“Long time, Princess.”
Princess was what my mother used to call me. He was never welcome to the pet name.
I scowl at him. “Do not call me that.”
For the two years he was married to my mother, I endured him calling me princess because of Mom. She never heard the times when he called me a little bitch because I wouldn’t let him fuck me.
I never told anybody about that and I tried to make myself forget it ever happened. His disgusting propositions were constant and I was just grateful I could stand up to him. God knows how I would have managed if he’d come into my life when I was younger because I know I wouldn’t have had the balls.
Still, I kept my silence partly because I was embarrassed. The other part of me knew how badly it would have hurt my mother. Mom was so in love with him that her heart would have shattered to hear he wasn’t the man she thought he was.
Now it doesn’t matter.
“Why don’t you tell Megan everything you told me about how her mother died.” Cristiano’s voice cuts into my thoughts.
Through the bruises marring Samuel’s face, I take note of his apprehension.
When he stalls, Cristiano knees him in the gut. Samuel shouts in agony and coughs blood.
“Talk, or you’ll die quicker.” Knox gathers up Samuel’s hair and yanks it so hard he rips out some of the strands.
“I’ll talk.” Samuel looks over at me and coughs again. “Your mother… didn’t just have a heart attack.”
“You killed her, didn’t you?” I grit my teeth.
“Yes. It was a poison you can’t detect unless you’re looking for specific things. The coroner wouldn’t have been able to pick it up, especially since I gave it to her in small doses.”
“You bastard.” I rush forward and throw a hard punch in his face. I hit him again and again until Levi pulls me off him.
“Tell her your sorry,” Cristiano orders. “She knows you don’t mean it, but she needs to hear you say it.”
I look at Cristiano, wondering how he knows.
And he’s right. No apology on earth would appease me or compensate for my loss but hearing it means something.
“I’m sorry.” Samuel says the words and I don’t sense anything genuine in him. the only thing he’s sorry about is that he got caught.
“I’m sorry too. I wish you never came into our lives. I hate you with everything inside me.” My heart is racing so fast that I fear it will burst out of my chest and keep speeding for miles and miles and miles. I’m so worked up I can’t calm myself.
On seeing the mess I’m fast becoming, Cristiano cocks his head to the side and signals to Levi. “Get her back home now, both of you.”
Knox comes over to me and he and Levi take my arm on either side to lead me away.
Before I reach the stairs, I look back at my stepfather one last time.
Our eyes lock and I know I’ll never see him again.
I contemplate what Cristiano will do with him, but when we get outside and one loud scream sounds all around us, I get my answer.
The silence which follows confirms my darkest thought. That my stepfather is dead.
Men like Cristiano Rivera don’t leave you alive.
That visit was for me to get my apology and to say goodbye.
Goodbye, Samuel Richardson.Justice is served, Mom. An eye for an eye.Blood for blood.
Maybe I can find the strength to move on with my life now.