Disclaimer: See previous chapter.
A/N: For now, I'm going to put the answers to my reviews at the bottom of the page. That way, you all can get to the story faster! For anyone who didn't know/has forgotten who Justin is: he's Amanda's older stepbrother. For more info on him, read Chapter 14.
Chapter Eighteen: Blast From Her Past
Jordan gasped. So this was the older brother Amanda had always talked about with thinly-veiled venom in her voice. Michelle and the kids had come out of the room and down the hallway just in time to hear Amanda ask him what he was doing in Boston.
"Justin, I told you this wasn't a good time…" Michelle said, trying to settle the situation a bit. "Chad, John, take your brother and sister back to the conference room please." The boys protested, but upon seeing the look on their mother's face, whisked their siblings away immediately.
"Wait a minute," Amanda said, turning to face her older sister with a look of disbelief on her face. "You KNEW he was here? You knew he was going to do this?" The entire morgue crew was now watching the scene unfold in the hallway, and all of them knew that this would not end well.
"Amanda," Michelle said, walking slowly towards her now visibly shocked younger sister with her hands up, as if trying to stop an imminent attack. "Calm down for a minute. Yes, I did know that Justin was coming to Boston. But I didn't know he would come here to see you. I told him it wasn't a good idea, but as always, he didn't listen and did it anyway."
Amanda looked like she had just been slapped in the face. Her own older sister had done something she had told her she'd never do: bring her older brother within 20 feet of her. Her expression radically changed from one of shock to one of burning anger.
"Uh-oh," Woody whispered to Jordan as they watched the unfolding scene with Peter, Nigel, Bug, Lily, and Devon. "This cannot be good."
"Who's this guy anyway?" Peter asked, as the others nodded, as if asking the question themselves.
"That's her older stepbrother," Jordan replied. "They're, um…not on good terms, to put it lightly." Satisfied with the answer, they turned their attention back to Michelle and Amanda, the latter of which was visibly angry.
"Michelle, you promised," Amanda said, shaking with anger. "You promised me that I'd never have to see that bastard again!"
"Amanda, I know I did, but he wanted to see you," Michelle said weakly, realizing that her worst fears about this meeting were about to come true.
"But you promised me!" Amanda said, raising her voice. "You promised that after your wedding, I'd never have to see him again, that you'd never bring him anywhere near me again!"
"I couldn't help it!" Michelle said, regaining her strength and her voice. "It's not like I can control my brother! Besides, he wanted to see you! He actually WANTED to! Doesn't that matter?"
"Why would I want to see him?" Amanda yelled. "After all the shit that he said about me, Jessie, Lori, and Mom? Forget it!"
"Amanda, please…"
Amanda whirled around to face her stepbrother, who had just spoken in an effort to deflect the anger away from Michelle.
"What do you want?" she yelled. It was too late to calm her down. Amanda was prepared for battle, and nothing would stop her.
"You guys might want to leave," Michelle said as she walked back to the group. "She's gonna explode any minute."
"Isn't there any way to calm her down?" Peter asked.
Michelle shook her head. "She's too far gone. After all the years of keeping her thoughts about him to herself for Dad's sake, she's finally gonna let go on him."
"What did she mean about the stuff he said about her mom?" Bug asked.
"After her mother died, I called her here in Boston to offer my condolences. Justin was at the house with his kids when I made the phone call, and she heard him and his wife talking about her mom. It didn't go over well at all."
"Well, if he hated her and her family so much, why is he here?" Devon asked, confused.
"A couple of years ago, Justin decided that it wasn't worth holding a grudge against Dad anymore, so he started coming to see him whenever he visited us. He'd always ask about Amanda, to see how she was. He wanted to make amends for all the stuff he'd done over the years, but every time I'd call and try to tell her, she'd refuse to listen. She's held a grudge against him for a long time…She refuses to talk to him, to see him; and when she does talk about him, she always does it in the shortest amount of words possible. He figured that if he came here with me, she'd be more likely to listen, but as you can see…"
"She's not having any of it," Nigel finished. "Well you can't really blame her for it. What about his wife?"
"His wife was really the only thing holding him back from complete reconcilliation with the family; she was the one really saying stuff about Amanda's mom, but Amanda only heard Justin. His wife was very controlling, and threatened to take the kids from him every time he tried to leave," Michelle continued. "They got divorced a month ago, he got the kids, and he figured that now would be the best time."
"We'll just have to wait and see what happens," Lily said with a worried expression on her face as they turned to watch Amanda again.
"What do you want?" Amanda yelled, finally facing her older brother. "What the hell could you possibly want?"
"Amanda, calm down," Justin said, worried for his younger sister. "I just want to talk to you."
Amanda laughed; a strange, maniacal laugh so unlike her own. "Telling me to calm down…It sounds like you almost give a damn Justin. I applaud you, you've obviously taken some acting lessons over the years."
"Amanda, I'm…" Justin started to say, but was cut off by Amanda.
"No. You're not talking. You're gonna stand here, and you're gonna listen to everything I have to say to you." Amanda said in an oddly determined voice. "First off, I'd just like to let you know that the only reason I'm not trying to beat the shit out of you is that Michelle's here, and you know as well as I do that she hates fistfights now. Do you understand that?"
Justin nodded, scared of how calm and determined Amanda had become in the last few minutes. Having seen him answer in the affirmative, Amanda continued.
"It's become blatantly obvious to you in the last few minutes that I hate you, but you have no idea. You caused me and my mother so much pain in the past 13 years that at times, it almost became unbearable, and that shit you said on the phone about my mother after she had DIED was the last fucking straw."
"Amanda, you didn't hear it all…"
"I believe the words you used were, 'It's about fucking time she died. It was probably her bastard kid's fault too,' am I right?" Amanda said coldly. "Well, I'll bet you didn't know this, but I DO blame myself for what happened to my mother. You have NO idea what it was like knowing that you were responsible for one of your parents' death, and you never will. But what REALLY pisses me off is the fact that you didn't even bother to show up at her FUCKING FUNERAL TO BE THERE FOR YOUR OWN GODDAMNED FATHER!"
"Amanda, I couldn't," Justin said. "The other members of your mom's family didn't want me there, and neither did…" Amanda cut him off again.
"IF YOU EVEN TRY TO SAY THAT YOU DIDN'T SHOW UP TO COMFORT YOUR FATHER BECAUSE OF YOUR FUCKING CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON WIFE, I DON'T CARE IF MICHELLE DOES SEE, I WILL BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU!" Amanda screamed, now completely around the bend. "THAT IS NO FUCKING EXCUSE FOR IT! ALL THOSE TIMES SHE 'WENT TO VISIT HER PARENTS' AND YOU STILL COULDN'TVE COME TO SEE CHARLIE? YOU WERE THE WORST SON EVER! YOU UP AND DECIDED THAT JUST BECAUSE YOUR FATHER DECIDED TO BE HAPPY, YOU WOULD BE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE ON THE PLANET AND NEVER SPEAK TO HIM AGAIN? THAT IS REALLY FUCKING LOW JUSTIN, EVEN FOR YOU!"
Justin was angry now. "DO YOU REALLY THINK I WOULD BE THAT MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE ON PURPOSE? DID YOU KNOW THAT MY WIFE THREATENED TO TAKE AWAY MY CHILDREN IF I TRIED TO DIVORCE HER? AND I'LL BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT EVERY TIME I VISITED MICHELLE OR MELISSA, I ASKED ABOUT YOU, AND HOW YOU WERE DOING!"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER!!" Amanda screamed. Peter tried to go to her, but Woody held him back. "Let her get this out," he said. "She needs it."
"MAYBE IF I HAD BEEN ALLOWED TO TALK TO MY DAD EVERY TIME I CALLED, THIS WOULDN'T BE SUCH AN ISSUE!"
"WELL MAYBE IF YOU DIDN'T HANG THE FUCK UP EVERY TIME MY MOTHER ANSWERED THE PHONE, YOU WOULD'VE GOTTEN TO TALK TO HIM!" Amanda screamed as she turned and started to walk down the hallway. She had had enough of Justin blaming her mother for everything that happened to him.
"WELL MAYBE IF YOUR MOTHER WASN'T SUCH A WHORE, YOU'D BE MY REAL SISTER, AND THIS FIGHT WOULD'VE BEEN OVER A WHILE AGO!" Justin stopped as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He knew he had gone too far.
Amanda was almost all the way to the group when Justin had screamed his final insult. She stopped dead in her tracks. Those closest to her at that moment (her father, her stepmother, and Peter) saw her face go pale pale white. She turned around slowly, then started running back towards her stepbrother. In that moment, Justin knew he had DEFINITELY gone too far.
Amanda screamed as she jumped on her stepbrother and began to hit him as hard as she possibly could. "HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT MY MOTHER THAT WAY!!" Amanda screamed as she punched Justin repeatedly.
Suddenly, she felt a pair of arms go around her waist and her body being lifted up off of her brother. She kicked and screamed "LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" but her father refused to let go of her. Michelle ran over and helped her brother stand up. Justin wiped his lip-split by Amanda's punches-as he stood and faced his little sister, now wild-eyed with anger and hurt.
"Amanda, I didn't mean it," he said, visibly remorseful. "I didn't mean it. It was a heat-of-the-moment thing…I didn't really mean it. Please, forgive me."
Woody finally let go of Amanda, who calmly walked up to Justin and said, "She may have been a whore to you, but at least my mother loved me," before getting into an elevator and leaving the bewildered group standing there, until Peter ran to the elevators and got in, hell-bent on catching Amanda before she did something stupid.
A/N 2: This was probably the hardest chapter for me to write, because much of the whole Amanda/Justin thing was taken from my real-life experiences with my older half-brother, with a few major differences: namely, his mother passed away, and he has never once made the effort to reconcile with me, my mother, and younger sister. Anyways, on to the reviews!
Dan: Well, you just found out what's up. There's going to be a lot more to come in this, and-well, let's just say that this conflict is the other reason why this story is part tragedy…Keep on reading. I'm posting the next two chapters tonight, if I can.