how I did a lot of things after what Kai said to me. But somehow, I found myself in a room. My father was tied to a chair, waiting for me to come to him. He had a bandage wrapped around his waist, duct tape over his mouth. If his ass itched, he couldn’t have scratched it.
Five days ago, I might’ve been scared of him. I could feel the loathing coming off him in waves. If he could’ve killed me, he would’ve. I knew that without a doubt. Tough luck for him, though, because he couldn’t touch me, scare me, or hurt me now. Kai had done all of that for him.
I had a brief thought to turn and leave. He would die regardless. Kai had taken a spoon to my insides, gutting everything out of me until I was hollow. The experience had left me with nothing to say to my father, who was my biological father, despite what he said.
Maybe it was that. Maybe that’s why I propelled myself across the room to pull the tape off of him. I grabbed the end and whipped it off. The faster the better. I wanted to get this over with, so I could leave.
“AHHHH!” he screamed as I yanked it away, his mouth and surrounding skin reddening. He spat at me. “You fucking bitch.”
I acted without thought. I wrapped my hand around his neck and squeezed.
He started to make gargling sounds, rasping, wheezing.
I kept squeezing, an ironclad grip.
He began flailing around, as much as he could, bouncing the chair.
When he began to shake like he was having a seizure, I let go.
He gasped for breath, coughing frantically. He couldn’t stop coughing, and all the while, I stood immobile. I just watched the handprint I’d left on his neck, the way the color seemed to take forever to return to normal. When the whiteness was gone, I flicked my eyes back to his.
Finally.
A small satisfaction bloomed in my chest. The first flicker of life post Kai’s devastation.
My father seemed cautious now, watching me warily.
I smiled. “I get it. I get why you love being cruel and a monster.” I turned away from his eyes. “I see why you wanted to kill me.”
The power. It was dark and addictive.
Then my stomach rolled over on itself, threatening to spew. I felt sick. That part of me was from him. I did have his darkness in me, and as I stood there, I felt it pooling, moving inside of me, growing.
My father. My mother. Kai. Having a front-row seat to this world. It had probably even started when I was seeing it through the lens of a Hider operative. I was changed. No, that wasn’t right. I was broken. There was a part of me beyond repair now. I could never have a normal life again. Kai had cemented what had been happening to me since Brooke found me.
This darkness wasn’t going anywhere. It slithered in me, like a snake, and I knew then that I’d never be able to get it out of me. It was there because of my father, Kai had brought the flame to life, and then it had burst into a bonfire at his betrayal.
And now here I was, standing in front of the man I used to fantasize about hurting, and it all clicked into place.
This was the moment all of it had been leading to, this moment when I decided my fate. Because I was the only one who could, no one else. Me. My decision.
He was frothing at the bit again, wanting to scare me.
I sighed. “You can’t intimidate me. You should give up. It’s time, don’t you think?”
His eyes widened. Surprise fluttered there before it settled into reluctant resignation.
“You thought my mother cheated on you, because that’s what you did to her. It’s how you make sense of the world. You cheat so you think everyone cheats. That’s how you think, but you’re wrong. She never cheated. It wasn’t in her. Not once.”
He scoffed in disbelief.
“She was too broken by you to even try.”
Not like Kai’s mother. I winced at the thought of her. Brooke’s mom. She cheated on their father. She must have done it to rebel. She had to. Why would the wife of a murderer cheat on that man? It couldn’t have been a careless mistake, a decision made out of passion. Not if it’d produced two sons—or three with Tanner. Maybe she fell in love after all, but to start? Perhaps