Page 125 of Heartless Game

And she’d live, now.

“I—” she began, but she was cut off when my father’s man shoved the gun harder against her temple.

Love you, she’d been about to say.

I swallowed the monstrous growl, following my sister’s unspoken advice. Instead, I forced a pleasant smile on my face and faced my father.

“What do I need to do to make you lower those guns and let them go?”

The grin that took over his face was pained.

“Ah, yes. I have a bit of a laundry list, you see. First, you’ll stop playing that silly stick game and focus on learning how this family operates. The second you graduate, you’ll come home—and marry Eliana.”

Once upon a time, these demands had been my biggest fears. Give up hockey. Take over the family business. Now, even though they all hurt—and the idea of marrying anyone but Tovah hurt most—they didn’t matter. Nothing did.

Nothing but her. I’d sacrifice all my dreams, live all my nightmares, if it meant she got to live, period.

“Isaac, don’t,” Tovah tried to say.

“Done,” I told my father. “Now let her go.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think I’ll keep her around until I’m sure you won’t renege. We don’t break promises, Isaac. Remember that.”

“You. Will. Let. Her. Go,” I told him.

He chuckled. “Who are you, Moses? No. In fact, I think they’re lucky. I loved Mordy deeply, and they took him from me. They should die for that. You know what?” he tapped his chin. “Maybe I’ll kill the mother, and the daughter can grieve. I need my vengeance somehow. For him.”

“No,” Tovah said. “If you want your vengeance, take it from me.”

“Tovah,” I said sharply, at the same moment, her mother said, “Don’t, please don’t, honey.”

But Tovah ignored both of us, instead lifting her gaze and staring my father down. My heart began to beat so loud it could’ve shaken the floorboards.

“I remember that day,” she began. “I remember when we mixed the poison into the cake. Red velvet, my stepfather’s favorite. But see, it wasn’t my mother who killed him, because I was the one who served it to him. I was the one who made sure he ateevery single bite,” she enunciated. “And I was the one who watched, with relief, with happiness, when that bastard keeled over on the table and we were finally free. So Abe, you can have your vengeance, but you’ll want to take it againstme.BecauseI’mthe one who killed him.”

52

Isaac

What happened next happened fast, too fast.

My father’s face turned red.

He grabbed my gun from the table, and stood, cocking it and aiming it at Tovah.

I stood, too, turning to him, my arms reaching out to stop him.

My chair crashed to the floor.

“An eye for an eye,” he said.

And pulled the trigger.

It happened too fast.

53

Isaac

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