“Elli,” he says softly, nodding behind me.
I turn to see her sitting on the kitchen floor, arms wrapped around her legs, staring at my father while tears run down her face. Walking away from my father to let hers deal with him, I go to my wife.
I drop to my knees in front of her and she lets go of the gun as it clanks to the floor. She lunges for me, wrapping her arms around my neck, and I pull her into my lap to where her legs wrap around my waist. I grab the back of her head and wrap the other around her waist and begin to rock her back and forth while her cries fill the kitchen.
“I’m … so sorry.” She sobs into my neck.
I hold her, my chest tightening. I needed to know. I wanted him to confess, but I never thought what it would do to her. Was she better off not knowing? Maybe, maybe not.
“I’m so sorry,” she goes on.
“Shh.” I run my hand down the back of her head. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Elli,” I remind her. “You did good, little demon.” I kiss her hair. “So good.” I’m glad it’s over. There’s only one more person that we need to take care of and then I can spend a couple of days with my wife before I have to leave her for good.
ELLINGTON
I STAND INmy parents’ house, staring up at the balcony where I found my father nine years ago. There are no flowers, or candles lit today. Just a cold chill. There’s been one ever since that day. I’m not sure if it’s in my head or if it’s real but it still lingers.
I stare at the man hanging from the second-story balcony. He’s not dead. Not yet anyway. His feet barely touch the chair that’s underneath him. His arms are tied behind his back, a rope around his neck.
Looking up at Linc, I feel a sense of calmness wash over me. After Sin forced his father to confess an hour ago, I cried. Sobbed my eyes out on the kitchen floor in my husband’s lap. It was therapeutic. I understand I can’t change the past, but I’m also very thankful that it doesn’t change his love for me.
I belong to him. Now and forever. No matter what has or will happen, I’m his wife—a Lady.
“Elli, what are you …?” My mother’s shrill scream doesn’t even make me flinch. I’ve been expecting her.
“Mother,” I say calmly, turning to face her.
Her hands are up covering her face, eyes wide as she stares at her husband hanging from the balcony. “I thought it seemed fitting,” I say, turning to look at Linc again.
Blood has dripped from the bullet wound in his arm where I shot him. Now I’m glad I missed. This is much more dramatic. I wanted to prove a point and I think this did it.
“Laura—”
“What—” she gasps, interrupting him. “What have you done?” Her wide watery eyes meet mine. “Let him down. Right now.”
“I did it.”
She spins around and her legs give out before she stumbles backwards into the round table, knocking it over and shattering the glass top on the bloody floor. “No…” She reaches up, covering her face as if that will make my father disappear.
“Hello, Laura,” he says, coming to stand next to me.
“What have you done?” my mother screams at me before looking at my father. She turns to run out of the room but comes to a quick stop when she sees Sin leaning up against the door, arms crossed over his chest. His father lies at his feet, barely conscious from the beating Sin gave him earlier at our house.
I’m surprised he’s still breathing. We loaded them both into the car and brought them over here. We had one more person we needed to take care of. One more that knows my father isn’t really dead. I wanted to see the look on her face when she realized she was caught. It did not disappoint.
“Why?” I ask, stepping toward her but my father grabs my arm, stopping me from getting too close. “Why did you do it?”
She turns to face me, makeup now smeared from her tears. They’re not sadness, or regret, it’s anger. She’s been caught. Her fate sealed. Reaching into the back pocket of her skinny jeans, she removes her cell.
I charge her, knocking my body into hers and we both go crashing to the floor. She’s screaming at me, hands slapping at my face as I’m yanked off of her. Sin wraps an arm around my waist, keeping my back to his front while my father grabs my mother.
“How could you do this?” I shout, fighting Sin to let me go. “How could you do this to us. To me?”
“To you?” She screams as my father holds her to him as well. “To you?” She repeats. “Nothing was done to you, Elli. Your father was worth more dead than alive.”
He shoves her forward and she falls to her knees. Looking up at me through her lashes, she gives me a cold smile. “You, however, were worth more alive.”
Sin let’s go of me and steps into her. “What the fuck does that mean?” He demands.