Page 65 of The Truths We Burn

Two faces I had never wanted to see again, two faces that I want to obliterate off the face of this fucking planet.

I’m angry that they’re even able to breathe oxygen right now.

One of them stands, stepping a bit closer so that when he reaches his hand forward, his pointer finger with the class ring around it swirls a piece of my hair.

“What did you do to your hair, Pip?” His face is filled with sorrow, and I know it’s because he actually cares about it. I remember just how much he used to like my hair.

“I stole a pair of bandage scissors from a med cart and hacked it off before the charge nurse sedated me,”I say, staring vacantly. “And if you don’t remove your hand from me, I will bite your finger clean off.”

Cain McKay was what some might consider an honorable guy.Once a small-town officer for Ponderosa Springs, he’d worked his way up to the FBI. Everyone here could not have been prouder, yet the day he left for training had been like waking up from a three-year-long nightmare.

A lucid dream I had no control of. One I was fully aware I was stuck inside of and could do nothing to wake myself up.

“You’ve gotten bigger,” he breathes, making me feel slimy inside. Probably thinks I’m joking about ripping his finger off with my teeth.What he doesn’t know is that wouldn’t be the craziest shit I’ve seen around here. It would be another day at the Monarch psych ward.

I tongue the inside of my cheek, noticing that the years had started to age his face. Most women who don’t know him would call him handsome in his button-down shirt, neatly knotted tie, and slacks.

Most women don’t know he isn’t into women at all or men.

He prefers little girls he has power over. Ones that wouldn’t tell anyone, that couldn’t.

Little girls that have everything to lose.

“From when I was thirteen?” I cross my arms in front of my chest, wanting to shield myself. I’d been too young to stand up to him before, too afraid, but now I have nothing to lose. “Yeah, that is about the time you stopped coming into my bedroom, wasn’t it? I thought you’d just gotten bored, but it’s because I hit puberty, isn’t it?”

I watch the way his face changes, how only a moment ago he was composed and looked like a caring family member coming to see me. I watch as the filth and spiders that fester beneath his skin begin to sneak out.

The number of times I’d thought about the moment of pure joy that would run through me as he was publicly castrated was infinite.

The mask he wore was my least favorite.

One of the protectors, the guardian, the one who is supposed to keep you safe from the monster under the bed.

Yet, the only boogeyman I ever faced in life was him.

“That’s how this is going to be? After everything I’ve done? You used to love me so much when you were little.”

I tilt my head. “Did you expect it to be any different?”

“Sage, can you sit down, please. Cain has driven a long way, and we have so much to talk about.”

My father speaks for the very first time since they arrived, ignoring my announcement of Cain’s sexual advances towards me. It doesn’t faze him though—why would it?

One, he probably already knew about it.

Two, he’d sold his daughter into sex slavery without even blinking.

Three, he doesn’t care.

He looks the same as the day I was taken away. Not an ounce of guilt or remorse has affected his ability to smile for the people of Ponderosa Springs.

I bet he even uses it to his advantage.

I bet thewoe is meact is gaining him tons of sympathy. The man who’d lost his wife to an affair, the father who’d lost one daughter to death and the other to mental defect.

How fucking sad.

“I’m not sitting down.” I stare at him, really looking into his eyes so that he can see the reflection of what he has done. I want him to feel it, to see what his actions have caused. “What do you want?”

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