Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
“Mamita, you’re going to stay right here, like a good little girl,” Mamá ordered in a scared tone. “Promise me, alright?” Even though we were in a playroom, I didn’t want to play with anything.
I smiled, hating that sad expression on her face. Mamá was never sad. It made my stomach hurt.
“I promise.”
“Here, play with this,” another woman’s voice added, grabbing my wrist, showing me the music box.
“Don’t touch my daughter!” Mamá shouted in a voice I’d never heard before.
“Please… a little bit of reason… my children are here too.”
There was a boy around my age, standing near his sister. He was holding her hand in the corner of the room, looking right at me.
I had never seen them either. I didn’t like this house or these people. I wanted to go home, but Mamá said we had to find Daddy. My grandparents were at the hotel, and Mamá wouldn’t let me stay with them.
Little by little, I started not being able to breathe, but that only triggered more of my memory.
“Reason?” Mamá repeated. “I’ll give you fucking reason!”
I jumped when I heard another voice shout, “Get the fuck out of my house!”
That time it was a man I’d never seen, and the kids in the corner looked scared of him. The boy hugged his sister tight to his body, and I wanted to run over there to be with them, so I did.
I ran as fast as my legs could get me there until he extended his hand out for me to take, and I did.
There… now I felt safe again.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I hid my face into his chest like his sister. She grabbed my hand too, shutting her eyes like me.
“Not here!” Mamá's voice echoed off the walls.
I heard Onyx’s voice, shouting for me, but I couldn’t follow it, needing to finally come face-to-face with the truth my mind had been hiding from me. Staying in my memory, I felt the warmth of my father grabbing me.
Then all of a sudden, I opened my gaze, finding my papa there.
He’d make everything better now. He always did.
“Mi vida, te quiero con toda mi alma. Perdóname, pero lo voy a arreglar, te prometo que lo voy a arreglar todo para que tú no sufras por mis pecados.” He said, “My world, I love you with all my soul. Forgive me, but I’m going to fix it. I promise you, I’ll fix everything, so you won’t pay for my sins.” He kissed all over my face.
I love Daddy’s kisses. They made me feel so happy.
Mamá didn’t look happy, though. She was crying, watching us only. He kissed my cheek one last time before looking at the other little girl who was still hiding in her brother’s chest.
Slowly, he whispered in her ear, “I wish things could’ve been different. I’m sorry, Deja. In another life maybe…”
I gasped, snapping back to the present while the light in me was dimming.
“No!” Onyx continued yelling for me. “Stop it! You’re fucking killing her!”
“You did this, Onyx,” the council member clutched onto my throat harder, booming, “This is what happens when you betray us!”
“What the fuck did you expect?” Onyx spoke out, hanging on by a thread.
I’d never forget who told me the truth of a secret that was supposed to stay buried for all of my life. Never expecting in my wildest dreams that it’d have the power to bury me with it.
As Onyx confessed…
* * *
“If my mother couldn’t resist falling in love with her father, how the fuck did you think I wouldn’t fall in love with his daughter?”
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Onyx: The truth will set you free because the lie has only ever incarcerated you.
The council stopped choking Hennessy, and she instantly went lax, coughing up a storm. Before relief could take over, he lifted a gun, the red dot aimed directly at my forehead.
“You’re going to pay for that!” With his finger on the trigger, he was about to shoot.
For the first time in my life, I shut my eyes, finding some faith somewhere deep inside me, silently praying he wouldn’t kill me.
Not because I was scared of death, but because I wanted to live for her.
When all of a sudden, my father's panicked voice filled the seedy air, declaring, “I’ll sacrifice myself for the sins of my son!”
My eyes shot open as if the council had actually shot me.
“Have mercy on my boy and kill me instead!”
I didn’t just sit up. I abruptly stood, blown away by what just happened. The members let go of me, and I ran straight to Hennessy, holding her up into my arms before she passed the fuck out. I cradled her, leaning her head against my chest, trying to get her to come back to me.
It was only then that her uncle came out of nowhere, rushing into the woods where we were. In one second, he glanced around, then ran to Hennessy.