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Alek laughs in response.
Groveling was never in Kenny’s DNA, but desperate times call for desperate measures. So he tries another method. “Willow, your mother needs me. Don’t let them do this to her. If you kill me, the blood will be on your hands! You kill her too by doing this!”
The mere mention of my mom opens the floodgates, ones which have been watertight for years, and I wonder if I’ll ever come back from this in one piece.
“Mom?” I whisper; my voice sounds alien like a lost daughter calling out to her mother.
Kenny senses she’s his get out of jail for free card and plays on it. I know what he’s doing, but it doesn’t matter. Regardless of everything…she’s still my mom. “Yes, your mother loves you. She never forgot about you. If you let me go, I will leave her for good. You can have your mom back. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Suddenly, images of Mom and me shopping together and laughing over something stupid as we stand around the kitchen counter eating pink frosted cupcakes assault me because I never got to do those things with her, and I wanted to. So badly.
These normal mother-daughter things that most take for granted or you’d see in a Hallmark movie are things I wanted to experience with her but never did because she was too busy forgetting I existed. But now Kenny’s giving me a second chance. He’s offering me something which would patch over this giant hole in my heart.
“Yes,” I finally reply softly, pushing off the wall. “How is she?”
“She’s good. We live in South Carolina now. You would love it there.”
“I’ve never been,” I say in a faraway voice, staggering slowly as I walk on autopilot.
I am hovering over myself, watching on in anger. I can see what he’s doing—luring me in with false promises—but I can’t seem to stop. The excitement of living happily ever after outweighs my good sense.
“We have horses and four dogs.”
“How many horses?” I ask, continuing my dazed pace.
“Three. Your mom wanted to get one for you. She knew you’d come back.”
“She did?” A single tear trickles down my cheek, and a happiness I haven’t felt in so very long overwhelms me.
Kenny nods quickly. “Yes. She never stopped loving you. Neither of us did. So,you’re going to be a good little girl, aren’t you, Willow, and you’re going to set me free?”
The world stops spinning, and I inhale to catch my breath.
A white noise fills my head, and something tilts, setting me off course. I try to sound out the ruckus, but I can’t. It beats against my temple, demanding I stop being so fucking stupid and open my eyes.
“No,” I whimper, pressing my hands over my ears. “Make it stop.” But it doesn’t, and it never will.
You’re going to be a good little girl, aren’t you, Willow? Let me fuck that tight virgin pussy. You’re gonna come for Daddy.
Those repulsive words paved a world in which I didn’t want to live, but I did. I had no other choice becausesheabandoned me.Shechose this motherfucker over me.Sheis the reason for all of this. I suddenly realize this is all on her, not me.Shechose to walk away, and now…it’smyturn to do the same.
Deadpanning the man who took away my innocence, I say goodbye to the scared little girl who still lives within me, and I welcome this new me.
“No,” I say, relief wrapping me in her arms. “I will not.”
For the first time in a long time, I stand tall and am not afraid to look into the depths of hell.
“No?” Kenny spits, his tobacco-stained teeth grinding together. “What do you mean no? So, you’ll let them kill me?”
Alek stands on the sidelines, watching me closely. Saint stands ready to spring into action. I only have to say the word. And I do.
“Yes.” A single word has the absolute power to change the course of one’s life, and for someone like Kenny, it’s come about twenty years too late. But better late than never.
“Go on.” Alek presents the knife in both his hands. “Kill this pathetic excuse of a man. His life is yours.”
As tempting as the offer is, when I peer down at my own hands, turning them over and over, I know that I can’t. And Saint knows it too.
Alek wanted a bloodbath, though, and he won’t be satisfied until blood is spilled. “If you don’t kill him, I will make you.” His threat isn’t empty.
