Page 75 of See How They Hide

“Not a word.”

“Take a break. Be back in ten.”

He left and Calliope unlocked the main door, then unlocked the door to the pit, and walked down the sturdy, narrow stairs to the cold basement where her traitorous sister—herhalfsister—was chained to the wall.

“Come,” she commanded Banjo when he hesitated at the top.

Thalia looked up at her with pain in her eyes, which pleased Calliope. But she still wasn’t broken.

Then Thalia saw the dog and a cry escaped.

“Yourhackerdeserved to die, but I am not cruel. I would never kill an innocent animal.” She glared at her half sister.

“You betrayed me, Thalia. You betrayed everyone in Havenwood.”

Thalia stared at her, eyes hollow but defiant. “Fuck. You.”

“Everyone who betrayed Havenwood, who betrayedme, will bedead. The people you took could ruin everything we have built here! Don’t you remember those who tried to destroy us? Killed Glen and my baby? Don’t you remember?”

Thalia didn’t say anything. Shedidremember, she just didn’t want to admit that Calliope was right. That Havenwood had to be protected by any means necessary.

She glanced around the room. The waste bucket in the corner, the tray of uneaten food, the photos of the dead Calliope had printed and pinned high up on the wall, where Thalia couldn’t even reach them if she was unchained.

The dog loped over to Thalia and licked her. Tears ran down Thalia’s face. She should be crying. She was living her last days.

“You never understood what needed to be done to save Havenwood.”

Calliope pulled a folding chair from the corner, opened it, sat down, her long dress flowing around her. Her bright red hair falling in shiny curls. She knew she was a vision. The most beautiful woman in Havenwood. But more than being beautiful, she was smart. She had seen the cracks, watched people leave, watched her motherletpeople leave. She called the dog back to her. He hesitated.

“Banjo, come,” she said again, firmly.

He came, sat next to her, and she gave him a treat. Rewards worked. With dogs and people.

She pet him as she watched Thalia cry.

Without people, Havenwood was nothing. Calliope had found a way to make people stay. Most wanted to, they just needed a bit of finesse to steer them in the right direction. Rewards. Enticements. Those who couldn’t be persuaded? Punishment.

They couldn’t be allowed to leave and risk the sanctuary that was their home.

“I love Havenwood,” Calliope explained to her sister as her fingers scratched Banjo gently behind the ears. She felt the hate and anger rolling off Thalia, and somehow, that pleased her more than her sister’s tears. “I love Havenwood more than you. If it weren’t for me, we would have ceased to exist long ago. If it weren’t for me, everyone here would be wandering the world in search of what they lost, depressed, wishing they hadn’t been so petty and selfish. I showed them a better way.”

She had saved Havenwood. And what had her sister done? Betrayed her and their mother’s legacy.

“People were stealing from us. Our own people, and Mother never did anything about it. They used us, used what we had, what we freely gave, and then stabbed us in the back. And still Mother turned the other cheek. What a naive woman. She had the vision but was too weak to maintain it.”

“You killed her,” Thalia said.

“Her fault, not mine. I wish it could have been different, Thalia,” Calliope said. She rose, towering over her chained sister. “But everything you did, stealing Havenwood’s money, taking Robert from me, kidnapping people in the dead of night, all of that isnothingcompared to you turning my own daughter against me.”

Thalia sucked in her breath.

“I don’t know—”

Calliope backhanded her. “You know.Anton sent me a picture. It’s Riley, my baby, and you turned her against me. That’s why she faked her d-d-death.” Thinking about it made Calliope’s heart race. “I’m getting her back. She’smine.”

“Riley has seen the darkness of your soul,” Thalia whispered, her voice raw. “She knows who you are and what you’ve done. She will kill you before she submits to you.”

“You thought you could deceive me, make a fool out of me. Everyone here believes you killed Robert. They believed me eleven years ago when you left with him.” She stepped closer, her face close to her betrayer. “You may not have slit his throat, but his death is on you, dear sister. You have been tried and convicted. The sentence is death.”

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