Fable of Happiness (Fable #2) by Pepper Winters

There, on a tiny screen, was Gemma dressed in a yellow skirt and white T-shirt. Her golden hair glimmered in the sun, and her radiant smile lit up from within.

And she was in some asshole’s arms.

An asshole who whirled her around and threatened to throw her to the ground, only to toss her over his shoulder instead.

My temper soared, breaking through my barriers, ensuring I was seconds away from snapping. “Who the fuck is touching you?”

She flinched, studying me instead of the video. Whatever she saw on my face made her slip to her knees and angle herself toward the sharp letter opener resting on the desk above her.

My heart panged that she was unsettled enough to reach for a weapon, but my fury fired through me, uncontrolled. “Tell me who the hell is holding you.” My knuckles cracked as I flexed my hands, activating pain from cuts and bruises I didn’t remember how I earned.

She licked her lips, her voice breathy and wary. “It’s my brother. Joshua. He, eh...he likes to throw me around. To prove that even though I can bench press more than him in the gym, he can still toss me like a soccer ball.”

“He’s your brother?” I snatched the device from her, drinking in the sight of a shaggy lawn, a purple-painted house, and a laughing, carefree Gemma in the arms of another man.

I didn’t fucking care if they were related.

It wasn’t about that.

It was about her happiness.

How she glowed with it, burst with it. Her laughter clear and unafraid. Her face tipped up to the sun as Joshua lowered her carefully to the ground, then tickled her waist before snapping upright and running. Gemma shot to her feet and chased him, threatening to kick his ass all while absolute affection beamed on her face.

Whoever was recording chuckled and turned the camera on themselves, revealing an older woman who Gemma would resemble in forty years’ time. Wrinkles around her heavy, saddened eyes, and lips a bit too pink with lipstick. Sunshine twinkled on her graying gold hair, granting her beauty even if her grief tried to steal it. “Children.” The woman rolled her brown eyes. “Who would have ’em?” She sighed heavily, her sadness so obvious after witnessing Gemma’s squeals of joy before Joshua spun back into the frame and ripped the recorder from the woman’s hands.

Angling it up at himself, he winked and ran a hand through his dark blond hair.

I could see the family resemblance. He and Gemma could’ve been twins.

“My dear ole mother is only complaining because Gem is such a bad cook. She burned the cupcakes she was baking for us.” He ducked suddenly as Gemma reappeared, snatching the camera and angling it on herself. “Lies! He deliberately picked me up, dragged me out of my house, and proceeded to demand a cash allowance for being a jerk.” She sniffed and bolted around the garden, still holding the camera as Joshua chased her, filling up the view behind. “You ruined those cupcakes, Joshykins, not me!”

“Grrrr. Come back here, sparkly Gemstone. I deserve payment for being your sibling, and you owe me for that ridiculous nickname. Who else puts up with you and your midnight texts about you going off on some boulder hunt, huh? Piss me off, and you have no one!”

“Oh, you love it,” she yelled back. “Admit it. You have no one else to bother you at midnight ’cause you suck at women!”

“I do not.”

“Do too!”

“Argh, you wait!” He sped up and launched himself on her. The camera went flying, sending the video spinning before it crashed into the grass and filmed the two squabbling siblings sideways in the dirt.

“Pay me a million dollars, or else I’ll...I’ll post online that you’d rather kiss a frog than go out with anyone who shows a tiny amount of interest in you!”

Gemma squirmed and pinched him hard in the side. “Excuse me if I have standards and don’t just hump anyone who smiles at me.” She giggled—a sound I’d never heard, never earned—and added, “Not that you succeed in even doing that. Like I said, totally pathetic in love.”

“Now, now.” Their mother walked toward the camera, plucking it from the grass and zooming in on the two demented siblings as they rolled onto their backs, kicking each other like toddlers. “Don’t kill each other over cupcakes. And Gem, don’t pick on your brother. He’s not pathetic in love.”

“He’s demanding money for that very reason.” Gem laughed loudly. “Tell you what. I’ll give you twenty thousand if you go out with my friend who’s been ogling you for months.”

“Katie?” Joshua wrinkled his nose. “She could kick my ass in her sleep. I’m not safe.”

“I could kick your ass. And do.” Gemma winked.

“Yeah, and that’s why I don’t like you. Climber girls are weird.”

“You like me. You lurve me!”

“Only if you pay me to!” Joshua threw himself back on her with an animalistic roar. “I’ll show you just how much I’m worth, Gemstone. A far sight more than you, that’s for sure. I mean, who’s calling who pathetic when you choose rocks over a man and can’t bake to save your life?” He grabbed a handful of grass and stuffed it down her T-shirt, making her squeal. “Not to mention a girl who’s too cheap to buy a lawnmower and actually do some gardening!”

“Okay, that’s enough. The neighbors will talk.” The video suddenly cut off as if their mother had turned off the recorder and gone to discipline her children.