area was Marcus, and he doesn’t stick his nose there, claims the place gives him ‘bad vibes’.

Alex walked the decorators around the house, getting them to where they need to be. One advantage of having more money than sense is paying someone to set up the Christmas trees and various decorations. The family still puts up their traditional, heirloom stuff, but the hallways and public areas are done by professionals. They were given a list of where to go and when to go there. He noticed that the Library was first on the list with a hard out of 10:45. That’s where Natalie would meet with her family. Her sense of humor may even frame this like a Christmas present.

He chuckled. This was one of the many reasons he liked her. Her sense of humor when she shows it. The wealth, tits, ass, face, and smoking hot body are definitely nice extras.



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Natalie dressed in her most powerful set of clothes for this meeting. She wore a white silk blouse with pearl buttons, a navy blue skirt that comes down to her knees, her nude stockings, a set of white lingerie from Victoria’s Secret, and her jewelry that was passed down from Grandma Emma. This was nearly identical to what she wore Saturday night to the Concordia. She skipped any jewelry that she bought with her family’s money, nor did she use any perfume from that. Instead, she wore Jicky. It was the only perfume Grandma Emma had available when her town was liberated and she wore it when she met Grandpa Joe. She also wore it during their wedding, honeymoon, and later on. It smelled of lavender, and each time she wore it, she remembered sitting on Grandma’s lap hearing old stories. She felt a tie to Grandma when she wore it, and in that a tie to the strongest woman she ever knew.

She needs that strength now. No matter what happens, she needs that strength.

She took a long look in the mirror before looking at the vintage watch on her wrist. It was almost time. Natalie checked herself one last time, checked the briefcase that she bought for this instance, checked that her bookbag was packed with her essentials, and left her bedroom. She walked down the halls through the mansion’s private wing until she arrived in the public rooms. A couple turns and she was the in the Library Antechamber, waiting next to the TV cart. A quick glance at her watch showed that it was 10:57.

Natalie felt her breath rising and speeding up. Her anxiety rose. ‘It wasn’t too late to call it off, just run away…’ Her inner critic sounded too much like Mother and Father. She felt a panic attack coming any second. She could feel the world slip away from her. Another second, and she’d flee, she knew it. She grabbed the metal TV cart, the cold metal giving her something to focus on.

“Slow… slow… slow…”. She repeated the word over and over to get her breathing back under control. Only when her nerves came down a little did she hear a voice next to her, calming and secure.

“Slow. Slow. You got this.” Alex said as he stepped closer, putting a hand on her left shoulder.

“I’ve got this. I’ve got this.” Natalie said, releasing the cold metal cart and grabbing his hand. “We’ve got this. Ready?”

“Da. Set things up, family will be in shortly. They don’t know what this about, think you grandstanding about yesterday. Or some pitch for family vacation to Tahiti. They not know.” Alex said softly.

“All plans ready just in case?”

“Da. Will give word if need to flee, and Tony ready in case things go bad.”

Natalie finally had her body under control. She leaned up to kiss the taller man once on the lips. “Bal’-SHO-ye spa-SEE-ba.”

“You’re welcome. Will work on accent, you’re welcome.” He gave her a quick kiss and return, and she turned.

Natalie pushed the TV cart into the Library and stationed it next to the wall by the window. The drapes were drawn, but some light still made it’s way into the room. Books lined the walls along all four walls, and a large rectangular table sat in the middle of the room, a dark mahogany to match the accents. A small leather couch was positioned along the long side of the table facing the main bookcase. Along the short sides sat two wingback chairs, upholstered in green velvet. There were no chairs along the other side of the table, and Natalie knew that everyone in the family knew the reason, and she’d show them she knew shortly.

She looked around and decided to move the TV from next to the window to in front of the main bookcase. Natalie knew the symbolism of what this would reveal, and double and triple checked that things were set up and that the book she needed was in view. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

One thing that was consistent with her family was their lack of punctuality for people they saw as beneath them. If the meeting was with a vendor or a salesman or something they didn’t want to do or somewhere they didn’t want to go, they’d be late. ‘Fashionably late’ as Mother would call it, like not being able to tell time was an accessory to a party dress. But if the meeting was with one of Alex’s uncles in the Bratva or a representative from CBN, they were prompt. So it came as no shock to Natalie that even though she told her family that she needed to speak to them in the Library at 11AM sharp, they weren’t there. 11:05, still nothing. She’d set up the TV cart and was ready to play. 11:15, nothing. One of the help came by to say that they were running late and asked if she would like some coffee. She declined, but did ask for a bottled water. Those were much harder to tamper with. Her paranoia ran rampant by 11:30, and when the first check-in call came at noon, she was about to lose her cool. A quick message of “Green” to the phone that rang in the Library just as Jacob walked in, still yawning from having just woken up.

“Morning Natalie.” Jacob said through a yawn as he plopped down on the couch. Jason arrived a minute later. Even as grown men they still wear clothes close enough to each other to look like they organized this. They both wore grey sweatpants and Redstone College sweatshirts. Obviously they didn’t see any value in this meeting.

“What’s with the getup?” Jason asked, seeing that Natalie was severely overdressed for a casual conversation. He plopped down on the couch and put his feet up, drinking a Coke.

“Where are your parents? This is important.” Natalie said, trying to hide the disgust she felt growing for them.

“Keep your shirt on, they’ll be here. Geez Louise.” Jason said. Natalie did her best to refrain from pacing. She knows that pacing is a sign of nerves, and they know that as well, and she knows that they know. Instead of pacing, she slowly looked through the books on the bookcase. There were some books by various religious minds and some works of classical fiction, but for the most part the books on this wall were fake. They looked like old leather bound books because that’s what the interior decorator they hired said would look more sophisticated. Has anyone ever opened these? Probably not. There were several sets of legal journals, some encyclopedias from the 1950’s, and even a few classic mystery novels. The real books were on the other walls. She knew that the middle of the bookcase was completely empty because of the secret tunnel, and when she walked past it, she could feel a small draft come from it. It must be cold back there today, with no one coming in to do any work.

It was 12:07 when Mother and Father finally arrived in the Library. Father claimed that he was in a meeting and Mother said she lost track of time with Marshy. Father was dressed in a white shirt, blue tie, and grey slacks. His brown shoes matched his belt. This was Father ‘dressing down’ for a day around the house but for afternoon meetings with people at the church. Mother was dressed nicely in a light blue blouse and dark navy skirt. She left Marshy at the doorway with the help because Father insisted that the dog could never go in the Library. Mother and Father knew something was wrong right away as they walked in and saw their oldest daughter, dressed in some of her nicest clothes and wearing his mother’s jewelry, back to the door checking out the fake books along the wall.

“What’s going on?” Father said as he moved a couple steps into the Library. The lights were dimmed and the TV was on. He scanned the room, taking inventory of the situation. Natalie was up front and in her power suit. She only dresses like this when she wants to project a sense of power. She also had on his mother’s jewelry and if he had to guess, the light scent of lavender in the air was from her. The boys were on the couch, taking up all of the space where all 4 of them could easily fit. The drapes were closed so no one could see from the outside, and the door closed behind them with one of the security guards staying inside. One of the Russian kids, Alex or Alexei or something like that. He was a good man but he didn’t trust where his loyalties lied. His father was Bratva and he always seemed to be close by when Natalie was doing something. Seeing how he stayed in the room and took up a security position by the door told Charlie that whatever Natalie was up to, he was in on it.

“Take a seat, everyone.” Natalie said, not turning to her family yet. She took a deep breath to center herself.

“I’d rather stand.” Father said.

Natalie turned towards them. “Sit. Please, everyone take a seat. You will want to sit for this.” Natalie grabbed the briefcase and opened it, pulling out five folders, each with a word or name on it. She spread them out so that each folder showed what was written. ‘Father’, ‘Mother’, ‘Jason’, ‘Jacob’, ‘Family’.

“What, you run one charity event and you think you’re better than us?” Jason said without reaching for his folder.

“No, I’ve been cleaning up your messes for years. But yes, I do. I do think I’m better than you, especially you Jason. It wouldn’t take much effort to be less of an incompetent mess than you, but consider this the stick talk, of carrot and stick. You obviously remember Carrot and Stick, right? From the lessons Father taught us years ago about how to negotiate?” Natalie let the question hang in the air as the five folders lay on the table. “Well, since the cat caught your tongue, let me remind you. Provide incentive, and use leverage. Incentive, leverage. Incentive, leverage. Does any of this ring a bell?” Natalie felt herself getting aggravated with her older brother. She leaned down close to him and breathed deep before pushing his feet off of the table.

“Hey.”

“Move over for your parents, show some respect for them, this house, and where you’re at.” Natalie sometimes wondered if Jason was a black belt practitioner in trained uselessness, or if he was an idiot. She let herself pace a little bit as Jason slid over, letting his parents sit on the couch. Father made sure that Mother got in first, checking the situation and realizing that if he was at the edge of the couch, he could get up faster than in the middle. He was the first to reach to the table and pulled his folder close.

“What are these?”

“Leverage, Father. The folders in front of you, and the video I will soon play, are leverage. Please, open them. While you’re doing that, I’m going to tell you about some changes that are going to happen in this family moving forward.”

Father grabbed his folder first, and looked at the first photo with a look of confusion. It was of a man entering a bedroom. Then the next one showed him undressing. It was only when he realized that the third photo was one of Natalie walking through the same room, past the same window, then the next one of her sitting on her bed crying did he look closely and see time and date markings in the prints. These were taken last week. He froze as he realized what he held in front of him.

“Don’t worry Father, there’s more. Keep looking. In fact, everyone please look at your folders, I don’t want to repeat myself so it would be helpful if everyone was on the same page. So please, Father, help everyone catch up.” Natalie said with an air of confidence that she forced into her voice. She watched as Mother grabbed her folder, then the twins each followed. Jason and Jacob looked at each other dumbly as Mother shrieked. When Jacob rose like he wanted to fight, Alex took three steps toward him, baton extended and looking to swing. Jacob froze in the moment right before Alex would’ve downed him.

“Nyet! He needs to learn his place in the new order.”

Alex stopped his advance, but stared coldly at Jacob. “Sit. Down.” Jacob froze for a moment and was about to argue that he wasn’t called sir, but Jason pulled on his sleeve to get him to take a seat.

“Good. Now, as I’m sure you’re all aware by now, you’ve been sloppy. For the past few months, you’ve treated me as a glorified whore, nothing more than a plaything for your sick, perverted fetishes. Someone, I’m assuming Jason, broke into my diary and found out I was raped at camp. You know, the camp we own and run. The camp this family uses to teach the lessons of Jesus while on the side, well, I’ll get to the side business in a little bit. In a normal family, finding out your daughter was gang raped is enough to cause loving, caring parents to bring hellfire down on those that hurt their baby, or cause a protective older brother to track this guy down and beat the crap of out him. Instead, I wake up….”

Natalie turned her head to the bookcase behind her, letting her words hang in the air. Mother is barely paying attention as she’s flipping through the rest of her photos over and over.

“I wake up to my brother Jason raping me. Then Jacob joined in on the fun. And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse than having my own perverted twin brothers screwing me, I wake up one night to who other than you.” Natalie turned her gaze to Father. “You, Reverend Charles Daniels, Charlie to his friends and parishioners, Father to his terrified children. I wake up a few nights later to my hands being tied above my head to the corners of my four-poster canopy bed while you shush me and cover my mouth as you pulled my panties to the side and raped me in my own bed. My own father, the man who is supposed to protect me and love me more than any other save my future husband, used me as a personal whore. And not to be undone, his whore of a wife Samantha decides to join in the fun. Yes, I just called my mother a whore to her face. When you go past the first set of photos and watch the video I have prepared, you’ll see why. But Mother doesn’t get off just by having her clit licked or her kitty screwed. No, she needs to see me in pain. Which is kind of hard to do when I’m drugged, but she finds a way. So this brings us to the status quo of the last two months. I don’t live here most of the time because of school, but when I am here, I have to booby trap my room to make sure I don’t have any of you pay me a nighttime visit. The only thing I have on my side is that you’re more worried about the help finding out that you’re raping your own daughter and sister than you are about what this will do to me long term. So that brings us to last week, please flip to the next section of photos.”

Father flipped through them and his eyes went wide. He barely recognized the people in the photos but had a distinct memory of what he felt when the photos were taken. Mother broke into tears as Jason and Jacob looked at each other, than the photos of them doing things with each other, then back to the folders.

“Where did you get these?” Father asked.

“The photos from my room were taken last Friday, after you switched my allergy medication from a non-drowsy formula to a super-drowsy one. You know I’ve been paranoid about what I eat because you’ve been drugging my food to make me more… pliable… to be your personal cumsock. But you know I’ve been avoiding the food here because of it. I’ve avoided some of my favorite meals because if I don’t, I will wake up tied to my bed with my own father balls deep in me. If I don’t, I wake up to my own Mother beating me so she can get off. I skip meals, which already didn’t help my eating disorder, just to have a semblance of control in my life. But, I digress. I hoped I was wrong and my own family wouldn’t use me like a plaything, but in case I wasn’t, I had someone staked out watching my room, waiting for this to happen. I had a microphone in my room, waiting to pick up your voices. You see, photos alone don’t tell the whole story. They don’t tell how you, Father, kissed me and said you loved me right after you blew your load in me. Photos don’t show Jacob and Jason cracking jokes about how much of an ass man Jacob is, how he can’t get enough of my, what did you call it, sweet booty? Photos don’t cover Mother screaming and yelling about how much I’ve ruined her life because I had the audacity to be born, or how I’m no longer able to be married off because I’m not a virgin like some European medieval princess. No, somehow my very existence is an affront to your being, and you have to show me how you really feel.”

Natalie walked over to Mother and put her face inches away. Mother cried over what was happening. “Don’t worry Samantha, the feeling is mutual.”

“I don’t know what sick, twisted game your playing at, but this stops here, now.” Father raised his voice and started to rise, but stopped when he saw Alex change his posture. “Look at what you’re doing to your mother.”

Natalie laughed. “Where was that concern when you held me down and raped me the first time? Where was that concern when I was growing up, always just another face in the crowd but always the strong one? You always said I was the strong one and I didn’t need help because I stopped asking for it a long time ago. But I haven’t even begun. My game hasn’t even started yet. You think I only planned on one thing here, one way to gain leverage? Tell me, what happened after dinner last Saturday? You know, after you were gifted with a thousand dollar bottle of scotch? Who do you think bought it?” Natalie moved right next to his ear and spoke in a whisper. “Who? Who do you think bought you that scotch?”

“You.” Father turned his head, the sudden realization hitting him like a ton of bricks. He caught himself before he struck her, remembering Alex in the corner. He’d have to deal with him later on. “You think a few pictures are going to be enough for whatever sick games you have in store?”

Natalie walked away from Father, seeing he wanted to hit her. “No, in fact I know they won’t be. Which is why instead of just showing the pictures… did you look at the rest of your pictures, Father? Because if you had, you’d know why your wife is crying. Go ahead, look.” As he started to thumb through them, the reality of how deep this situation was hit him again. “Now do you see where I stand? What leverage I have on you? I know you well enough that you could twist anything to your advantage. You have the gift of gab, it’s why you’re so great at spreading the Lord’s message. I know that if all I had was a series of zoomed in photos of you getting naked in my bedroom, you could twist it as some hoax, or at worst a moment of lust between you and your wife in my room, and why not, right? It’s your house, anyway. You should be allowed to have sex with your wife on my bed. Anything short of me carrying your baby, you’d twist it your way. And no matter how bad the evidence is against you, you will still have supporters. No, photos of you in my room aren’t enough to destroy you.” She pressed play on the VCR. “But this is.”

The video started and it showed Mother, Father, Jacob and Jason sitting around the boardroom table of the Concordia’s 8th floor. With them were a dozen young men and women, dressed like rock stars. Natalie talked as the video played.

“Do you finally recognize this? Those photos in your folder, this video, these are from the Concordia last week. Remember after dinner? I do. After everyone had a couple glasses of that very nice and very expensive scotch, except me of course, you four went to the boardroom to party hard with our guests. I, as usual, stayed behind. I knew you were going to assign me babysitting duties anyway, so I might as well just do it myself. How bad would it look if you took your 12-year-old daughter to a party with rock stars? You couldn’t have that. And Natalie? Well, there’s no way she’d want to have any fun, so let’s make her clean up after Wendy and us.”

“But you’ve always been the strong one.” Mother said through her tears.

“Moth-… Samantha. The reason why I was the strong one was that I needed to be strong because I could never depend on you. I could never come to you. Any time I needed a Mother, you were either too busy with Wendy or cleaning up their messes again. And when we moved here, you were too busy being Rich Mommy to even be bothered. I stopped coming to you a few years ago when we moved here. I’ve received better life advice from the help than I have from you in the last few years.” Natalie has had that speech waiting in her back pocket for years, ready for the moment it would hurt her mother the most. She felt a slight twinge as she said it, but seeing her mom feel just a little of the pain she went through felt oh so good. “But that’s neither here nor there. What is here, now, is this video, and the photos in your folders. You see, you went to party with rock stars and live the rock star life for the night. You normally wouldn’t do that, but you felt good and wanted to party. By the way, this video is just a sampler of the whole collection. I have about 6 hours of footage. This tape is about a half hour long. Oh, here’s a good part.”

Natalie turned to the screen to show Father snort a line of cocaine. At least she assumed it was coke. They only called it “good shit” on the video. Mother follows suit, then Jacob and Jason each take a bump. Jason wanted to avoid it, but Jacob kept calling him a pussy until he did. The others in the group, 6 women and 4 men, all did a line as well. Drinks were shared, both the Macallan 25 and whatever clear liquor the rockers brought.

“Doing cocaine. Partying with rock stars. I know you’ll say that’s not too bad, Jesus lived with whores, criminals, and tax collectors. Well, if it stopped at just doing drugs, we wouldn’t be here, would we?”

The next scene showed two of the men undressing Mother as she made out with them, hands stroking their cocks through their pants. Father’s pants were down around his ankles as his cock impaled a young blonde that looked a lot like Natalie. He fucked her on the boardroom table as Jacob and Jason each got blowjobs from a woman. The rest were mingling about.

“This next scene cut forward a few minutes. If you look in the bottom corner, you’ll see a time stamp showing when this video was taken. The timestamps stay consistent throughout the night. The men that set the cameras up synched them so that there would be no doubt as to when this happened. And you can make out the Concordia’s logo on the top of the table, so no question as to where it took place. It would take a bad tabloid journalist maybe an hour to figure out that you were at the hotel on the night in question. And Mother, Mother, Mother. Seeing your husband fuck a young woman in front of you, how are you going to react?”

A few minutes later, Mother is on all fours on the table. One of the men is fucking her pussy from behind in doggystyle while the other is getting a blowjob from her. Father is still fucking that blonde chick while the boys have now progressed to fucking their girls of choice.

“I see. You react like a whore. So far in this video we have drinking, doing drugs, Mother sucking dick and getting screwed like a whore, Father having sex a young woman who looks way too much like his daughter for convenience sake, and my brothers each being lustful pervs. But it doesn’t stop there, oh no. Want to see what happens when the party moves to the bedrooms?”

The next scene cut to one of the suites. Mother is on her back on the bed, naked as a jay bird, getting fucked by three men at once. Father is next to her, watching and cheering it on as he strokes his cock.

“Watching men have sex with your wife for your own pleasure. I believe the proper name for that fetish is cuckholding. I had to research that. Kind of interesting that you could bang any one of these women while Mother takes three cocks at once, but instead you masturbate.”

The scene advances a little further. Father is bound and gagged as one of the women whips him with a cat’o’nine tails whip. One of the women has now moved to between Mother’s legs and is eating her out. The woman than shifts, putting her pussy over Mother’s face. The woman that was whipping Father has a strap-on, and uses it on Father.

“Wow, we’ve come so far in this family. Mother is dyking out and Father gets screwed in the butt. But at least it’s a piece of plastic. It’s not like any of the men in this family took a dick up their ass, did they? Did they?” Natalie stared at the twins as the video continued.

The scene shifted. It was a different room. Jacob and Jason are on the bed, both naked. Jason has his hand around Jacob’s cock, stroking it as a young black man’s head bobs up and down on his own. Soon, another man, this time white and hung like a horse, walks into frame and takes over the handling of Jacob’s cock from his brother. The scene continues until both of the twins are fucking the men that were just a few minutes earlier sucking their dicks. Soon, the scene shifts to Jacob lying face down with his ass up in the air as the black man impales his ass with his cock. Jason tries the same thing with the other man, but complains that he’s too big for him and instead sucks him off. At some point, the black man recovers enough to fuck Jason’s ass while he’s sucking off the white man. The scene ends with Jason taking a load of cum to his face.

Natalie pauses the tape. “See where we’re at now. I’m standing in front of you because you got sloppy. All of you. The only thing this church hates more than poor people are gays, and if they ever see this tape, your lives are over. Quite literally. So, I want you to ask you a question. Why shouldn’t I send copies of this to every one of your enemies? Why shouldn’t I send a copy of Jason taking a load of cum to the face to the local paper? Why shouldn’t I send video of Mother getting screwed like a whore while Father jerks off to CBN? Why shouldn’t I send a copy of everyone getting high to the county or state police or the FBI? Why should the girl that you spent the last three months raping and trying to slut out not rat all of you out? Why…” Natalie walked over to the bookcase and pulled on Ayn Rand, opening the secret door to the studio and film vault, much to everyone’s shock. “Why should I not tell everyone about the studio and the vault?” Bookcase swung open, revealing a dark hallway.

Carrot and stick. She just walloped them over the head with a stick. There was no denying that she could destroy everything they cared about in a few minutes, and they could do nothing to stop it.

She took account of everyone in the room before making her next move. The twins were crushed. Mother was inconsolable and Father looked like he was going to be sick. Out of the four of them, he was the one who stood the most to lose or the most to gain, and the gears were turning. He looked to the window, to the studio, and to the door. The exits were covered. He was trapped and he knew it, but he wasn’t going to go down without a fight. She knew this, and he had to know that she knew that he knew. Eventually, he put his head on his steepled hands and looked at the table.

“What's the fifth folder? The one labeled ‘Family’?”

“I’m glad you asked. Open it. Don’t worry, there’s no pictures in this one.” Natalie said, watching Father grab the folder and open it. Inside were a collection of spreadsheets, receipts, and documents. It was a stack of business reports and expenses. He tried to make sense of it through his anger, but was having a hard time focusing.

“Jesus Christ, Natalie, what am I looking at?”

“That… that’s a breakdown of our finances. Profit and loss statements from the last two years of all divisions, legitimate and otherwise. Where our money comes from, where it goes. Along with that is a report on how to improve every single one of our revenue streams, and what we can do to grow to the point where you are a household brand and how this family can dominate both the religious landscape and the underworld. As you see on that report, our biggest losses come from drugs and booze, while our biggest earners are prostitution and media. The fastest growing is preaching donations, but that is but a fraction of what we can bring in. You’ll see the projections I’ve made based off of current trends. There’s also a report in there about how when your idiot sons are involved in making decisions, things go from good to bad and from bad to worse.”

Jacob thought about saying something, but the look from Father shut him up right away. Natalie turned to the twins, both of them despondent.

“Do you know what your nicknames are around the church, around the camp? Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. Sometimes I’ve heard you two called Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber. No one can ever give an answer to which is which. Do you know why? Because you two are morons. I don’t think you’re officially retarded, but you’ve been so spoiled because you have a dick between your legs that you’ve never tried to learn the businesses. You can’t give orders, no one respects you. You’ve never worked a day in your lives, you don’t know the meaning of struggle, and you are so inept with the trades that you actually lost money running drugs. I don’t know how much is inexperience but a lot of that is just bad decision making. You’re 24 years old. Meanwhile I’m expected to be perfect at 18, and no leeway is given. That’s why in my plan, the two of you are taken out of any capacity where you could make decisions. We’re one bad day away from them inviting a cop with a purpose over, or screwing up a deal with the Bratva or Mafia.”

“What do you mean ‘your plan’?” Father said, getting a clue of where this was going on.

She walked around the room, feeling her heartbeat pick up and her breathing shorten. “Slow. Slow.” She whispered as she rooted herself down on the floor before looking at the family. A long moment passed as the only sounds were those of Mother crying. “I want in.”

“You want in?” Father said.

“I want in. Not only do I want in, I want in charge. I’m not talking about leading the ministry or anything like that. I’m a woman, these conservative men would never follow me. They’d sooner follow a black man than a white woman. No, what I’m talking about is I make the decisions behind the scenes. This is the carrot part of carrot and stick. You know my business acumen, how I can stay calm under pressure, and how I understand logistics better than almost anyone you’ve met. Certainly better than anyone else with the last name Daniels. Jason and Jacob are great salesmen. They take after you in that regard. Mother is good with backend stuff but let’s be honest, she breaks at the first sign of struggle. She’s about as useful in an emergency as Marshy. And you, Father. You can’t be everywhere at once, and eventually will be too famous to meet with anyone underground. How would it look if the next face of the 700 Club was caught in Ukraine negotiating the sale of orphans or coordinating porn video distribution to Denmark or Dubai? You’re approaching a level of fame which means you can’t meet with people like that. You have to have levels between you and them, and even then who do you trust? As much as you trust your old drug running buddies like Uncle Larry, they aren’t family. You need someone who can control the flow of information and that speaks for you. But it has to be someone related to you. Those two aren’t smart enough, and Mother isn’t calm enough under pressure.”

“And you think you’re the right woman, Miss Panic Attacks?” Father said, trying to undermine Natalie’s stance.

The daughter smirked. “Cute. Yes, I do have panic attacks. And anxiety, and an eating disorder, and PTSD and who knows what else, thanks to you and Mother. You know what else I have? I have plans on top of plans for this family. Your allies will know that if I speak, you’re speaking. If I tell them to jump, you’re telling them to jump. I can move back and forth without notice in the two worlds. Why? Because no one in the church pays attention to the young woman above whether or not she has a suitor, and I’m disciplined enough to not lose an entire shipment of cocaine because I gave bad directions and had it delivered to a bunch of my friends instead.” Natalie stared daggers at Jacob for that.

As she waited for Father to think of some witty retort, the phone rang. It rang a second time before she walked over to it and grabbed the receiver.

“Yes… Yellow…. 30 minutes… Bye.” Natalie hung up. Father stood up.

“What was that?” He didn’t care that Alex was moving towards him with his baton ready. He wanted answers.

“That, Father, is part of my contingency plan. Simple codes that can’t be confused. I told them that we’re in a holding pattern. If I don’t call them back in 30 minutes, they are to call back at this number. If I do not respond, they are to assume the worst. In that case, there is a copy of all of this ready to go to the city papers, the county police, the pastors over at Grace Unified, CBN, and a few connections in Mexico, Venezuela, Ukraine, and Dubai. And if for some reason you do convince me to call this off, if anything happens to me, ever, that gets triggered. I go missing, I end up dead, I’m found in a lake upside down, I have an accident, I die of anything other than natural causes in my 80’s, this gets sent out. Now, do you want to know my terms or wait to find out if I’m bluffing?” Natalie said, looking up at her father as she walked over to him. She stayed out of his reach, more to give Alex a clean shot if needed.

“Ok Natalie, what are your terms?” Father said, crossing his arms.

“First, uncross your arms. That’s a body language signal telling me you aren’t paying attention.” Father smiled as he uncrossed them.

“You remember.”

“Of course. Now that you’re listening with everything, I move out. Today. I already have a place lined up and can move some stuff in tonight if needed. I no longer trust sleeping in this house. Second, you never lay a finger on me again. Outside of photo ops where you need the big happy family, you don’t touch me. And that goes for everyone else on that couch, too. Unless something happens where I initiate contact, I’m off limits. Understood so far?”

Father nodded. “I understand.”

“Good. Next, like I said, I’m in charge. I will step into the business roles both above and below ground. I will be your eyes and ears in the organization. If I tell you that someone needs removed or something needs changed, it needs to happen. I will not do this willy-nilly, but if I tell you to fire someone or promote someone, it happens. No retaliation against anyone working with me, or even anyone you suspect working with me. I smell that Alex so much as gets denied a raise the deal’s off. In fact, I will designate a small number of people that work directly for me. They do not answer to you, they answer to me. You will have their names by the end of the year, and this list may change as time goes on or situations arise.”

“Makes sense so far. You want to protect your Commie Boyfriend over there.” 

He was trying to get under her skin. For a brief second, it almost worked. “Now Father, we’ve come so far. Why ruin things because you want to be petty? I will make my money from the my cuts of both organizations and will clean it properly. I don’t get paid unless you get paid, so you need to get paid. And I’m going to make sure that we all get paid. Everyone has a role in this organization. Jason and Jacob are the best salesmen around, you are a name brand, and Mother provides a stable visage to those on the outside. Me, I’m the one in the background. I’ve already proven how well I can handle things. Heck, you just praised me in front of national media yesterday. It’s no surprise that I will want to stay in the shadows. Remember, I’m just a girl, just the Preacher’s Daughter. No one will suspect me because who would listen to a girl, right? Which is why you will make those introductions, those connections, so that you can step out of the shadows and stay in the light. You need me. Don’t deny it, you’ve realized this for a while. You know that the twins aren’t capable of doing what you need them to do. Your future depends on whether you’d rather trust a skirt or a faggot. And I already know that answer, you just need to say it out loud.” 

“Why are you doing this? Going this far…”. Father said, acting pained.

Natalie shook her head. She counted on this step. The guilt trip, part of the manipulation game. “Oh, come on. I’ve barely begun. You don’t want to admit it because they’re the golden children, the ones that can do no wrong. Well Father, they’ve done wrong. They have messed up time and time again, and this time it’s caught on video. Now, do I send copies of this to everyone that hates you, or does this get buried in the vault next to the snuff films and videos of you with Stacy?” She saw the look shift on Father’s face as soon as she said snuff films but it absolutely drained when she mentioned her cousin. The one he raped as a girl, the cousin he pimped out to powerful men.

“How?” Father barely whispered the word.

“Oh, are you asking how I found out about the studio? Aside from your sons being sloppy, that’s where they raped me the first time. They didn’t do a good job drugging me as I left, so I was still aware a little of where I was. How did I find out about the videos and the snuff films? Again, your sons are idiots. Did they tell you about how they had me take part in one not even two weeks ago? Yeah, they promised to leave me alone for six months if I eliminated their ruined party favor for them. And like I said, they’re idiots. They blindfolded me to drive me around to take me to this secret location and not once did we hit the highway or even leave the property. I paid attention to where I was, and they made jokes about Atlas Shrugged being their favorite book. Those faggots are barely literate and they’re talking about a book so absurd and poorly written that it reads like jerkoff material for CEO’s. I mean, I could see why you love it so much that you use it as the handle to your secret room. She thinks the biggest problem with the world is altruism. The heroes aren’t heroes, they’re recruiters for a cult of me-first losers, which is precisely what you do on a daily basis. The entire premise of the book is Anti-Christ. It abandons the teachings of the Lord, ignores communal obligations, and pushes greed as a philosophy and empathy as a weakness. A lot like your church. But that’s the message the flock wants to hear, and you won’t deny them that.”

“Wait, you read that?” Jason asked from the couch. Natalie refused to turn to acknowledge him and instead focused on Father. He was the biggest threat in the room, not the twins. Father also looked a little surprised.

“Yes. It’s about 1100 pages of self-aggrandizing drivel about how oh so smart she is and how dumb everyone in the world is for caring. It’s a handbook for justifying psychopathic behavior, and 3 days of my life I’ll never get back. And if you’re asking how I know about Stacy? You think I wouldn’t notice my cousin coming over, being led to this room, and then disappearing? I was a little girl looking for a play date, and she’d vanish. And it wasn’t just you and the faggots, others would show up, too. And what’s that Ben Franklin said about secrets? 3 people can keep a secret if 2 of them are dead. Speaking of dead, after I passed the family rite of passage, I assume you’ll just put that on the shelf next to…”. Natalie’s words trailed off as she saw a new look creep across Father’s face. Confusion. “You… you thought it was them that killed that girl a couple weeks ago. You… you’ve never made them kill, have you? Have you?”

“No.”

Natalie laughed. “All this time, all this time I honestly thought you had them have me kill that girl as some rite, some initiation, some promise to stay away from me. Instead, they were passing off the buck and thought they’d get a sick kick out of it. They thought they were pranking me? Well, here’s a prank for everyone. All of you, all of you are gonna do it. In the studio, and I’m going to film it. No one will have clean hands around here. Everyone in this family is guilty of so many sins, what’s one more? I look through those films, I’ll find a few with you doing the deed, and I’ll guess Mother joined in at least once or twice. That feels like her kink. So those faggots will do it, can be a boy or girl, whatever rocks their boat. Besides, everyone here has already welcomed the Lord into your hearts, you’ve been saved, you have your direct path to Heaven, you’re doing this to spread the word of the Lord. Keep telling yourself that.”

“Not Wendy.” Mother said through her tears. “Not my baby girl.”

“For once, we agree on something Samantha. Wendy is completely off-limits to everyone. She will never know about any of this. She will be protected at all costs, and treated just like a normal teen. Let her grow up, be normal, go off into the world. I find out that any of you look at her funny, touch her in any way whatsoever… Heck, you so much as give creepy vibes near her, I will cut a bitch. I will cut pieces off of you until I get to something you don’t want to lose. And now knowing what I’ve done and what I’m capable of, that threat carries a lot of weight. So we’re clear on Wendy?” Natalie looked around the room. Father nodded. The twins looked at each other, then nodded. Mother’s tears went from stressed to relieved. Natalie looked at her watch, then over to the phone.

“You expecting that call back, I assume.” Father said, trying to regain any semblance of power but he was emasculated. His daughter bested him. He knew it, she knew it, he knew she knew it, and she knew that he knew that she knew it.

“Time’s up soon, and you have to make a decision. Given everything you’ve heard and seen, it should be an easy decision. You have to decide who will build your empire, the faggots or the skirt. I know what you need to say and what you want to say, but there’s still this little part of you deep down that denies everything you’ve seen about your precious boys, so I’ll make this simple. You can tell yourself you didn’t have a choice. Choose the faggots, and I give the order to release everything. Choose the skirt, and you’ll have riches and power beyond your dreams. You have less than a minute to decide before I answer that phone call and give the Red code word.”

“Could I have a little more time?” Father asked meekly.

“Time is a luxury you do not have, Father.”

“Okay.”

“Okay what? Say it.” Natalie said as the phone rang the first time. “Say it, say who will run your empire.” The phone rang a second time. “Say it, will it be the faggots or the skirt?” The phone rang a third time. She stepped closer to the phone. Father mumbled something, then the phone rang a fourth time. “Louder, I can’t hear you.”

“You. The skirt. You win.” It hurt Father to say those words. It hurt his soul to realize that not only had he underestimated Natalie, he ignored her to the point that she pulled off this masterpiece of revenge in what, a few weeks? A couple months at most? She set up everything. She picked the venue, knowing that the secret door was here and what lay down the hall. She had to have planned out the events at the Concordia. She hinted that she drugged them, she had videos and still photos of their debauchery, and the timing was perfect. She planned on the boys screwing up an important event and her saving the day. She knew he’d have to talk about how great of a job she did in front of national television reporters. That segment aired on the CBN affiliate last night, so she knew he couldn’t cut her loose. And doing this today when the senior security officer was that Russian boy who has a crush on her. His men were nowhere around. She just executed a coup and had enough blackmail to destroy everyone, and was just mad enough to do it. He’d tell himself that he could try to pull something out of this, but he knew he couldn’t for a while. This was going to be a long and drawn out war. And his pride was the first casualty.

Natalie picked up the phone. “Yes… Green…. Thank you, moving to next phase.” She hung up just as quickly as she answered.

She looked around the room. Father was a shell of himself, Mother was a mess, and the twins refused to look at anyone. Alex did his best to withhold his emotions, but he seemed happy for her. For a moment, she felt content. She knew this was just the first step and had a long journey ahead, but the first step was accomplished.

She had her family where she wanted them. Under her heel.



End of Part 1
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To Be Continued in Part 2: Michelle and The Cousins. If you've liked this so far, please give a like or three to the Original Post in the thread. Thanks.

[Shocker]

Two things come to mind after this excellent last chapter. I do get the reference of including the “to remember” after you added to forget after thanksgiving, yet this chapter would gave worked just as Black Friday quite marvelously.

Also I’m not a big fan of the Godfather, but this chapter almost cried for “a offer they couldn’t refuse” if only in the mind of the reverend Daniels.

Those are not criticism, just two things that stuck in my mind.