AllFreeNovel
Share Us
protect Me
M.C. Frank
Rotten Royals
BOOK TWO
/Marco/
[audio transcript]
You idiot, I said. You could have escaped.
I was still drowning at that point, mom, you understand, that’s why I was being an ass. Or maybe I am an ass in general, like you always say. She was drowning, too. Olivia was drowning. Because of me. And sure, it was a stupid thing to say, but at that point, it felt like the most important thing in the world to say that to her. To ask her why she hadn’t run away. Why she’d come after me. Why she’d saved my stupid freaking life.
Why did she do that, mom?
Why, when my life is less than worthless?
Escaped what? she asked.
Escapedme, I should have replied. You should have escaped me.
But I didn’t say anything. What was the point?
I am alive; she is still in danger.
She should have escaped.
I should have died.
I’m sorry, mom. I’m sorry I didn’t die today. I’m so sorry.
one
I never stopped believing in Santa Claus.
I never even started.
There was no fairytale to un-believe. No lie to un-tell. My dad told me it was just a fairytale, straightaway, when I was a kid. He read me Christmas stories and showed me painted pictures of a grandpa dressed in red, and told me that he wasn’t real, but that kids liked to imagine him bringing them presents. And that was it.
He didn’t think I would need to believe in magic, I suppose. There was nothing I needed and couldn’t have: that’s what fairytales are for. To give hope. But we had money and power, and we did not need hope. Also, we had lies. We were swimming in them. Is that why he didn’t want to add one more lie to the lies?
Was Santa Claus the only lie he could tell me the truth about?
Marco is kneeling next to the bathtub, but he’s avoiding my gaze, his body tense, coiled.
“Are you a bodyguard?” I asked him a second ago.
“Yes, I am,” he said.
I lick my lips. My throat is scraped raw from swallowing so much lakewater.
“Last night… Is that why you didn’t want me?” I ask.
He grabs the back of his neck. “I never said I didn’t want you. I am a liar, but I’m not that good a liar.”
“What kind of liar are you then?”
