Twisted - Esme Devlin Page 0,91
answer.”
“I don’t know what’s real and what’s false with you.” That’s the only answer I have for him.
“A sad fact of life, but that’s the way it’s always going to be.”
“Why?”
“Because, little Sapphire, I don’t trust you. I thought I might. One day, perhaps. But I can see now that is not the way things will be between us.”
Something about the way he says it angers me. As if, after everything he’s done to me—to everyone—it’s my fault. “So this is it? This is the rest of my life? Locked down here with you and your games? No contact with anyone else. No friends. No life. Just you.”
“The way you say that would amuse me if it weren’t so utterly foolish. As if there is some great alternative out there, and I’m the one keeping you from it.”
“The woman you plan to butcher seemed to think there was an alternative.”
“Butcher now, is it?” Baron stiffens beneath my thighs. “You are so careless with words, Sapphire, it’s frightening.”
Before I can respond or do anything, he stands, ejecting me from his lap. I hit the cold concrete floor with a thud.
“Still, you refuse to listen. You refuse to learn. You see the world not as it is, but as you think it should be. You judge me, and I will not be judged.”
“Then tell me!”
“That’s not how it works, Sapphire. You don’t cook the stew until the fire is hot, and you can’t make a fire before cutting the wood. You’re just a sapling, without even a limb or a leaf to sway in the breeze. And what’s worse is that you’re a sapling who rejects the very sun that brings you life.”
“I don’t… I don’t understand.”
He must have crouched down, because I can hear the breath as it comes from his lips. A moment later, I feel his hand on me. “All you had to do was fear me, my sweet girl. It wasn’t difficult. I tried my best to make it easy for you. But you couldn’t do it. I tried to teach you, too. To show you. Lessons—so many lessons. You never wanted to learn.”
My heart thumps in my ears at his words. He’s talking like it’s over. Like this is the end. “Are you going to kill me?”
Baron chuckles, as if my suggestion was ridiculous. It doesn’t feel ridiculous, not to me. “No. No, I’m not going to kill you. I let Andrei and Celeste believe I might, but I fear I am far, far too selfish to commit to the deed.” He stands, but I can’t even see where he’s headed. A moment later, I hear the sound of his body hitting the wooden chair. “I'm going to tell you a story.”
I shift on the ground so that even in darkness, I’m facing him. “A true story, or a false one?”
He makes the hmm sound I’ve come to know so well, but this one is different without the mask to obscure it. “It should be true, but then again it might be false. Such are the joys of having a broken mind, sweet girl.”
There is something about the way he says it, as if it’s all just a big joke, that has me suspicious. And considering what he said earlier about the measure of a man being in the perception of how far he will go, I feel even more unsure about this broken mind of his. “I’m not even sure I believe your mind is broken anymore.”
He laughs maniacally, as if to really drive home the madness. “My sweet little girl questioning the reality she sees in front of her? My, my, my. Progress. But tell me this, do you believe it’s possible to keep up such an act all the time?”
“I believe it would be a mistake to underestimate anything about you. But I digress. Tell me your tale, and I’ll make up my own very-much-intact mind.”
“Very well,” he says. “Once upon a time, there was a little girl who I imagine was a lot like you. A wicked man fell in love with the girl and snatched her away from everything she knew. The little girl was naive and innocent, and the man was cruel and took great pleasure in hurting her. One day, they had a son. The wicked man had great plans for this son, but great plans required a great son, and the wicked man understood that the measure of a man came not in his size or his strength, but