White Liars

Chapter 24

Elizabeth Habbay's POV 

I walked into the room and it took all I had to keep from crying when I saw Jen. My older sister. My older cousin, really, but the only person I could and would ever call my sister. I looked at Nina and walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder. I leaned down and kissed her cheek, then I looked back up at Jen. 

"I've missed you everyday Jen."

She looked at me in disbelief, with silent tears flowing down her cheeks, but also with reproach. She looked like she was going to get up and run into the corner. She looked like she had seen a ghost, and I guess she had. 

"No. You.. You're dead." She looked at Nina, "What drug have you given me? This is beyond you. This is beyond you capabilities of cruel. Why don't you just kill me and get it over with? Please! Please, please, please, please, please I'm begging you please." She just kept repeating 'Please, please, please, please..." over and over and over. 

It hurt me to see her so insane. My sister had always been the calm, cool, and collected one. 

"Jennifer. Jennifer, I didn't give you any drugs. This really is your sister." Nina said in a cooing voice to her. 

"Don't talk to her like she's a baby." I snapped at her. "Jen, it's really me. I just want to tell you what really happened." 

Jen looked up at me and she had visually calmed down from her hysterical state. Then in her eyes I saw something I had never seen before towards me. Hate, rage, anger. 

"Have you seen our parents? Have you seen what you and your cruel little band of awful horrible people have done to our parents? Are you seeing what they did to me. Me Liz, your only sister. Or I mean cousin. But of course you've known that so much longer than I have." She took a deep breath. "What do you want with me Liz? What could you possibly want from me that you all haven't already taken?"

All I could do was look at her. All I could do was stare in disbelief at what I had done to the only person who I ever could call my sister.

"Will you listen to my story?" I asked quietly.

She just threw up her arms and made a face that said 'you're going to anyways.'

"When Nina contacted me, I wasn't surprised. I had found out earlier in the year about mom's sister and I connected the dots by myself after a little research. I was mad at them. How could they keep such a big secret from us, especially because Nina was your mom. I assume Nina has told you about what happened when we first met at the diner and then the other times that we met up. When I found out that not only had they kept this huge secret from us but mom also locked up my aunt in a mental hospital that she didn't belong in I was more than pissed.

"So when Nina told me about her plan, I agreed full heartedly. I wanted to help you. But, Jen, that wasn't the only reason. In the previous months I had gotten mixed up with some awful, awful people. I was in way over my head and I was about to drown in all the issues I had created. And... and Nina's plan gave me a way out without having to actually confront my indiscretions. So I died, figuratively anyways. I can't ever make it up to you, ever, for putting you through what I put you through.

"However, they deserved it. The deserve everything that they are getting. Jen! We are going to be rich! We will never have to work again ever. We can change our identities and live in peace for the rest of our lives. We all win." I told her. 

"We all win? We all win?" She started laughing hysterically. "Ashton's family wins too?  How about Bridget and the rest of your little friends back home? They win too? So do all of your groupies? What happens to them when you've finished your plan? Why don't you ask Nina? She seems to be calling all the shots. Unless you are? In that case torturing me was not the way to win me back. You are so naive Liz if you think that this idiotic plan is just going to work out."

In the weeks and months that I had been "dead", and even before that, I had grown into someone different. It took everything I had not to blow up. It took everything I had to not express my superiority, especially because I knew that there were people watching who might take this for granted.

"Jennifer, I need you to think really hard about what you're saying. We're the ones in charge, not you. I could easily become the bad guy instead of the good guy for you." I said trying to keep my temper in check.

"They did nothing but love you. What has this woman done? Manipulated you into faking your death. Convinced you that she was the good guy when all she has done is torture me and our real parents. This woman isn't fit to be a mother. There is a reason they commited her at that mental institution. They do a psychological evaluation before committing anyone. I can guarantee you that she failed her sanity test. You let her take advantage of you. I have no respect for you. You're my younger cousin, we're not even real sisters. My real sister would absoulutely never act like this."

I walked over to her chair and slapped her. Hard. All she did was stare at me. It was like she didn't have any idea who I was and I guess she didn't. But, this was who I was, I wasn't that little innocent girl anymore. I looked at the glass two way mirror and nodded my head. The door opened and Jen was escorted out of the room. 

I shook my head and turned around so that I was facing Nina. 

"I though that was going to go way different." I said to her.

"She'll come around. She's stubborn at first but, she'll eventually break. We have bigger issues. How do we collect the insurance without letting them know that we were the reason behind everything?"

I sat down at the table and put my head in my hands. "Nothing is working like we needed it to."

"We'll fix it Lizzy. I know that it looks bad now but we'll firgure it out."

I just closed my eyes and then got up and left the room. There was nothing else to say. I went to the two way mirror of the next room. My mom was just sitting there, staring at the walls. Sometimes she would start whispering to herself. It was really quite interesting to watch someones sanity slowly slip away every second they were locked away and metally tormented. I admit that it was not the best thing for me to do, but I did get an immense amount of satisfaction from watching her suffer.  

I moved to the next room where my father was. Where my mom was losing her sanity, my dad was becoming more and more lucid. He was slowly figuring everything out without any help from anyone. He truly was a smart guy, but that didn't make me feel bad for what was going to happen. He was in on all the secrets and lies. 

Jennifer just didn't get it. She didn't understand why we had to do this. I started walking back to my quarters and passed a few people who nodded at me. 

When I got there, I put some soup in the microwave and sat down at the table by myself. I had to admit I felt alone most of the time. There was a knock on my door and then it opened and Grant came in.

I smiled, got up and walked over to him. He picked me up and we kissed. When I was around him I never felt alone. Not even being around Nina made me feel like I had someone in the world. I knew she wasn't trustworthy. I knew everything Jen said about her was true, but she was the only person who could help me achieve my goal.

I smiled  against his lips. "Hi."

He resonded by kissing me again.

"I love you." He said to me.

"I love you too." I said back.

"Not to bring up a sore subject, but what are we going to do about Jennifer?" I separated from him and walked back to my soup.

"I don't know Grant. I don't really want to talk about her right now. She's basically the only person in the world causing me enough stress to make me go completely insane."

"I'm sorry baby, I didn't mean to upset you." He said, walking up behind me. He started to massage my shoulders and bent over my shoulders and gave me a light kiss on the cheek.

"You sleepy?" I asked

"Oh I'm always sleepy." 

"Good." I said and jumped back in his arms.

A/N: Alright I finally have it done. What do you think of Elizabeth's headspace? She talks a lot about her mothers insanity but she's definitley not the sanest person out there. How do you think this is going to end? I think I'm going to Ashton's POV next.