Mark turned his focus entirely onto his sister with eyes so cold they looked completely alien. He took slow deliberate steps across the room toward the dining table where Megan had backed into a chair. The low rumbles of tension filled the silent gaps between Lily's fading cries. Megan tried to regain her arrogant stance by straightening her bright yellow sweater and glaring back at him.
Megan: She hit me three times Mark! You need to control your insane wife right now!
Mark: You put your hands on my daughter?!
Megan: She was being loud and annoying! I barely tapped her cheek to shut her up!
Mark did not hesitate for even a fraction of a second when those cruel words left her mouth. He raised his heavy right hand and struck Megan hard across the face with devastating power. The impact knocked her completely off balance sending her crashing sideways onto the dining room chair. Her head snapped back hard and she slid down onto the floor with a painful gasp of total surprise. The heavy slap echoed off the high ceiling like a thunderclap breaking the silent winter air.
Megan lay on the hardwood floor holding her jaw in absolute agony and shock. She looked up at her brother with wide frightened eyes finally realizing that she had pushed him way too far. Mark stood over her like a towering giant his chest heaving up and down while he glared down at her. He pointed his finger directly at the front door with absolute finality in his posture.
Mark: Get out of my house! Right now before I throw you into the snow myself!
Megan: Mark please! It's freezing outside and I don't have anywhere else to stay tonight!
Mark: I don't give a damn where you go! You touch my child and you are dead to me!
I held Lily close in the background smoothing her fine soft hair while Mark grabbed Megan's heavy coat from the rack. He tossed the coat directly onto her head while she scrambled up from the cold floor. Megan was sobbing now her arrogant attitude completely shattered into pathetic pieces. She clutched her swollen cheek and snatched her purse off the table with trembling fingers. She realized there was no negotiating with a father whose basic protective boundaries had been crossed so horribly.
Mark opened the heavy oak front door letting a burst of freezing winter wind and snow blow into the warm foyer. He grabbed Megan's suitcase that she had brought for her week-long visit and threw it out into the driveway. Megan rushed past him into the snowy night without looking back once as the door slammed shut with permanent thunder behind her.