Page 113 of Beautifully Shattered
“Sweetheart, it doesn’t matter. You don’t want to know. Please trust me on this.”
“Like fuck! It does matter!” I lunge forward, pressing the barrel of the gun to his forehead. “Tell me!”
“Okay, okay,” he sobs, and I pull the barrel back just enough to leave a few inches of space between it and his head. “I only know what your mother told me. There’s so much I don’t know. Unless you’re raised inside the church, you don’t get the details of the inner workings until it’s too late.”
“What does that even mean?” I snarl through gritted teeth.
“I’m so sorry. I tried to stop it.”
“Stop what? Stop talking in fucking riddles and tell me!”
“Y-you and D-Daniel.” He shakes his head, trying to find the right words. “When I found out… I tried… but your mother… she has these videos of me…oh my dear sweet girl. Please forgive me.”
I stumble back a little, trying to piece together what he’s saying.
Did my mum blackmail him? But why?
“Given what’s happened, it all seems so stupid now, but I was terrified of anyone finding out,” he stumbles over his words. “She used the videos against me to keep me silent.”
“Fucking tell her now, or I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your skull!” Ringo booms from across the room, and the words finally fall from my dad’s lips.
“Karl Stone is your mum’s half brother. They have the same mum but have different dads.”
What.
Did.
He.
Just.
Say?
The world stops turning and crushes in so forcefully that my knees buckle.
“No…” I whisper as my knees crash to the floor. “You can’t be saying…”
“I’m sorry,” my dad wails. “I never knew Karl was your uncle. I would never have allowed you to date a cousin.” He shakes his head as a shudder rolls through him. “That’s just sick.”
Bile rushes up my throat, and I manage to scramble up in time to reach the sink as my body tries to purge the vulgarness from inside me.
Iretch over and over, vomiting up the little food I’ve had today, hearing Ringo and my friends in the background, scurrying to help me and take charge of the situation.
It feels like it goes on forever, and once I’m through, I collapse into Ringo’s arms in shattered disbelief.
No.
This can’t be real.
Jols gets me a glass of water, and I sit on a stool taking a moment to recompose myself.
This can’t be happening.
“Why…” I say quietly when I find my voice again. “Whywould Mum allow that?”
“It’s the church. Your grandfather,” my dad mutters from where he’s still huddled on the floor. “He’s the head of it. He thinks he’s something special. That all must bow to him.” My dad cringes. “That sick fuck tried for years to get Priscilla pregnant. His own daughter! But she miscarried each time, and in his eyes she was a failure. That’s why she was cast out. She was deemed unworthy if she couldn’t conceive the spawn of her own father.”
“I thought you said you didn’t know why she was cast out,” Ringo snaps, and my dad shrugs.
