Page 183 of I Will Mend You

“She’s distracting you from your destiny,” Dolly adds.

“What?” I snap, my gaze bouncing from her to Father.

He steps closer, his eyes boring into mine. “After you and your rag-tag gang of defectors kill the Moirai’s management team, you will return everything you stole from me and take your place at my side.”

“You’re deluded,” I rasp.

“You’ll come to terms with your position in life the moment you accept that Amy is dead.”

I shake my head. “You wouldn’t kill someone so important to me without turning it into a spectacle.”

Father points his remote at the wall. “See for yourself.”

The screen lights up with footage of Amethyst lying on a brown leather couch in a white room. Her eyes are open, but she’s dazed, with her arms encased in a grubby straitjacket. Its fastenings at the bottom are undone, revealing her pubic hair and legs encased in compression bandages.

I stiffen, my pulse pounding so hard I can barely hear the audio.

Father appears on screen and positions himself at the edge of the couch. My breath stills as his hands slide up her legs.

My heart thrashes. She told me Father had raped her in the asylum, but seeing it unfold is another level of hell.

His fingers probe her vagina, making her whimper. I can’t tear my eyes from the screen, as if looking away would abandon Amethyst to her fate.

“You sick bastard,” I snarl. “I already know what you did.”

“She was as tight as a virgin,” Father says.

I strain so hard against the leather straps that my wrists bleed. “Monster. I’ll make you die screaming!”

“Tighter than me?” Dolly asks with a pout.

“You are a queen among women,” Father says without conviction. “Amy could never compare.”

On screen, Father extracts a thick rubber ring from inside Amethyst and sets it aside before unzipping his fly and positioning himself between her spread legs.

Anguish grips my chest. I can’t breathe, can’t move as the horror unfolds on video. He violates the woman I love with jerky thrusts, while the camera captures every flicker of pain and fear and resignation across her anguished features.

I want to tell myself this is Dolly, but this is exactly how Amethyst described one of her flashbacks. I watch, helpless and impotent, as Father steals from yet another woman I love.

After an eternity, he climaxes with a shudder, and the video switches to a different scene. It’s of Amethyst lying bound to a metal table. A blond man stands over her, holding a knife. The camera cuts to him making a stabbing motion, then back to Amethyst, whose wound oozes blood.

Adrenaline surges through my veins, bringing with it a rush of panic and denial. This has to be another one of Father’s twisted games.

It can’t be real. I can’t lose her. I won’t lose her. She’s all I have left. My mind clings to this hope, refusing to accept what I’m seeing.

“Bullshit,” I snarl. “This is makeup and special effects.”

Father picks up another syringe from the torture table and plunges its needle into my neck. Its sting barely registers, but a flood of cool liquid sends my heart galloping. My senses sharpen, my breath quickens, and my limbs surge with power.

He strolls to the door and holds it open. “Xero thinks we fake deaths. Show him we mean business.”

Before I can ask what the hell he means, Dolly points her gun at Camila’s chest and fires. Blood splatters across the white wall, and my sister’s body collapses.

“No!” I thrash against my restraints, my scream echoing off the walls.

Camila falls to the floor in a heap, her brown eyes still glassy.

Dolly blows smoke from the barrel of her gun and steps over Camila’s body. She approaches me, her heels clicking over the floor. Satisfaction shining in her eyes, she leans close and grins.

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