Page 103 of Crybaby

“You’re fucking lying. How is this possible? We’re in the same class!”

“No, I’m not. This is the reason I never wanted to tell you any of this. And this is the reason I…lost my mind. Not only did Walter take my firstborn, but he took my heart and my sanity as well. You’re in the same class because Carson had to repeat a year. His behavioral issues got too much.”

I think back to all the times June sat in front of the window, staring vacantly out of it. I always thought she expected to see my father, but now I know she was waiting for Carson to return.

This can’t be happening.

This asshole fucker cannot be my full brother.

Carson glares at me because he can’t hear what June is saying, but he can read my expression for what it is. We’re cut from the same fucked-up cloth.

“Please, don’t hurt him. Please do this not just for your father, but for me as well. If you kill him, I won’t survive. Please.”

And this day just keeps getting better.

I look at Darcie and sigh. I’ve fucking let her down in every possible way because I will do as June asks…but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to beat Carson within an inch of his life for what he did.

I hang up, hearing enough.

Taking a deep breath, I continue driving, a million thoughts racing around my head.

My entire life, I just wanted to know who I was, but now that I’ve uncovered my family secrets, I wish I had remained in the dark.

When we arrive at Buckets’s family farm, I kill the engine and unfasten Darcie’s cuffs. The moment she’s free, she slaps my cheek.

I was expecting worse. I seem to be collecting injuries like some weirdo collecting spoons.

There’s no way Carson is getting the same treatment, however. He’s remaining cuffed.

When I get out of the car, Darcie jumps out and stands in front of me, demanding answers. “I thought we were in this together? Talk to me!”

Talking is the last thing I want to do right now.

“Rev! Don’t you dare shut me out. This is the end, right?”

Cupping her cheek, I draw us nose to nose, inhaling her into me. I want to consume her whole. “No, my little firecracker, this is just the beginning. Walter is my father. He’s both our fathers. And June…she is Carson’s mother too.”

Ican’t quite comprehend what I’m hearing.

Rev is speaking words to me that sound like echoes underwater, and my brain is fighting to block it out.

I know that Rev won’t let me take action against Carson for the hell he orchestrated on me. He is the reason I’m broken; he is the reason I’ll never feel the same way when a man touches me again. He is the reason I hate myself, and every time I think about what they did to me, all I see is his lying face.

He watched it all happen and did nothing.

He came to me, pretending to protect me after instructing his goons to destroy every fiber in my body.

Carson is the most disgusting human on the planet, and I want him to pay for every second I endured with his crew.

I’m glad he shot off Blake’s head. I only wish he’d shot himself too. Maybe I’ll play Russian roulette with him and watch him cry and beg me to stop? Just like I did that night.

How can he and Rev share the same bloodline? It makes me sick to my stomach, and I feel bile creep up into my throat.

“What the fuck, Rev? No. No, this can’t be happening!” I yell through tears, and the porch light comes on.

“Is that you, Harold?” a small voice says. Buckets’s grandmother.

Rev looks at me, and I know what he’s thinking—we cannot kill her. But killing her is the only way to save this man I love.

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