Sometimes playing nice never brings the desired results that a person wishes for. Playing it rough, using intimidation, threatening and blackmailing, those methods at times, work the best.
She had experienced it first-hand and understood how smoothly those methods could give you answers when you are polite about it.
She was done acting like a saint towards her mother. Playing the good girl in front of Meyer's family and being labeled as a filial daughter. Yet the people she had been supporting for years, giving her such a title, which made her feel like retching whenever she thought of these vampires she called family, didn't have her in her heart.
Since they didn't appreciate her when she was playing nice, then playing the bad guy was the only choice. It wasn't every day that she got to play like that. So how could she not be thrilled when her mother showed signs of being up to something again?
At her mother's age, there were four things which she loved the most. She couldn't live without them, and those were her husband, her home, her youngest son, and money.
When people have things that they love so much and other people know, these things stop being precious but weaknesses. When blackmailing or threatening someone, always go for their weaknesses, and in her mother's case, she had so many, that Briar knew that she was going to have a party.
After kindly taking her mother out of the ward and going somewhere private, with fewer people, Briar still puts her mother in the corner so that she won't run away. Her mother, despite being on the shorter and plump side, was a good runner.
She grew up climbing mountains and chasing goats and chickens. How could her body not be fit?
"Mother, are you going to confess on your own or are you ready to lose all the wonderful benefits you have been receiving from me all these years?"
"You_"
"If you don't confess and tell me everything. Mother, I swear that from today onward, I will take my eldest brother and his family with me to Stardale. We will live our lives there and never recognize you. Are you sure that you want to lose your money tree just because you want to play the filial card?" Briar didn't give her a chance to retort as she continued to spew threats.
At this moment, Mother Grace was spitting fire from her eyes and if she was a dragon, she might have been burnt already. Since she touched some sore spots, her mother definitely was raging right now.
"I can do so, mother. The moment you agreed to accept that money and let me leave with a stranger, you ceased to be the mother I used to love. I still call you mother, because I respect you. However, if you continue to use this against me, Mother, we all will lose. But I wonder who will lose more. You or me?" with her lips curling into a smirk, Briar continued to taunt her mother.
Mother Grace, seeing that Briar was serious, knew that if she continued being stubborn, her daughter this time wouldn't just let her be.
After not seeing her for years, her wings had hardened again. She didn't know what kind of herbs she ate before coming here, but whatever they were, they were working well. She had succeeded in sending fear into her and grasped her weakness.
She didn't want to get on the bad side of those two yet. Although her love for them wasn't the same, the fact that they were both her children still remained. She couldn't burn the bridges now. It was too risky.
With all that put into consideration, Mother Grace started spilling the beans.
"Your brother, he …. He got into a fight!" Mother Grace stammered in response as she looked away, feeling embarrassed about what she was going to say next. "Brian got involved in a small brawl a while ago and Benjamin saw it. He kindly advised the bullies, but they didn't take it well. he …." Her voice continued to get lower and lower the more she narrated.
Without listening to how the story was going to end, Briar caught the important facts in this matter. Number one, Benjamin was in this state because of their mother's spoiling towards Brian. If Brian didn't get involved with the group of bullies and tried to fight so many people when he was one, then Benjamin wouldn't have bothered to confront those bullies.
The bullies weren't happy about the confrontation, so they planned an ambush on Benjamin one day when he was coming home from work at night. And that second confrontation led her brother into the mummy situation.
These kids beat her brother so badly that his bones and ribs were all broken. Her brother was in so much pain and one of his legs was so badly hurt that if not treated in time, he would get amputated. For a man who relies on his hands and feet to get amputated, wouldn't that kill him?
To think that her mother called her after three days when Benjamin was admitted. Was she trying to kill him?
"Mother, I know that you don't care but I do?" feeling frustrated about everything, Briar burst out angrily at Mother Grace in a pained tone. "Even if you are so stingy to fork out the hard-earned money, I have sent you monthly for years to treat brother, why didn't you call me as soon as he was hospitalized? Do you hate brother so much that you would let him lie in that bed, delaying his treatment?" Briar pulled her hair in frustration, as she looked at her mother with red and teary eyes.
"I …. You_"
"Mother, I surrender. This time, you have truly done it!" Briar said tiredly as her temples started to ache.
She couldn't even defend herself, and deep down in her heart, Briar knew that her mother was definitely proclaiming innocence or perhaps cursing her right now.
Disgustingly, for the sake of the money she loved so much and Brian, she was holding herself.
"B, I … it's not re_"
Briar cut her off again as she shook her head. Her feet started moving, no longer in the mood to be in a confined space with her. If she continued being with Mother Grace, she might end up committing matricide. She was very certain of it.
"Mother, let me tell you something!" with a sinister smile forming on her face, Briar said to her mother, "If anything happens to Benjamin this time like getting crippled, I swear to you that I will return the favor to your dearie. And trust me, I am not joking!" before leaving the other, pointing at her furiously without any word coming out.
As she stepped out of the staircase, Briar gloomily chuckled, finding relief in seeing her mother so angry to the point of being at a loss for words.
Her mother wasn't that easily defeated. If it wasn't for her threatening the other from the start, she might have lost right now with a circle of spectators pointing fingers at her. Her mother was that good at shifting blame.
However, this time, she had won this round. As long as her mother wanted Brian to be unharmed, she was going to tone it down. As for how long that was going to last, she would wait and see.
Just as long as her brother gets the surgery and recovers well, this debt will be forgotten. Also, with all the favor she was giving the other all these years, her parents should get ready to start losing it.
She can't continue feeding ungrateful wolves. One day, they will surely bite her. She was certain of it.
After learning the ins and outs of what happened to her brother, Briar didn't waste any more time but went to look for the doctor who was treating him.
She received a full detailed report from him, which she was very grateful for.
Thankfully, when the surgery was done on time, her brother's recovery was guaranteed to the maximum. And since she was there in person alongside the money needed, that dream could now be realized.
Without wasting any more time, Briar went ahead to pay for the surgery and replaced her mother as the guardian of the patient.
She didn't trust her mother at all when it came to her brother. And with him having no wife, with that wife she got sold for gone, left with her brother's hard-earned savings two years ago plus the children she let her brother raise when they weren't even his.
Her brother was just on his own.
She would rather hire a caretaker than let his fate rest in her mother's hands.
She would rather pay someone than let her money flow into the coffers of her parents.
They didn't deserve it.