She gasped audibly, looking back and forth between me and the grave so quickly I was afraid she’d snap her neck. “When did you know my mother?”
“I was young.” I had to bite the words through my teeth; just dredging up this memory was painful. “But I’ll never forget the day she presented me with the tiny golden retriever puppy. She’d found it wandering around the property. Instead of leaving it out here to starve, she carried it home, cleaned it up, and gave it to me with a pink bow tied around its neck.” Madeline was staring at me curiously. “What?”
“You’re saying it, not her.”
I frowned. “It’s a dog.” I didn’t like the look she was giving me, as if she’d learned something about me and was pleased with what she saw.
“Anyway.” I directed her attention back to the grave. “Conrad doesn’t like animals. He handed me a gun and helped me pull the trigger. Your mother screamed the whole time.”
Madeline was shaking. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I ignored her. “I was six years old. I cried when it happened, and Conrad hit me so hard he gave me a black eye.” I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to face me. “He taught me a lesson that day, Mads. It’s important for you to know that. No matter how hard you try or how much you think you can appeal to my better nature, know this.” I leaned over a little to be at eye level with her. “I don’t have one. It was burned out of me before I could spell my name. There is nothing you can do or say to make this experience easier for you. And I am going to do everything in my power to make you hurt just as badly as I did when your mother betrayed my family twenty-two years ago.”