Page 152 of Cashmere Ruin

I see red.

My fist meets Tom’s face and something goescrack, sharp and sickening. I don’t register the spray of blood, only the mounting rage in my chest. The beast inside me, howling,That’s not enough. Make him pay.

It isn’t just everything I’ve overheard during my walk down that long, long hallway. Words, I could still answer with words of my own. But the second I saw Tom’s filthy hands on April, I fucking lost it.

“You piece of shit,” I snarl as I throw him to the floor. “You stupid, miserable piece of?—”

I hit him again, and again, and again. It’s all I can see: my fist diving down, coming back redder each time. I can’t even tell if he’s begging—the ringing in my ears drowns out all else.

I knew Tom was violent. I knew he’d likely hit April in the time she was forced to live under his roof.

Butthis?

I can’t even think straight. Is this the kind of attention she had to suffer? The humiliation she had to endure? Fucking hell, she was seventeen. Seventeen, and still, this scumbag would try…

Who says he only tried?whispers the darkest, ugliest part of me.Who says he didn’t succeed?

I let out a roar and start pummeling him full-force. “I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you, you fillthy?—”

“MATVEY, STOP!”

The second I feel April’s hands on me, my vision clears. The ringing fades. I can hear echoes of screams—a woman and a young boy. Eleanor, I realize, rushing over from the elevator.

And then…

Charlie.

I see him now, trembling in the doorway. His face is white, drained of all blood. He looks terrified.

He looks terrified ofme.

“Dad…?”

I finally glance down. Tom’s face is a red pulp, barely recognizable, like a bruised fruit squished under my heel. For a second, I think I’ve killed him.

Then I hear a rattling breath. “M-Mercy…”

I heave a sigh of relief.He’s alive.I turn my attention back to the siblings, tuning out Eleanor’s wails. “Charlie, I didn’t mean?—”

But when I stretch out my hand, he flinches away.

“Charlie?” I frown, but someone steps between us.

April.

“Don’t talk to him,” she says in the iciest voice I’ve ever heard.

“April, I didn’t want…”

“He needs an ambulance,” Eleanor sobs. “He’s g-gonna die!”

“He’s not gonna die, Mom.” April rolls her eyes, but still whips out her phone. “It looks worse than it is. Right, Tom?”

I watch the family spring into action—or rather, April.Out of everyone here, she seems to be the only one keeping a cool head.

But the fury in her gaze is unmistakable.

I fucked up.

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