Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 159420 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159420 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
But look at him. Look at him, trapped in here with me. Look at him, being a fucking prisoner, bested at his own game by someone more evil than him. And God, it feels good. It feels good that he’s getting what he deserves. It may not last long. He may go back to being all powerful tomorrow, trying to control the lives of everyone around him. But he’s done controlling mine. He’s done intimidating me.
He’s done fucking with me.
Looking him in his monstrous eyes, I continue, “I’ll kill you, you understand that? I’ll fucking end you. For saying that about my Radisson and doing every evil thing you’ve ever done to him and his family. I’ll kill you like I should’ve killed you when I was ten.”
“I saw him.”
Lakelyn’s words break our stare-down, and I turn to look at her. “What?”
Her cheeks are streaked with tears, but for the first time since I entered the room, she looks calm. Less afraid. And I realize that before this moment, she looked like a little girl, hunched over, hugging her knees, scared of her own shadow. But something changed in her and now she looks older. Like her own age, more like herself. Despite everything that’s happening right now, something about seeing her get back to herself warms my heart.
“At my school,” she continues, and I know she’s talking about my father. “It was after hours. I was studying at the library and I saw him. With one of the students. I was still in junior high and we were in a different wing than high school. But some of our classes were in the same building so I knew most of the students. She was a senior I think and he was…” She swallows thickly, and the way she does it makes my heart pound in my chest. “I thought he was a teacher at first. Thought he was meeting with a student after hours but then he… fell on her. He started going at her clothes and when she started screaming, he put his hand on her mouth, and… I must’ve made a sound, I’m sure of it. I’d never seen anything like that before and… he turned around and saw me, and as soon as I realized who it was, I ran. I turned around and I started running. I ran and ran to the bus stop. And just went home. Without saying anything to anyone. Without calling for help. Without… And then, four days later, it all happened. The car crash. My parents and Rad…”
She trails off and stays quiet for a few moments. And it’s a good thing because there’s a roar in my ears. A loud rush, so even if she did talk, I wouldn’t be able to hear her. I wouldn’t be able to hear anything over the ruckus in my brain. The mayhem, the chaos.
Because I think I’ve realized something awful. Awful, awful, awful.
And as if Lakelyn can not only read my mind but also see me, she turns her stunning green eyes to me and confesses, “I lost my eyes in that accident. But I wasn’t supposed to do that. I was supposed to die, too, because that car crash was for me. It was so I didn’t say anything to anyone. So I didn’t tell anyone what I saw. But I survived, and so he came for me. He found me at the hospital one day and told me he’d kill my brother if I ever opened my mouth. He told me it was best if I went away and never came back.”
The noise in my head and the pain in my chest are so intense, it’s a wonder I’m able to form words, let alone say them. But I do. “And you did go away.”
Swallowing, she nods, tears streaming down her cheeks.
I open and close my mouth several times before I add, “And it was because of my father. Not because of your brother, because you drifted a-apart and…”
She wipes her tears. “No. Rad’s my brother. I love him. I know he thinks that. I know… But I left because I didn’t… I didn’t see any other way. Rad was the only family I had left; I had to protect him.”
I don’t think I’m breathing anymore. I don’t think my heart is beating. I think this is where I break down and fall to pieces. Because that’s exactly what I thought, didn’t I? I thought I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut. I had no choice but to do as my father told me if I wanted to protect my mother. So I know how she felt. How trapped and suffocated. She probably thought it was her fate. To leave her brother behind and be alone for the rest of her life because a monster ordered her to.