“Cut the shit,” I spat, stepping toward the table so fast my shoes screeched against the floor. “I know who you are.”
Otto stayed seated, but I saw it then—that tiny shift behind his eye
Calculation.
“I know you taught at Ashford,” I continued, my voice shaking hard enough that I hated it. “I know William Kellerman disappeared after the fire, and Otto Keller magically showed up six weeks later with no fucking past. I know you changed your name.”
Adrenaline tore through me fast enough that my fingertips buzzed. I couldn’t stop moving, pacing once beside the booth before turning back toward Otto again because standing still suddenly felt impossible.
“You drove me to school,” I said, and my voice cracked this time. “You sat in our house.”
Otto stood like he was approaching a frightened animal.
“Archie—”
“Did you take my brother?”
The rain battered harder against the windows now, wind rattling faintly through the glass.
Otto said nothing, and the pressure inside mesnapped.
I grabbed the nearest stool and hurled it across the café.
It crashed hard enough against the wall that Randolph flinched backward while metal legs scraped violently across tile.
“Did you take my brother?” I screamed.
The warmth in his face just…disappeared.
His eyes emptied in a way that made cold spread violently through my stomach, because I realized I had never actually seen him before now.
Not really.
Every smile, every patient little nod while helping me with homework had been performance layered over performance layered over performance.
And underneath it?
Nothing human.
“Did you?” I demanded.
“Yes.”
For a second, I genuinely thought I might throw up right there on the café floor.
Abel.
I pressed both hands against the edge of the table because suddenly my body didn’t feel connected correctly. My skin had gone freezing cold while heat climbed violently up my throat.
“You—” I swallowed hard against the nausea clawing upward. “You had him?”
Otto’s jaw shifted once. “Yes.”
My vision blurred.
Rage. Grief. Relief. Horror.
All of it slammed together so hard I couldn’t separate one feeling from the next.
