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Chapter 36
Remy
Mikel’s voice rang in her ears. Surely, she’d misheard him.
She swallowed, unsure of how to respond to his statement, waiting for him to explain.
“Paul Evans was a mean-ass drunk. Our mother was always his biggest target. When she was gone, he focused his rage on us kids, specifically Jasmine, since she wasn’t his.” He swallowed, his face grimacing in disgust.
“He’d hit us with anything he could find—belts, shoes, wires, electrical cords, his fists, or kick us with his steel-toe boots. He never needed a reason. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
She reached her hand out to his thigh in comfort. Bile rose in her throat. She knew their home hadn’t been safe, but she’d had no idea it was that bad. The details of his past helped her see him in a different light.
“One day … I came home and … his door was closed. I could hear Jasmine inside, begging for him to stop. I was frozen there, paralyzed with fear. I swung open the door and … I flew at him. I just started beating him and it felt so fucking good to let that rage take control and release it on him.”
Remy’s mouth had opened in shock as tears blurred her vision. This beautiful boy, having to face such horrific things his whole life. Poor Jasmine.
“You beat him to death? I thought he overdosed,” she said.
“Nah, the fucker was bigger than me. He beat me within an inch of my life.”
Remy gasped, tears falling freely for the pain that Mikel had endured. Guilt weighed heavily on her shoulders for not having tried to do more to help. “He almost killed you?”
He pulled her closer to him with his arm around her. “Jasmine got away and that’s all that mattered.”
She understood the dynamic between the siblings now better than ever. Bently, always the protector on the straight and narrow. Jasmine, who wore a mask of indifference and anger to hide how vulnerable and fragile she really was, seeking out love the only way she knew how in all the wrong places. “What happened next?” she asked, pushing him to give her as much as he was willing. Was it murder if the victim was a sadistic monster?
“I woke up on the floor in a pile of my own blood. Bently was there. I’ll never forget his face. He was white as a ghost. After he assured me Jasmine was safe—at your house, actually—he helped me get cleaned up.”
Shock squeezed the air from her lungs. “I remember a day Jasmine showed up crying, but she wouldn’t tell us what was wrong. My mother cared for her, got her some soup and a shower, before holding her until she fell asleep.”
Mikel focused his gaze towards the fire, going silent for a moment.
Did Paul sexually abuse her? She guessed that was part of the secret that wasn’t his to tell, so she didn’t press it further. She and Jasmine had been friends for years, and she’d never mentioned it.
“Bently moved us out. We lived in the old factory warehouse that was condemned for a couple weeks while I healed. Bently managed to get us some food. I’m guessing your parents had something to do with that too.”
“I don’t know,” she said. She’d been so blind back then, living in her bubble where the world was mostly good and everyone got happy endings.
“Once I was healed enough, I went down to find Joe Canoby at the corner to get some heroin.”
She gasped. The man who tried to kill me.
“I had planned it the whole time we were scraping by in that dump. The easiest way to take down a man twice my size and keep the suspicion off my back. I honestly didn’t care if I was sent to jail, as long as it kept Jasmine safe.”
Her chest tightened as she closed her eyes. Pain lacerated her insides at the thought.
“I snuck into the house when I knew he would be sleeping. The one thing I had going for me was that when he finally passed out, not even a train going by could wake him. I picked up his arm and injected the poison—four times the amount Joe told me to use for myself.”
She laid her head on his shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around him, holding him as he bared his deepest, darkest secrets to her.
“I didn’t even hesitate. I did it and watched as the seizure started. He reached out for me at one point, and I just let him die.” Mikel’s eyes glistened and fluttered with anguish as he frowned.
Her stomach knotted tight at the confession, and her heart ached for him. She wished she could take the pain from him, carry the burden herself, even for a little while. I can’t save him. He’s got to do that himself.
She placed a hand on his wildly beating heart, letting him know she was still listening, that she was there for him as he faced the demons of his past.
He continued, “I turned around and walked out of the house. I felt relieved and then … nothing. Any ounce of emotion was killed that day by the blood on my hands. Until you … and now … now you know I’m a monster. I’m a killer.” Mikel stiffened, turning to look at her, searching her eyes as if he was looking for fear and judgment from her.
