Page 52 of A Twisted Gift

He guides me around the wall and through the front gate. We stick to the shadows, avoiding the Christmas lights so we aren’t seen. At the front door, Erik tries a few keys until one turns the lock.

“Quiet,” he reminds me as we step inside. He shuts the door softly and pulls me toward the kitchen.

Staff first.That’s what Erik and I agreed on. Since it’s Christmas, just about everyone is home with their own families, but Father keeps the bare minimum around no matter what day it is. His private chef and a helper, one maid, and the guards.

It makes my stomach fill with butterflies, knowing that Erik wants to kill everyone involved in holding me captive. Not just the man who made sure it happened, but every single person who kept me a secret and turned a blind eye.

As we walk through the house, I realize that I’m already viewing the place differently—like an outsider. The Christmas decorations that I used to be so fond of make me sick. It’s all so fake, a facade to cover up the sinister deeds of my father.

There’s no nostalgia, no wishes for things to have been better. Only a readiness to finish this.

The walk-in pantry has two entrances—one from the kitchen and one from the laundry room. We move in through the latter, the sound of the dryer masking our footsteps.

In the kitchen, I catch Marlee humming a Christmas song. She’s the head chef, and she’s worked here for longer than I’ve been alive. I can think of countless times I snuck in here and begged her for food, but she never cared. Said it wasn’t her business.

“Can you get the flour from the pantry again?” Marlee asks Stella, her helper. “I forgot I gotta prep the dough for dinner rolls for tomorrow.”

Panic floods me, and I grab at Erik’s shirt. But he pushes me behind the open door and crouches out of sight behind one of the carts the maid uses to bring everything into the dining room.

“Sure thing,” Stella says, and a moment later, the light flips on.

Behind the door, I can’t see Stella as she enters the room, but I can hear her looking for the flour. A shadow slips across the cabinet doors—Erik, I realize—and then there’s a muffled scream.

Carefully, I peek around the door. Blood covers the packages lining the pantry shelves, and Erik is holding a limp Stella in arms, one hand covering her mouth. Her front is stained red from the blood flowing from her slit throat.

Erik lowers Stella to the floor and holds out a hand for me. I take it, stepping around the puddle of blood, and he helps me over her body.

“Stella?” Marlee calls out. “You good?”

Erik holds a bloody finger to his lips before stepping in front of me. My heart is in my throat as Marlee stomps over to the pantry.

“Ugh, Stella, comeon.How hard is it to—”

Erik slams her against the wall before she can finish, his hands encircling her neck. As he chokes her, Marlee’s eyes find me, and shock mixes with the terror on her face.

“Y-you,” she wheezes as she claws at Erik’s arms. “P-plea…”

“Beg for your life all you want, but no one hurts my girl and lives,” Erik growls.

The smile that takes over my face is as genuine as it is unexpected. I’ve thought about finding a way to kill everyone who’s stepped foot inside this mansion, but I always thought it’d go differently. That a little piece of me would die with every person I killed. That it would hurt me to end the lives of everyone I loved, even though they never loved me back.

Instead, a weight I didn’t even realize I was carrying is lifted from my shoulders. As Marlee slumps to the floor, tears fill my eyes. I jump over her body and into Erik’s arms, fitting my mouth to his.

Everything that’s happened since last night has been so difficult to wrap my head around. Erik has made so many promises to me, and I’m pretty sure I believed him, but seeing him act them out is another thing entirely. It’s rock-solid proof that I’m not alone anymore.

“Are you all right?” he asks when he notices the tears in my eyes.

“Couldn’t be more perfect,” I whisper before kissing him again. “I don’t know how to describe what this means to me. Just… thank you, Erik.”

He presses me into the same wall he had Marlee up against, but where he was rough with her, his touch is gentle with me. A soft caress of my cheek and a reassuring squeeze at my waist. His lips move against mine so softly, so sweetly, that I almost forget where we are.

But Erik pulls away reluctantly, his forehead resting against mine as he breathes deeply. “We have to keep going. We still need to deal with the maid and the rest of your family.”

“Right.”

I’m not sure which maid is working today, just that it’s not the one who’s always kind to me. She told me weeks ago that she was taking some time off to spend with her family, and I was happy with her. Now I’m relieved that she won’t get caught up in any of this.

One of the serving carts is in the kitchen, fully stocked up with Christmas desserts, which means that the maid should be grabbing it soon. Erik and I opt to wait for her, and within fifteen minutes, he’s dragging her dead body into the pantry with the others.

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