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“Last night. House fire,” Beast cuts in quickly, giving me a look.
“I don’t understand?”
“It was a house fire—”
“No, itwasn’t,” I say, glaring at Beast, cutting him off.
Ford looks between us, confusion written across his face. “But Beast just said…”
“It wasn’t a house fire,” I repeat.
“I don’t understand.”
“Beast killed your stepdad a week ago. I killed Mary last night.”
He stares at me, eyes wide, the blood draining from his face as he tries to comprehend what I’ve just said. “You’re lying!”
“It’s the truth. We did it to protect you.”
“No!” he shouts, shooting to his feet. He looks between us with utter horror as he rounds the sofa and backs away towards the kitchen.
“Beast killed Trevor because he was cruel to you,” I continue, needing to purge it all, wanting to start our future with a clean slate. “I killed Mary because she stabbed a man to death in a craze because she hurt you time and time again. She was unstable, Ford.Dangerous.”
“Fuck, Kate,” Beast says, running a hand through his hair.
“He needs to know the truth about what happened, and he needs to understand the truth of who we are if he wants to be a part of our lives,” I say to Beast, needing him to understand. I won’t base our relationship with Ford on a lie.
“You want me to be a part of your life after this?” Ford asks, confusion, shock and fear making him shake violently.
“You sought me out knowing who I was, and I don’t just mean your half-sister. Youknewmy reputation. You understood what you were walking into.”
“But I didn’t—”
“Want us to kill them for hurting you,” I finish for him. “Maybe not consciously, but you knew of my reputation, and heard what I’m capable of. Why did you seek me out, Ford?”
“What do you mean,why? Because I wanted to meet my sister. I wanted to meet the person my mum loved more than she ever loved me. Look how that turned out for her,” he spits, the tears he was holding back, streaming down his face now.
“I’m sorry she treated you the way she did. I’m sorry she wasn’t the mother you needed. You didn’t deserve that life, and I couldn’t let her live knowing what she did to you,” I say, stepping towards him.
He backs up into the kitchen counter, shaking his head. “Don’t come any closer. Don’t!”
“You came to me because you knew exactly who I was,” I press, forcing him to face the ugly truth. “You wanted protection as much as anything else.”
“I wanted to learn how tofight!” he shouts, swiping at his face.
“You wanted to learn how to fight so that the next time your stepdad beat on you, you could kill him. That’s what you said, Ford,” Beast reminds him, glancing over at me. “You wanted him dead, and neither of us blame you for it. I’d have wanted the same thing too.”
I ignore the look of concern in Beast’s gaze. He thinks Ford will rat on us. I know he won’t. He’s in shock, granted, but Ford won’t talk and I know that because I see the relief behind the shock and the pain, even though he’s denying that right now.
“I never asked you to do this! I never asked you to kill them!” he shouts.
“We did what we had to do, and we did it to protect you, kid,” Beast continues, taking a step closer to him.
“But mymum…” he says, pain making way for more tears as his knees buckle. “She’s dead. She’s dead. SHE’S DEAD!”
Beast reaches him just before I do and hauls him into his arms, hugging him close. I hesitate, watching as my brother, a boy who’s only ever known cruelty and abuse, collapses into Beast’s strong arms and cries for a mum who couldn’t love him. Ford has lived a life of trauma at the hands of the one person in the whole world who should’ve loved him the most. No child should ever have to go through that. Not ever.
And seeing him hurt so badly guts me. I want to rage at the world for being so fucking cruel. I want to shoot her all over again for hurting him. I want to resurrect my dad for never telling me about my siblings, for not allowing me to be in their lives when they needed me the most, then kill him with myownhands.
