Page 114 of Silent Betrayal

I take another bite of the food, eyeing him warily. I’m still worried that he put something in it to drug me with, but I have a feeling I’m going to be here for a while and will need to eat, eventually. I’d rather be on his good side, anyway.

The way his temper keeps flaring, and he jumps from speaking softly to yelling at me, is all sorts of terrifying. Everything he’s said is playing through my mind as I try to piece together exactly what’s going on here.

Why has he kidnapped me?

He seems completely unhinged, like the smallest thing will set off his temper. But I don’tthinkhe wants to hurt me and I don’t want to give him an excuse to. That’s why I decided to play into his strange fantasy he has about me being his little girl.

He said he’sbeen searching for me for years, that he’s been planning this. But before, he told us that he had been living in California all this time.

A nervous tension fills my body as a deep-seated fear starts to take hold. Unable to hold back my need for answers, I decide to see what information I can get from him.

“Daddy?” The name tastes like acid on my tongue, but I press forward.

“Yes, my little angel?”

“Have you really been searching for me all this time?”

“Of course, honey. I thought maybe something had happened to you, that Mary had hurt you. I never should have brought you home to her.”

I pinch my face in confusion. “Wait—Who’s Mary?”

“Oh, honey. Helen’s real name is Mary. She wasn’t your real mommy.”

I stare at him in shock. She wasn’t really my mother? “I-Is that why she hated me so much?” I ask him, unsure if I’m upset by the news or relieved.

“Mostly, yes. Your real mother, she wanted to keep you for herself, she wasn’t going to let me see you anymore. So I killed her and brought you home for Mary and I to raise.”

He killed my real mother?My stomach turns with the need to vomit.

“What was her name?” I ask, trying to distract myself.

“Helen. Helen Bennett.”

I must look confused because he sighs and clarifies. “Mary took Helen’s identity because it was her name on your birth certificate. It just made things easier for us.”

I had a real mother, who loved me and wanted to keep me? And he… He killed her. He did it so he could keep me for himself? Then gave her identity to another woman? He’s even more messed up than I imagined.

Trying to hide my fear and need to be sick, I ask him another question. “Are you my real… daddy?” I hope he’s not related to me, either.

“Of course I’m your real daddy.” He holds my hand like he truly believes all of this can be explained away, like he didn’t murder my mother and kidnap me.

He takes a deep breath before continuing. “You have to understand, Mary… she wasn’t right in the head.” He didn’t have to tell me that, I’ve been living with her for the past twenty-one years.

“She has a weird fascination with me. I never paid her any attention, but it only made her want me more. As we grew older, it got worse. One day, in our early twenties, she convinced me to go out drinking with her. I guess I drank too much because I ended up sleeping with her. I knew what we’d done was wrong, we were twins for christ's sake!”

My eyes practically bug out of my head. Did he just say that he and Mary aretwins? As in… siblings?

Holy cow!

This explains so much. He slept with his own sister and she got pregnant with Simon. That’s why they didn’t have a record of his birth, they didn’t want anyone to know about the incest! And it’s why he hates Simon, he’s the product of what Mary forced him into.

Andthatexplains why he’s obsessed with me. After having a child from incest, one as psychopathic as Simon, he saw me as the perfect child.

Unaware of inner ramblings he continues. “She got pregnant with Simon and we moved away from our family. Nobody even knew she had a baby. But Mary wasn’t satisfied, she wanted to build a life with me, butI didn’t want that. I didn’t want her, or Simon. I could barely even look at them.” He takes a breath before he continues.

“I met Helen, the real Helen, at work. Did you know I used to be a lawyer?”Hewas a lawyer?

“She was the district attorney, and I thought she was the most beautiful and intelligent woman I’d ever met. She never lost a case and was smart as a whip. When she became pregnant, and gave birth to you, I saw you for the first time and knew instantly that you were my perfect little girl. You were already more beautiful than your mother, and I knew you’d be twice as smart.” He reaches out to rub my leg in what he believes is a caring paternal way, but it just makes me want to throw up.

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