Page 24 of Shadow

“Zeke, can I tell you something?”

“You can tell me anything, sweetheart.”

“Mom and Dad are the only ones who know, but I want you to know. So, you can understand.”

“Understand what?”

“Dad was going to visit us that night. I was so happy to see him. I felt safe when he was around. Like nothing bad would ever happen because he was there to protect me. When he showed up, I felt this release, like everything was going to be okay. That he would fix everything. I think on some level I knew. That night, after Dad arrived, I knew something was wrong. Dad could see it too. He was getting worried. When he heard me crying in the bathroom, he knocked on the door and walked in to find blood everywhere. There was so much blood. Dad picked me up and rushed me to the hospital. Mom was frantic. My sisters were crying. All but Hope. She knew. When the doctors finally told Mom and Dad what was going on, Dad lost it. Mom broke down and started crying. But not Hope. She stayed quiet. While I was in surgery, they couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. At sixteen, the doctors gave me a full hysterectomy. Hope lost it. That’s when she told Mom the truth. That’s how they found out that Malachi had been raping me.”

“He raped both of you, Faith.” I growled.

“No. He never raped Hope, Zeke. He did other things to her. It was me who received his anger. He hated me because of my blonde hair. He said I was a serpent sent to tempt him.”

“He was fucking crazy, Hope. Dad should have killed him right then and there.”

Faith chuckled. “He wasn’t a dog, Zeke.”

“No, he was worse.”

“What no one knew was that I was pregnant. That night I gave birth to a baby boy.”

I tensed, slowly sitting up.

I couldn’t have heard her correctly.

Resting my hands on her upper arms, I said, “What did you just say?”

“I was twenty-nine weeks along. I had a feeling I was but was too afraid to find out. I didn’t want it to be real. I didn’t know what to do, so I ignored all the signs. I was always bigger than my sisters, so it was easy to explain the weight gain. He was so small when the doctors removed him from me. I thought babies were supposed to be bigger. He almost looked fake, like he wasn’t real.”

“What happened to him?”

Faith looked towards the horizon. No tears. No emotions. Nothing, as she replied, “When I woke up in my room, Mom and Dad were there. Both of them were crying. I didn’t know what to say. So, I said nothing until the doctor came in and told me my son was alive and expected to live. That’s when I lost it. I couldn’t be a mother. Not to his child. I just couldn’t. Mom and Dad told me they would take care of it and I believed them.”

“What happened to him, Faith?”

My sister turned her head towards me and looked me dead in the eyes. “I don’t know. I never asked.”

“You never asked Shirley?”

Faith shook her head. “Why would I?”

Before I could ask another question, Faith got up from the lounger as she stared at the greenhouse. “I think I’ll go check on my garden. It needs some tending.”

Saying nothing, I watched as my sister walked away, almost as if the greenhouse called to her, beckoning her inside. As Faith disappeared inside her safe spot, I reached for my phone and sent a text to Shirley. I needed to know what happened to that child.

Me: She had a kid! WTF Shirley? Why didn’t you say something? Does Balthazar know? What happened to him? Where is he?

I knew Shirley wouldn’t see the text till morning, which was okay with me. I needed to get my head around the fact that not only did my brother rape my sister, but he also got her fucking pregnant and there was a damn good possibility I had a nephew out there somewhere.

I got why Faith did what she did. To raise the child of her attacker was unthinkable. But it was more than that. There was something seriously off with Malachi. If this kid was alive, I needed to be sure that he was nothing like the son of a bitch who gave him half his DNA.

The thought of a kid somewhere out in the world with Malachi’s DNA sent a shiver of dread down my spine. God only knew how fucked up that could be. I never gave much thought to the psychopath’s genetics and their offspring. Just never needed to until the truth about Malachi came out. I was worried when Ghost and Ari got pregnant. Fear that if it was a boy, it would be like Malachi, but Ari had a daughter, which eased my fears. Now that Ari was pregnant again, I understood why Ghost wanted another girl. I couldn’t be sure, but something told me he had the same fear as me.

As for me, I never gave children a thought. Didn’t know if I wanted them or not. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be around long enough for it to even happen. Yet, staring at the greenhouse, knowing what my sister had gone through and was still dealing with, I fucking knew without a shadow of a doubt I didn’t want kids.

There was no fucking way I would take the chance of a son turning out like my brother.

No fucking way in hell.

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