There was always more pain.
Head rotating, I searched for him. Arthur stood in the center of my bedroom, in the heart of the wreckage he’d created. His jacket was gone, tie loosened. The rings he wore were positioned over his cracked knuckles.
“I had a feeling you’d come back here. If not more of your things, then for memory’s sake.”
My eyes thinned.
“I’m afraid I’ve known for weeks that you abandoned your room, though that begs the question of where you’ve been staying. You’ve got no friends. No money.”
He took a single, menacing step toward me.
“If you tell me where it is right now, I’ll walk away.”
The film…
My throat swelled, and I shook my head but his hand shot outward and locked around my throat. Eyes bulging, I grabbed hold of his wrist, tearing at the skin and struggling against the strength of his grip.
His lips pulled back, and he bared his teeth at me right before he used my throat as leverage and tossed me across the room. The hem of my sweatshirt shifted slightly, and I felt the excruciating burn of my skin being clawed away as I slid across the wooden floor.
Thud.
My back hit the wall so hard my teeth rattled, and I was quick to toss my arms over my head when I saw his figure looming over me.
“Tell me where it is, you good for nothing shit!”
Fingers tangled in my sweatshirt, he forced my upper body off the ground a few inches before me slamming me back into it.
Air punched out of my lungs.
“I know Foster told you where it is.” He stabbed an aggressive finger at the narrow space between my eyes, digging his nail into the thin skin. My head twisted, face recoiling from the assault as he dragged that finger down the center of my face.
Blood oozed out of my skin, dripping over the bridge of my nose. It lingered on my upper lip, and I tasted its vigor on the tip of my tongue.
His own lips had spittle hovering in the corners, eyes wide enough I could describe every detail of his black, lifeless pupils.
“If you think I’m going to let you ruin my organization, you’re dead fucking wrong, kid. Emphasis on the dead.”
Fingers knotted in my hair, he tugged me across the room. My scalp screamed for mercy, my heels digging into the stiff floor.
“You’re just like your mother.”
I stopped moving.
The pause stunned him enough that he hesitated, stumbling over his own feet and dropping my head. It cracked against the floor, and I heard a faint ringing in my ears but it was nothing compared to the volume of his words as they echoed across my mind.
Did he say… my mother?
“Annie threatened me once. Threatened to go to the police, expose me and the board. She wanted a better life for you. As if my money, my fucking school, wasn’t good enough.”
Oh.
My.
God.
“Did you…” I gagged, tears soaring down my face. I struggled to speak, but I couldn’t understand. Not when all I wanted to do was scream. “Did you… kill my mother?”
His smile was like a loaded gun.