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Ella gripped my chin and forced me to look at her. “Do you remember what happened that day after school when you went home?”
I nodded, unable to speak through the nausea rolling in my stomach.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how horrible that was for you. You were young and innocent. It wasn’t your fault.”
“I was a sorry excuse for a son!” I roared. “I failed them both and hid like a coward as that motherfucker butchered her.”
Ella stumbled backward and fell onto the edge of the mattress.
“No. It wasn’t you that hurt your parents.” She frowned, putting on a brave face even though I suspected she was terrified. “He forced you. He used and manipulated a scared little boy.”
I stepped away until my legs hit the back of the chair. Sinking into it, I pulled my hair, the images flipping through my mind as I relived every moment I’d buried for years. Reminders of driving the knife into my father’s body ricocheted violently through me. My head snapped up, a feral growl leaving me as an evil smile slipped into place. “My father was a sorry excuse of a man. He beat my mother, cheated on her, and started to touch me when I was nine. He was disgusting and filthy. Martin Fletcher deserved to die at my hand.”
Ella stared at me, pale and trembling. “Your father molested you?” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, baby. I had no idea.”
“That sick fuck snuck into my room when Mother was sleeping and forced me to do unspeakable things.” I tore at my chest, my nails raking across my skin as the torment of those nights ignited a dark rage that took on a persona all its own. “Unspeakable. If you knew… if you…” My head dropped between my shoulders, hanging low with shame.
“Shh. Don’t. Don’t tell me. It’s okay. I’m glad he’s dead. I’m glad that he died at your hand, and you became Death.”
Slowly, I looked at her.
My little lamb was on my side? “He did. And so did my mother. She never protected me from that monster.”
Ella looked at me, dismayed. “She knew?”
I ground my teeth together, my breaths short. “She knew. She pretended that she didn’t.” Staring at the floor, I clenched my jaw as the anger returned, slamming into me with the full force of a tornado. “Mother caught him one night. When he had me bent over, fucking me with a glass bottle because I was dirty and shameful, she cracked open my bedroom door. I heard it creak and looked over my shoulder. Our eyes connected for just a moment before she backed away and disappeared, leaving me with him.”
A pained look was etched into my little lamb’s face, and I hated that I’d dulled her bright light with my darkness.
She stood and tipped her chin up as she walked toward me. “They deserved to die for what they did to you. If I had known, I would have helped.”
Shock rippled through me as she stood in front of me. “You would have helped?” My skin crawled, itching with the need to destroy but not her. I would never destroy my queen.
“Yes. I love you, and I will always protect the people I love.”
I rose, the sharp pains in my head subsiding to a dull throb.
“And I will always protect and love you, little lamb.”
She slipped her arms around my neck. “I know.”
Chapter 51
Ella
“Itried,” I said to Dope and Kip, who were staring at me with eagerness in their gazes. When I’d called them, they’d dropped everything and showed up on my doorstep. They quickly made themselves at home on my couch as if they’d been here a million times. I stood in front of them, replaying the events of the previous evening in my mind.
“I tried to tell him that he was also Sebastian, but he got …” I touched my neck, remembering the ghost of his rage. “He can’t handle the truth, guys. We have to do something else.” I wondered if they knew the horrible details about his parents. Dope had lived a block away but had seemed to adore his family. I seriously doubted that Sebastian ever confided in him about the brutality he lived through as a child. As promised, I would protect Death and Sebastian’s secrets.
“Did he hurt you?” Dope protectively crossed his arms over his chest.
“Almost, but it was like a part of him snapped to his senses.” I sighed with a heavy heart. “You and Kip were wrong, though. From what Death told me, he was around longer than when you and Kip met him. He gave me details of memories when he was nine.”
The guys gawked at me, and a shocked silence hung in the air.
“What the fuck? I was at his house a million times when we were kids, and I never saw anything weird.”
“You wouldn’t know to even look for signs,” I said softly, trying to console my friend.
