Page 128 of The Masks She Wore

?The confusion that filled his eyes was enough to make me pause. “No, that’s…we burned those identities before we ran. She never would have gone back to it, she’s smarter than that.”

?I studied him carefully before shoving myself to a stand and pulling out my gun. “He’s lying.”

?Charles held up his hands, his eyes going wide with fear. “I’m not lying,” he rushed, which made me pause anyway.

?If he and Marla were a part of this world as much as Malachi believed they were, then why did he look so scared looking down the barrel of this gun?

?“Charlotte knows the rules, she knows what she’s supposed to do. She doesn’t use burned identities, in fact, she hardly reuses any identities, that’s why it was so hard for me to find her. She’s the one who creates new ones. She’s the one that gives us the information before we settle.”

?I pointed the gun between his eyes. She did all of that? Then why thefuckcouldn’t she remember it? What had they done to her to make her forget that? “I looked into Rae Bennett, I’ve been to events with her. Everyone knows who she is, who her mother is,” I explained tightly. “Everyone. In fact, in LA, her mother died ten months ago, and the city is allowing her to mourn the loss. Everyone knows about her. Everyone.”

?Charles looked confused and terrified. “I don’t understand. We burned them overtwo years ago. Before we ran. There has to be a story there. Did the Bennett’s move back to the city? What was the story behind them being gone for so long?”

?“There is nostory,” I snapped. “I did my research.”

?“Not well enough,” he whispered desperately, shaking his head. “She would have appeared in that city two years—”

?“She doesn’t have solid memories before her mother died,” I bit.

?He closed his eyes and shook his head, as if trying to collect his thoughts. After several seconds, his eyes found mine again. “Marla isn’t dead,” he breathed out. “I saw her four months ago, she’s not dead. I don’t know why she believes that, but it’s the truth.”

?My brows pulled together, my blood running cold. “What?”

?“None of this makes any sense,” Charles went on, lowering his hands. “She was safe. The Bennett’s were all supposed to be gone, moved to Ireland in 2017. Charlotte had to have given them a story.” He paused, looking between us. “You kept saying Marla, what about me? What do they think happened to me?”

?I watched him carefully before lowering the gun. “Your daughter, from what we’ve put together, was tortured into believing that Rae Bennett was a real person.”

?His eyes darkened. “What?”

?“She has scars littering her body and whenever we ask her about something small, something that isn’t significant to whatever plot they’ve written out, she struggles, panics, can’t think straight. She’s been brainwashed. She believes her mother is dead. She believes that you were a one-night stand. She believes that she’s lived in LA her entire life with a woman named Viv as her one and only friend.”

?“Viv,” he whispered, his eyes flicking back and forth as if he were going through a catalog in his mind of names he might have heard. “I don’t know a Viv.”

?“Why wasn’t your name on the real birth certificate?” Malachi asked, pulling his attention away from me. “Why hasn’t anyone mentioned her father?”

?“Marla’s choice. If they came after us, they would only know her name, leaving Charlotte with a parent still alive if things went south. As for why nobody has mentioned me, I don’t know. That’s the issue. You don’t know the story. Why did the Bennett’s return to the city?”

?I truly didn’t care about the story, it seemed like a small fish in a large pond at this point. It was pointless, unnecessary.

?“How long was she tortured?” he asked, his eyes finding mine when we didn’t answer his question.

?I worked my jaw, adjusted my grip, refusing to drop the gun. “We haven’t figured that out yet.”

?“Have you pushed her to remember?”

?“Yes,” I stated, “but we don’t know the failsafe’s they put in her mind. I don’t want to shatter it trying to find out the truth.”

?“Does she understand that she’s been tortured?”

?“Well, if she hasn’t figured it out already, she’ll know about it soon. I have four people involved in this chained up in the basement back home. If you know her as well as I do, you’ll know that she wasted no time in going down there to speak to them. If they know about how she ended up this way, she’ll get it out of them.” I hadn’t trained her in torture yet, but with her instincts, with what I now know, even if she can’t remember how she knows how to do it, she’ll still know how.

?Maybe it would unlock something inside of her that would bring back enough memories to help us solve the rest of it.

?Or maybe it would shatter her mind in a way I wouldn’t be able to fix.

?Just at the thought, I nearly put a bullet between his eyes.

?Charles sagged into the couch, disbelief and anger burning in his eyes. “All this time, I thought she was safe. I thought she was biding her time, doing what she always did. I can’t believe this.”

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