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I acted fast and paralyzed him with a new switch. It seemed so easy to do with Loveth holding my hand.

The ease of it frightened me more than the act itself. There was no resistance nor any sense of strain, just a clean and obedient response—as if reality itself had been waiting for my command.

"Who is it, dear?" a feminine voice called out from the bathroom, but Dad wouldn't be able to answer her for now.

The voice echoed in the tiled space, soft and unsuspecting, and something cold twisted in my stomach. Whatever this night had been before, it wasn't that anymore. It had crossed into something irreversible.

Despite not being able to see this other person, I was somehow able to paralyze her too. The realization shocked me; this was the first time I'd ever created a switch on someone—or something—I couldn't see. I looked down at where I was still gripping my sister's hand. Somehow, she was drastically magnifying and augmenting my ability.

The connection felt like pressure behind my eyes, like a door opening wider than it was ever meant to, my power flowed cleaner, sharper and frighteningly precise.

With the switch embedded in the hidden woman, I could now mentally see her—crouching naked behind the bathroom door. She looked only a little older than me, and younger than Loveth.

The image hit me with uncomfortable clarity: I was not imagining any of this. All these things were really happening; I really caught my dad cheating. I swallowed hard.

I lifted my gaze to Loveth's eyes and saw the anger burning there. She spoke without looking away from our father.

"Nick, I don't know how you're doing this, but we'd better get inside."

Her voice was steady, but I could feel the tension in her grip. She was holding herself together through sheer force of will.

I knew she could see everything I was seeing, could feel me creating switches and moving them around. The connection between us was unmistakable.

That realization settled heavily in my chest. There were no walls between us now—no privacy, no separation.

I agreed, and we both pressed past our frozen father before I turned and closed the door. I rotated him to face the room, then walked over and picked up the nude woman, carrying her to the bed. She looked almost ridiculous lying there with her body locked in a crouched position. I tried to move her paralyze switch.

The room felt too small, too quiet, like it was holding its breath.

It wouldn't budge.

For a second I panicked, no matter how much willpower I threw at it, the switch refused to move. Then an idea hit me. I walked back over to Loveth and grabbed her hand.

Instantly, I could move the switch again.

The contrast was undeniable. With her, my thoughts carried weight. Without her, they dulled, resisted.

Apparently, anything I did while touching my sister was far stronger than what I could manage alone. As soon as the woman could move, she tried to scramble off the bed and flee, but I refroze her—this time without touching Loveth—just as she sat up.

The reflex came easier than I wanted to admit.

I turned back to our dad and saw a tear of fear leak from one of his eyes. I had to take Loveth's hand again to do anything to him. I tried to slowly ease his paralysis, wanting only his head to move, but it didn't work the way I intended. Instead, his entire body became sluggish, as if every movement required tremendous effort.

Watching him struggle felt surreal. This was the man who had towered over us our entire lives, he was reduced to slow, labored motion.

I released him completely while mentally locking the door at the same time.

Dad bolted for it, but because I'd locked it while touching Loveth, he couldn't get out, he couldn't even unlock it. He spun back toward me.

"Devil's spawn," he spat. "What do you think you're doing?"

The words barely registered. They felt small compared to the weight pressing down on the room.

He raised his hand, and it was all too easy to make him weak. When his palm struck my face, it felt no stronger than a light caress. A moment later, his legs buckled beneath him, unable to support his weight.

The sound of him hitting the floor echoed louder than the slap.

"I recommend you stay down and listen to us," I said. I was surprised by how calm my voice sounded, it was both cold and steady, like an Antarctic night.

Even I barely recognized it.

For a moment, it looked like he might argue, but when I didn't back down and stared at him coldly, I felt his anger drain away. The look in his eyes shifted into stark terror.

I waited until he was seated before letting go of my sister's hand. She immediately grabbed it again, and I realized she wanted to know everything I was doing. I resolved to be careful with any switches I created while we were touching.

The responsibility settled in like a weight on my shoulders.

I'd almost forgotten about the other woman until Dad glanced toward her. I looked more closely and realized she might actually be younger than me, just old enough to be legal, but not by much. Her small breasts hung forward as she sat frozen. In fact, she bore a slight resemblance to Loveth. The hair was different, but the blue eyes and jaw structure were almost identical.

The resemblance made my skin crawl.

"Who is she?" I asked coldly, suddenly wondering if there was some twisted connection there. It would be just like my dad to sleep with one of his own bastards.

The thought lingered longer than I wanted it to.

"Let me go, and you can have her," the older man pleaded.

A very small part of me laughed at how disgusting my father was.

"I asked who she was, not whether I could play with your leftovers," I snapped. "She can go soon enough." As soon as I'm done with you, you bastard.

The words burned in my mind, sharper than anything I'd said out loud.

How could he do this to Mom? It wasn't like mom wasn't attractive in her own right, but this felt deeply wrong. It wasn't until much later that I realized how close this was to the situation with Nancy and me—though at least Janet was closer to my age than Dad's, and neither woman had been married.

At the time, all I felt was betrayal—raw and suffocating.

My father licked his lips, his eyes flickering between Loveth, the girl, and me before finally answering.

"She's one of my interns."

"And how long have you been cheating on Mom with her?" Loveth asked, anger sharpening every word.

"With Amber? Only a couple of months."

That told me everything I needed to know. This woman wasn't the first. I looked at Amber and knew she wasn't the real villain here, Dad was. I could even understand her just a little. Sleep with the boss, and suddenly your chances of moving up weren't so slim.

And in that moment, standing in the wreckage of our family, I understood something else too: whatever power I'd awakened, whatever line I'd crossed, there was no going back to who we were before...

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A massive shout-out to the big brothers and big sisters who have been flooding me with both Power Stones and Golden Tickets since yesterday. The love is overwhelming, guys—especially Solarc18, Mathi_Ney, heavyde050, and my man Barry_Mace. I love y'all so much! 😘🥰 Please keep on supporting your child.

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