“Your father chose his own fate when he left this house,” I add. “This is on him.”
She growls, “But he is still my family. And you don’t know if he was forced or not.”
I’ve never seen her this upset before.
I may not understand much about family or love, but I was right when I called it a weakness.
“We have no time for this,” I say, as I rush toward the car.
“Beast!” she yells, following me. “I am not abandoning anyone!”
I throw the bags in the back of the car and start the engine. “Now hop in.”
“No,” she retorts. “If he was forced, I have to save him. I can’t just leave him there to die.”
I stare at her through the mirror. She looks blinded by rage. And it’s as though I’m looking at myself in the past.
“Get. In,” I say with a deadly tone.
I’m not warning her again.
She folds her arms. “You’re trying to kill the only family I have left.”
“Aurora …” I say through gritted teeth.
“No. You don’t want to take responsibility, but none of this would have happened if you hadn’t come to my house to kill him.”
There it is.
The one dagger she managed to find.
Driven like a stake right through the heart.
I burst out into a fiery rage. “You came to my house first with your father and killed my parents!”
Her eyes widen, and her lips part, but there are no more words.
All of them have been stolen by a single statement.
One I regret instantly.
But the damage is done already.
“You want to stay? Fine,” I bark, overcome by my anger taking control as I hit the gas. “Don’t fucking move an inch.”
And without saying another word, I drive off.
CHAPTER20
Aurora
When the cardisappears from view, I stumble back inside. But as the door closes behind me, I sink to the floor, crying my eyes out as I curl up into a ball.
I never thought anything could hurt more than watching my own father get tortured, but I was wrong.
I was so wrong.
I cry out all the tears I’ve kept buried all these years. Tears for my mother, tears for the pain my father caused, and tears for Beast, who ripped out my heart and crushed it with his bare hands.