Page 49 of The Villain's Captive (The Villain's Duet 1)

There wasn’t a glint of sympathy or compassion that shimmered inside me for a mother who was nothing more than wasted space. My heart was as black as her soul, and as dead as the love she hadn’t shown either Ellie or me.

Her back hit the wall, and she dropped the bucket of piss on the wooden floors. The stench was horrid, but not as vile as this woman’s face in front of me. It felt good to see how intimidated she was with me standing an inch from her, glaring at her like she was the spawn of satan. But I wasn’t stupid. I knew half of her paranoia was thanks to the poison she injected into her veins. Ellie and I and endured countless nights of her crying and screaming, thinking there were people after her—monsters trying to cut her ankles off. It was terrifying to witness it, but now I loved the memory of seeing her like that.

Scared.

Panicked.

Sick.

“I know what you and Roland are trying to do, trying to convince me that I’m crazy so you can cover up whatever it was you did to Ellie.” I watched her, studied her, hating every contour of her face. “At least being crazy has its perks. I can kill you and blame it on the voices inside my head.”

“What did you just say?”

Roland towered in the doorway, the red T-shirt he wore barely covering his belly, his faded jeans torn at the seams.

“Did I hear you correctly? Did you just threaten your mother?”

I inched back, narrowing my eyes as I regarded him with caution. It was one thing to be able to intimidate a woman as weak and timid as my mother, but Roland was a completely different threat. I’d been on the receiving end of his big hands and hard fists before. The man was a mountain of malice, and he could easily kill me…as I suspected he did Ellie.

Roland’s eyes glowed like a predator’s in the night, and a low growl tore from his throat as he launched forward, grabbing me around my neck. It was just like that night, the night he took Ellie from me. His fingers bit into my skin, pressing down on my throat, causing me to choke and gasp for air.

“I’ve had enough of you, boy. I have tried everything I possibly can to help you, but clearly you do not want to be helped.” His grip tightened, and my feet lifted off the ground. “I can tolerate your insane accusations of murder, killing someone who doesn’t even exist—”

“Ellie is real!” I clawed at his arm.

“I can deal with just about anything you throw our way, boy, but I will not stand by and allow you to threaten your mother.”

“Screw you,” I spat out. “Kill me. Do to me what you did to Ellie. I don’t care, you hear me? I don’t care anymore.”

I wanted to die.

For the first time ever, even after all the hell Mom had put us through, I finally stepped on that ledge wanting to tip over. Fall. And just…vanish. If I couldn’t be where Ellie was, I didn’t want to be anywhere at all.

Roland slammed me onto the bed, air rushing from my lungs as his arm pressed down on my chest so hard, I was sure my bones would crack at any moment.

“I’ve had it with you, you crazy piece of shit.”

I kicked and clawed, fighting him with every ounce of strength I had. Not because I wanted to survive, but because I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to tear his flesh off and watch him bleed, witness the life drain from his eyes.

He snaked his thick fingers around my throat. “You should have died, too. You should have died with him. At least then your mother would have been rid of you, you fucking psycho bastard.”

“What are you talking about?” I choked out, my hands wrapped around his wrist, trying to pull his hold from my neck.

He leaned down, spit spraying from his dry, chapped lips. “Fuck knows why God decided you had to survive that car wreck. You should have gone to hell with your father that night, along with that fucking demon inside you who helps conjure up these damn lies.”

“What?” I snapped, trying to turn so I could see my mom, who simply stood to the side and watched as Roland choked me. “Mom, what is he talking about?”

Roland’s fingers tightened, and my lips parted as I struggled for air.

“Mom…what…”

Darkness flickered across my vision, my lungs burning to take a breath. It started at my toes, the cold spreading up my legs, turning every muscle in to ice. My mind screamed at me to move and to breathe. I could feel the adrenaline pulsing in my veins, but my body was numb. Uncooperative. Slipping away.

Dying.

I could still hear Roland spitting fire with his anger, but I kept looking at my mother, wanting her face to be the last thing I saw before I died. No amount of flames or torture throughout infinity would have been able to wipe her face from my mind. I wanted to make sure I remembered what she looked like right here, right at this very moment as she watched me die. One day I’d see her again in hell, and I would watch the devil skin her, witness her eternal suffering while thinking of this exact moment.

The moment she didn’t save me.

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