Page 122 of Kept in the Dark

But David Gallagher didn’t have affection to give. And what attention he could spare, it was never good attention. He didn’t want to be bothered with her or Hailey, they were a nuisance. So, she had acted out.

In the beginning, she was unsure, not knowing what the repercussions would be of her wild outings. And at first, she had liked the attention, even if it was her father yelling at her. At least he noticed her. But then her yearning slowly turned into hate. And everything she had done was to spite the man who should love her more than anything.

She said from the door, “Why do you hate me?”

The beep of the heart machine was his response. A steady rhythm and song of his impending death; one Sara was looking forward to celebrating.

“All I ever wanted was your love, but you looked at me and Hailey as if we were your death sentence.” She walked a little closer to his bed. “But you're incapable of love, aren't you? Or at least you're picky about who you give it to.”

Silence.

Sara snorted and shook her head. “Even while you’re dying you don't have enough decency to answer me.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “You refused to be controlled. Your free spirit needed to be broken but you wouldn’t break. You were my reminder that I had one weakness: you. And I'd be damned if I let you get away with it.”

Sara stared at the man who had ruined her. She felt a deep hatred, one that darkened her very core. It was an evil that had seeped into every part of her, a cancer that was eating away at her heart.

A wicked grin crept on his face. “Kill me. I know you want to; I can see it in your eyes. I’m dying anyway so you’d be doing me a favor.”

At first, she didn’t move. She was surprised by his words. Then, she slowly walked to the edge of his bed. She wondered what it would be like to feel his life leave him, to know she had been the one to destroy him. How poetic would it be if she, the one thing he hated most, was ultimately his downfall?

She wondered if she was just as much of a monster as he was.

Then Gavin’s face flashed through her mind: his kind eyes and quiet nature. He would hate that she was dancing with the devil, willing to throw everything away. He would hate to see the darkness swallow her, turn her into a monster.

And that’s exactly what David wanted. To make her just like him. To take her life from her for good.

Hailey’s words echoed in her mind, “You’re a survivor.”

She had survived too much to let David steal one last piece of her before he died.

“I’m not like you,” she said.

A laugh wheezed from his lungs. “I see that glint in your eye, the bloodlust. You want to kill me. You have hate flowing through your veins. You are every bad part of me. You are just like me.”

“No, I’m not. You think the darkness made you invincible. But your greatest strength is actually your weakness. And at your core, that’s what you are: weak. You thought the darkness would make you a bigger monster, but all it did was hide your failure in the shadows. I rose from the grave you tried to bury me in, and I’ll be damned if I let you do it one last time.”

She stepped closer to him, getting in his face. “I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of killing you.” She smiled. “Karma is coming for you, and she’s coming with a vengeance.”

July 7, 2011

11:12 pm

It had only taken Trey twenty minutes to make the drive to Hannah Rowland’s house and the moon was now high in the sky. If he wasn’t high on adrenaline, he might have felt tired.

He winced as he walked up the porch steps. His hand flew to his abdomen, and he gritted his teeth as he squeezed his eye shut, hoping the pain would subside. Once it did, he raised his hand to knock, but the door was ajar.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. His instincts heightened as he listened for movement beyond the wooden barrier. He quickly pulled out his service weapon and flashlight and slowly pushed the door with his foot.

He carefully swept through the house, assessing each room, closet, and potential hiding space. After what happened to Carter, he walked with his back to the wall, not taking a chance for Ryan- or someone else- to get the jump on him.

The front door jamb was intact, there were no broken windows, and nothing seemed to be rummaged through.

Maybe she left in a hurry and didn’t close the door all the way?

Trey wondered if something had spooked her. After all they’d uncovered, she was likely the one who killed Morgan.

Stalkers usually escalated, and if she realized David wouldn’t leave Morgan, that may have pushed her over the edge. Or maybe she thought killing Morgan was the right thing to do: release David from his awful marriage. She even could have done it to get back at David for breaking things off.

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