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Even a copycat.
We have a long stare-off, and he shakes his head right before pushing his chair back and getting up. He snags a paper from his table and puts his stamp on it. “Effective immediately, you no longer work here, Isla.”
My heart plummets in my stomach while panic envelops me, creating rather depressing images in my head, starting from being evicted from my apartment to not being able to pay for Grandmother’s nursing home. “Uncle Grayson—”
“No.” One single word yet its weight settles on me, almost chaining me to the place from how heavy it is. “I gave you an endless number of chances.”
“You’re firing me.” Oh my God, even in my worst nightmares I never expected him to fire me. Transfer to a different team or forbid me from handling criminal cases? Yes. But firing me?
If anyone else gets wind of it, my career in the force will be finished. No one would trust me when my own godfather kicked me out!
“Right now, I’m transferring you to Chicago.” I freeze at this while he sighs. “You’re still my goddaughter, so I’m giving you one last chance to start in a new city and focus on your life instead of the past.” Since I just gape at him, he elaborates, “If you can’t do that, you can always refuse the job once you’re there. At least you’ll have your reputation, or what’s left of it.”
“I can’t move!” He ignores my exclamation and walks around the table, brushing past me and opening the door wide while holding out the paper. “Uncle Grayson, this is my home.”
I was raised in New York, having countless memories with my family in this beautiful city, and he expects me to just pack up and move to Chicago, a city I’ve never been to?
“You have a choice to make, Isla.” He pushes the paper at me, and I finally grab it, hating seeing the word transfer on it. “Unless you want to focus on the present and not the past, don’t bother calling me either if you get yourself into trouble.”
Ignoring the sting his words cause inside me, digging into the festering wounds that would never heal no matter how much everyone tries, I swallow back my resentment because, apparently, even his love has limits, so I nod. “Understood, sir. Thank you for everything.” I walk out of his office and he shuts the door soundly. Everyone around stares at me in shock before returning to whatever they were doing when they noticed me staring back at them.
My antics are legendary, so it’s probably no surprise they listened to the entire exchange and exhaled in relief to finally be rid of me.
Clenching the paper in my hand, I raise my head high and roll my shoulders back before walking to my table and grabbing a huge box. I place all my personal belongings inside, already thinking several steps ahead.
Uncle Grayson can’t fool me.
This transfer to Chicago is his idea of teaching me a lesson. He fully expects me to go and come back crawling on my knees, begging for another chance to return to New York. Then he’d agree with a condition that I will forever let go of my revenge.
Since he knows my financial situation and how much debt was left after my parents died because the insurance hasn’t covered shit, he expects me to do anything as long as I keep my job and stable social package.
My gaze lands on the picture in a silver frame on my desk, and I pick it up. My heart pangs in my chest when I look at my parents’ happy faces while they squish me between them during one of my birthday parties. All my family is in the back, waving and smiling into the camera.
A raspy breath slips past my lips, and I trail my fingers over their beloved faces. They’re forever imprinted in my mind with blood smeared all over them while the monster disfigured them one by one until I was the only one left.
The world always expects you to move on…but what if moving on is the one thing that might kill you?
I can't peacefully exist in a world where this bastard roams our earth freely with no consequences for his crimes while my family is buried six feet under.
So…
Chicago.
Here I come.
CHAPTER TWO
“They say some people are born evil.
Oh, how wrong they are.
Because no matter the crimes of a person, evil is always a choice.
And as such, all the monsters of this world choose their path willingly.
Even me.
For the injustice done to you doesn’t justify the pain inflicted on others.
