Page 19 of Maddening Fixation

It couldn’t.

“Grandfather!”

My voice ripped through the room, raw with panic.

“Please...”

I fought against the officers’ grip with everything I had left, uncaring that every head in the room was watching me unravel.

“I didn’t do it!”

My words disappeared into suffocating silence.

My voice broke. “I protected her my whole life!”

The words came out between ragged sobs. “I carried her when she couldn’t walk. I fed her when no one else would. I held her every night after she had nightmares.”

“I’ve protected her since she was a baby.”

My knees nearly buckled.

“I couldn’t...”

The next words barely existed. “I couldn’t do that to her.”

Silence answered me.

Not a single member of my family stepped forward.

Not one voice rose in my defense.

Not one hand reached out to stop what was happening.

They simply watched.

The officers tightened their grip and dragged me toward the doors. My heels scraped helplessly across the polished marble, leaving faint streaks of blood in their wake.

Hope died with every step.

Then, unable to stop myself, I looked back one last time.

My eyes found Sergei.

He stood exactly where I’d left him, composed amid the chaos as though none of it had touched him.

He didn’t wave. He didn’t laugh.

He simply held my gaze.

Slowly...

The corner of his mouth lifted.

A smile so slight no one else would have noticed it.

Cold. Satisfied. Victorious.

In that single look, I saw the truth.