Page 30 of Sugar

I take another step, steeling myself against his reaction. “I was fifteen the day my family was killed, and I was fifteen the first time your brother raped me.”

He flinches and reaches for me, but his hands hover in midair like he’s afraid to touch me. I step closer until my body is flush with his, and his hands drop to my hips. He looks down at me with so much pain in his eyes.

“I was fifteen the day he married me,” I whisper.

“Fifteen when the boat exploded, and I threw my battered body overboard and swam for shore. As far as anyone knows, Sophia Michelakis died right along with her husband.”

“And now you’re Sugar, a woman completely unlike the girl you once were,” he murmurs. “Why come to me if not to kill me? I did this. I set all this in motion. I swear to God, I didn’t know. I thought you were older, like your sister. He thought—”

I shake my head. “No. Selene was only three years older than me, Calix. Santos knew exactly how old we were. He liked that I was so young and impressionable. He thought he could train me to be an obedient wife after what happened with Selene.”

I wrap my hands around his arms and rest my face against his chest, drawing a little heat from him because now I’m starting to get cold.

“You’ve been lying to yourself, just like he lied to you for all these years. Santos isn’t just a bad man who makes bad choices, Calix. He has evil in his veins. He feeds off it, and he fucking loves it. You’re not the same, not even close.”

His hands squeeze my hips, and his fingers dig into my skin. “You’re talking about him in the present tense, Sugar. The man is dead.”

“Dead like me?”

He pulls back and looks down at me. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I came back because Santos is alive.”

“Bullshit.”

“You don’t know how much I wish it wasn’t true. Look, let’s just go inside, and we can talk.” I’m shaking now, the cold seeping into my soul.

He must feel it because instead of arguing, he nods and moves to the car, popping the trunk and grabbing the bags from inside. I grab the things from the back seat and dig around in my bag for the key I haven’t used in years. I walk up the stone steps and stare at the key like it was a snake ready to bite me.

I know I need to go inside and get warm before I get sick, but I just can’t make myself unlock the door. Calix’s hand appears over mine, pressing the metal into my palm for a moment before he takes the key and opens the door.

Considering this house stars in as many of my nightmares as our actual home does, I half expected the door to groan and a dozen bats to fly out, but nothing but blessed silence reigns. Shoving the key into his jeans pocket, he reaches for my hand and tugs me inside. We make it as far as the hallway before I’m hit with the first flashback.

It’s as if I’m right there on the day my whole world changed. I can see my father staring into my eyes with a look of defeat and horror in his expression before it morphs into one of sorrow. At the time, I thought it was for him. But now I understand. It was for me. He might not have known exactly what was to become of me, but he knew whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good. I was just a kid. But thanks to the life my father led and the men he associated with; my life had been forfeited. I was condemned to hell, paying the price for someone else’s sins.

“Come back to me.”

I blink and look up to see Calix’s worried eyes staring down into mine, his warm hands cupping my jaw as his thumb swipes gently over the tear that rolls down my cheek.

“We can go somewhere else.”

I shake my head. “The flashback didn’t even happen here, it happened at our home. The one Santos burned down. I don’t know why this place is making me remember shit I’d rather forget. Maybe it’s because the last time all of us were here was the last time we were all happy.” I look around and just feel empty. “I’ve not been back here since you found Selene and Dorian here.” I whisper. “Trust me, there is nowhere else safer than here. The house has been empty for twenty years. This is the last place anyone would look for either of us.”

“I don’t like it. I don’t want you anywhere near this place.” He swallows, looking away as he takes in the house. The house where he caught my sister and delivered her to hell.

“Shit. I don’t want either of us here.”

“I don’t like it either, Calix, but we don’t always get to do what we like. It’s been twenty years,” I whisper, not wanting to wake the past.

He bends his head and presses his forehead against mine. “Yeah? Tell me it doesn’t hurt just as much as if it happened yesterday.”

I clamp my mouth shut, making him sigh. Damn perceptive bastard.

“You’ve really not been back here at all since that night?”

“No. I bought the house when it went on the market five years after my death, using a corporation I set up. I hired someone to clean it and make sure it’s maintained. There will be gas, electricity, and water, but no food. I’ll have to figure that out tomorrow.”

“Why would you buy this place after everything that happened?”

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