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I didn’t know what made me call out for her, but I did: “Mom.”
She let out an annoyed sigh and turned back to me, folding her arms over her chest and giving me a look that told me she’d already checked out of this conversation. “What now?”
I set the shell down on the bed, scurrying to get off. I walked over to the door, past my mom, and stuck my head in the hall. I saw neither Alistair nor Gareth, so I shut the door before turning back to her, my voice low as I said, “What if I told you something happened while you were gone—”
My mom blinked at me. She didn’t even let me finish. “I don’t care.”
Any other words I might’ve said died in the back of my throat. There was so much I could’ve said. Gareth pushing himself on me in the middle of the night. Gareth killing the chef Alistair had hired for us. Gareth showing me the body and all of the blood.
And then the encounter with Alistair…
But my mom didn’t care.
“I don’t care what happened while we were gone,” my mom repeated. “This is the life I was always meant to live. After forty years, I’m finally where I’m meant to be.” She took a step closer to me, a haughty expression on her face. “You would be smart to shut up and put on a smile, endear yourself to Gareth and your new stepfather. The Montgomerys can provide for you in a way I never could, nor could your biological father.”
“But Mom—”
Again, she didn’t let me finish. She cut in, “Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to get what you want. Sometimes those sacrifices are ongoing in order to keep what you have. Don’t disappoint me by fucking this up for us, Bri.” She said not another word, turning on her heels and sauntering to the door.
I watched her go, my mouth hanging open. Not sure when it had fallen ajar, but I couldn’t help it. All my life, I’d gotten used to the coldness and the uncaring nature my mom had, but this… this was another level.
I should shut up and take it, just so she could live the life she’d always wanted. She’d whore herself out, whore me out, not giving a single shit whether I wanted to do any of it or not. If I was a good daughter, I’d shut up and take whatever, just so we could live the life of luxury.
Maybe it shouldn’t affect me, but it made me feel sad. I returned to my bed, gingerly sitting on the edge as I picked up the shell and ran my finger along it. It wasn’t even a present from my mom. It was from Alistair.
I hated Gareth and what he did. I hated the way he made me feel. Everything about him; there was nothing to like. He was mean, cruel, a goddamned serial killer who liked to paint with his victims’ blood… but, even so, I think I hated my mom more.
What did that say about me?
Later that night, when I lay down to sleep, my mind drifted off to dark places. Not about Gareth. Not about the body or the trough of blood. Not about being locked up in that room for what felt like an eternity. Nor did I think about Alistair and the emotionless look on his face, or how he’d finally shown some emotion when he fucked me in the shower.
No, I didn’t think about any of that.
I thought of my mom. Nicole Montgomery. She’d never really been a Dent. All her life, she’d been waiting, hoping that she’d get a lucky break and meet someone who could make all of her dreams come true, and now she finally had the life she’d always wanted… unfortunately, she had to share it with me.
How funny would it be to break up her marriage to Alistair? To send her back to the boring life she’d had before, where she spent her nights dreaming of landing a man just like him?
I wondered if I could do it. If I could seduce my stepdad away from her. Maybe she wouldn’t even care. Maybe she’d be fine with it; my mom was not a woman who needed love in her life. Really, she just needed money.
No, the more I thought about it, I knew she wouldn’t care. As long as she was able to keep this life, the money, the respect and prestige that came with having Montgomery as a last name, she wouldn’t give a single shit.
Then my mind went to an even darker place—thanks to Gareth, no doubt.
There was only one way to hurt my mother, and that was to take it all away. To snatch this life out from under her, to get her in a position where she couldn’t fight back.
I could kill her.
It was not a thought I would’ve had in the bright light of day, when I was surrounded by other people. No, that particularly gruesome thought only surfaced as a possibility because I was alone in the darkness, because I’d seen things in this house I’d never seen anywhere else.
Montgomery Manor was the devil’s house. It was hell, where sinners and killers ran free, unburdened by the laws and restrictions of society. A place like that was the perfect place to do a little murdering, just take Gareth’s proclivities as evidence.
And then, just as quickly as my sanity had left and let me think of killing my own mom, it returned, and guilt surfaced inside me. I rolled onto my side, holding onto my pillow for dear life.
I’d had some dark thoughts before coming to this house, but not like that. Not at all like that. I’d never, ever thought about killing someone else.
Me, on the other hand… well, that was a different story.
Chapter Eighteen – Brianna
