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Suddenly, my father runs to the kitchen and takes out a huge butcher’s knife. Beast runs toward me, but my father pokes it between us.
“Stay away!” he snaps, lashing out at Beast.
Beast jumps sideways and narrowly avoids every strike, but my father keeps slashing away wildly. My father almost manages to cut the flower, but Beast keeps it at arm’s length like it’s the most precious thing he’s guarding. Neither of them relents.
“Stop!” I yell, but they both ignore me.
Beast grabs my father’s wrist mid-swing and knocks the knife from his hand, but he keeps twisting it until he begins to shriek in pain. “Ow, ow, ow!”
“Stop it!” I yell, trying to separate them, but I can’t get through.
“Let me go, you beast!” my father growls, punching at him with every bit of strength he has left. But none of them seem to faze Beast even the slightest as he grabs the knife and holds it over my father’s throat.
“Beg,” Beast says through gritted teeth.
“Please, Beast, Papa … stop,” I beg, my eyes growing even more teary. “Enough is enough. You are both family.”
Now they both look at me like I’ve gone insane.
“No,” my father barks at me, and he jerks himself free from Beast’s grip before crawling away on the floor like a wounded animal. He points at Beast. “Thatthingis not family.”
“He’s a human being, just like you and me,” I say.
My father’s gaze is solely on Beast. “Letting you escape was the worst mistake I ever made. I should’ve killed you when I had the chance!”
“Yes, you should have,” Beast retorts, lowering his eyes. “Because I will never, ever stop trying to make you pay for what you did to her.”
My father’s in shock for a moment before he rebukes, “What I did? What about you? You tried to abduct her and kill her!”
“No!” I interject. “He tried to save me.”
“By bringing you to that cell?” he spits.
“My orders were to kill everyone on sight,” Beast says, tucking the flower back into his pocket. “It was the only way.”
My father scoffs. “Maybe you should’ve killed her. At least it would’ve saved her from all this pain.”
Beast’s eyes are filled with rage. “Youmade her suffer all that pain by lending all that money and not paying it back!”
Papa rebukes, “Because I was trying to fix her.”
Beast roars like a madman. “She’s not broken! She’s perfect!”
I stumble backward, dropping the candleholder. My hand rises to meet my eyes as I stare at the one thing that’s brought about so much misery in this world. These scars, these malformed hands, this body that destroyed my mother’s … me. I’m the reason my father had to pay, had to be killed, why I was taken, why Beast was snatched and trained, why everyone is the way they are now.
And it suddenly feels like I can’t breathe.
Beast stomps toward my father, who cowers in the corner of the living room.
“The only reason you’re still alive is because I protected you,” Beast growls at my father, pointing at him. “Because she loves you, and I love her.”
“Love?” my father splutters. “Do you even know what that is?”
“I know more about love than you ever will,” Beast replies, tapping my father’s chest.
I can tell it takes every ounce of self-control in him not to snap my father’s neck.
My father shakes his head, fuming with rage. “I sacrificedeverythingfor her.” He glances at me now. “You aremydaughter, Aurora. And I will do what I need to protect my family.”
