Page 65 of Splitting Secrets
“That’s a cop out, and you know it,” she grinds out through a clenched jaw. “How could telling me that you killed them be the best possible plan?”
“I never told you I killed them,” I point out. In fact, I’ve been very carefulnotto tell her that.
“You’re not going to win this argument over semantics.”
“I don’t think I’m going to win this argument at all,” I mumble under my breath.
“What am I supposed to do, Raze? There’s two people out there who claim to be the parents I’ve spent half of my lifemourning. Am I supposed to forgive them for abandoning me? For leaving me with absolutely nothing?”
“You don’t owe them anything,” I insist, because it’s true. They made their choices.
She pauses for a moment, then pivots the subject. “Is this their house?”
“I feel like there’s going to be consequences if I say yes...”
A pillow hits my face. “Well, now I understand where my ‘inheritance’ went. Why is this where you guys took us forsafetyif they didn’t want me to know they’re alive?”
Rounding the bed, I close the distance between us—only slightly ignoring the risk of being pummeled. Thankfully, she allows it with nothing more than a threatening scowl. “They insisted you come here. I fought against it, trust me.”
No one disagrees with how Constance and Carter have handled their disappearance more than me. I let it be known the moment I realized she existed. I just haven't been allowed to express my distaste without it being thrown in my face that I’m partially at fault.
A bullshit accusation, if you ask me. Who plans their own fake death on a night they don’t have all the people they want to “die” present?
“None of us can trust you anymore. Our little peace treaty? It’s over.” Her arms cut through the air to prove the point. “In fact, we would already be gone if it were up to me.”
“Sonny, you cannot put your safety at risk over this. There are hundreds of people clamoring to tear you limb from limb.”
She jerks her chin to the left, looking away from me. “All I am to you is a weapon for you to win your war.”
“No,” I bite out. “Maybe to them, but never to me.”
I jam my finger into my chest. “I know what it’s like to be seen as nothing more than how easily you can take someone’s life or how willing you are to do someone’s bidding. You’re somuch more than any of this to me, Sonny. I’ll do anything to make sure you’re safe.”
Including destroying a decades-long undercover operation just to get her out of those cells.
Her chin wobbles again, forehead creased with worry. It’s like she’s not even listening to me. “And you could have warned me that your mother is the Betty White of Nocturne Valley,” she whines.
I have to suppress my laugh before she flings something else at my head.
“She looks like she could be someone’s sweet grandmother, and then she opens her mouth and everything she says is so mean.” A single tear falls from her eye, and I use my thumb to swipe it away before it can reach her jaw.
For the first time since I’ve visited her in that interrogation room, I can visibly see the events of the last few weeks finally weighing on her. She needs a break. Probably a full twelve hours of sleep, a long bath, a warm meal. What she didn’t need was to witness her parents coming back to life after eleven years of thinking they were dead.
“How do you do this? Live a double life every day, switching between good and evil? All of these people are out of their minds,” she sputters out.
“The best piece of advice I can offer is to understand that every bit of information you’re given by these people is only half of the truth. It’s up to you to uncover the other half,” I repeat the words my father said to me right before he died. Nothing has ever rung truer.
Her expression sobers, eyes set in determination as she stands from the bed before me. “You said before that you would get on your knees and beg for my forgiveness.”
“I would.”
Her nose twitches. “You meant that?”
“Of course, I do.”
“Then, beg.”
There’s a pause. A weighted moment where I contemplate if I’ve heard her correctly. She notices my hesitation and raises her brows expectantly to emphasize the point.
