including my wife.”
My heart plummeted to my stomach. “You mean… Riley?”
“Yeah. Riley, Roy, Reid, Lacey, and me. And here’s the kicker. I’m the only one with an ironclad alibi. I was in Montana at the time. But they won’t let that rest. They think maybe I had it done.”
“But… What about motive?”
He scoffed again, and this time it sounded almost like laughter. “One thing about living in small-town Montana. You don’t hear nearly as much news. There are about a hundred people who’d have liked to see my father six feet in the ground, but none more than his own progeny.”
I dropped my mouth open.
“That surprises you.”
“Well…yeah. Though Riley did mention demons.”
“My sister has been to hell and back, like I said. Her demons are real. And they’re big. She probably had the most motive of all of us.”
“My God… What did he do to her?”
“It’s not my story to tell. But if you love her, you’re going to need to give her time.”
“I… Fuck. Did he…?”
“I won’t tell you, but if your mind is going where I’m guessing it is, you’re on the right track.”
“He hurt her,” I said more to myself than to Rock.
“He hurt all of us,” Rock said. “But yes. He hurt Riley the most.”
37
Riley
“Get the fuck away from her.”
My brother stands in my doorway, something shiny in his hand.
Daddy sits on my bed. My nightgown is up around my chest. Daddy likes it that way. He says I’m prettiest when he can see all of my skin.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” Daddy demands.
“I know what you’re doing,” Rock says. “You won’t get away with it. Get away from her, or I swear to God I’ll kill you.”
Daddy laughs and tugs my nightgown over my small body. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know exactly what I’m talking about. My room is right next to hers. I hear her screams. I hear her sobs. You’re going to stop this now.”
I did scream, but not tonight. I’m not sure what Rock is talking about. I screamed that other time because Daddy’s hands were cold on my skin. When he tugged my nightgown up.
“You’re so pretty, sweetheart,” he said.
I like being called pretty. If Daddy thinks I’m pretty when my nightgown is pulled up, then I want my nightgown pulled up. I want to be pretty. Mommy says girls are supposed to be pretty.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Rock says. He walks into my room.
I can finally see what the shiny thing is. It’s a knife. A big silver knife like Cook uses in the kitchen. She chops onions into tiny pieces with a knife like that.
“Watch out, Miss Riley,” she always says to me when I watch her chop. “This knife is sharp. Don’t you ever touch it.”
“Be careful, Rock!” I cry out. “Cook says that’s sharp!”
Still he comes closer, and Daddy stands.
“Give it to me, Rock,” Daddy says.
“You leave her alone.” Rock’s voice cracks and squeaks. Even shakes a little. His voice is lower now, but it still cracks sometimes.
“You little piece of shit,” Daddy says.
I don’t know what that word means. I don’t know the F word either—the one Rock said. The one Daddy and Mommy say a lot when they fight.
Rock still walks toward Daddy, and then…
The knife. It’s touching Daddy. Blood trickles through his white shirt.
“No, Rock, no!” I scream. “Don’t hurt Daddy!”
I jerked upward.
I was back at my place. The limo driver dropped me off first. Rock wasn’t in the limo. Lacey said he stayed to have a drink in the bar with a friend. Why? There’d been plenty to drink at that stupid wake. Did Rock even have any friends here?
I rose from my couch where I’d been sitting in a daze.
Sitting. Thinking. Remembering.
Remembering how it all began. How Rock got sent away.
Funny. Until Rock told us the truth, I’d forgotten that night. That night so long ago had been buried inside my mind, making room for much more horrific things.
The bloody white sheets.
The new dark-brown ones that I hated.
“Damn it!”
I hurried to my bedroom, threw the blankets off my bed, and then tore off the sheets. “I hate you!” I screamed as I ripped the sheets down the middle.
These sheets weren’t brown. They weren’t white.
They were lavender, actually.
But I didn’t care. I ripped and I ripped and I ripped until I’d torn the entire sheet into two separate pieces.
My breath came rapidly. From exertion or rage, I wasn’t sure.
I threw myself on my naked mattress then,