Page 180 of Kiss the Villain

My hand twitches and I stare at him.

It all clicks into place.

Kayden’s reaction to when he thought I wanted to rape Yulian—he thought I was the same as what he thinks Grandpa did.

The way he belittled me during the mock trial for defending the accused.

How he used to say he was giving me a taste of my own medicine.

Did he adopt a new identity and come all the way here to…destroy Grandpa through me?

“Ye figured it out, yeah?” Declan smirks. “Kayden wanted to break you, then kill you. Would hurt yer granddaddy worse than his actual death, since ye’re the apple of his eye.”

“He made me attached to him for revenge as well?” I ask, not recognizing my choked voice.

“Why else? Kayden only ever loved Caysie, ya wee fool.”

Only ever loved Caysie.

Sandra.That’s what he called her.

The woman he loved so much that he went crazy to avenge her death.

The woman he loved so much, he injected himself beneath my skin just so he could get her justice.

I scratch at my wounds, peeling the bandage off and ripping the flesh open, then digging my fingers inside.

I want the blood out.

Allof it.

I wanthimout of my veins.

My skin.

My insides.

I want to throw him up.

Spit him out.

Send him back to his Sandra.

But no matter how much I dig, he’s still there, somewhere I can’t reach.

Beneath the outer layer of my heart, maybe in the beats themselves.

Maybe I need to dig my knife there, see if I can make it stop.

The thumps and the pain.

I just want it tostop.

It’s so loud in my head, the demons screeching so noisily, it’s deafening.

My quiet white room is now splashed with blood from the void and I want the red gone.

Stop.

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