Page 39 of Shadow

“Me make it worse. You opened a can of worms, Zeke. Faith was doing fine until you showed up. She moved on. Accepted what happened. Now, you’ve made things worse!”

“Accepted?” I sneered, stepping closer to my father’s whore. “My sister gave birth to my brother’s kid! How the fuck is she ever supposed to accept that? Huh? Tell me Shirley. Was it you or Dad that gave Faith’s son away?”

Shirley stood her ground, flicking a piece of lint off her suit as if bored with the conversation. The woman was still a piece of work.

Still selfish as ever.

“It was a mutual agreement. Faith was only sixteen. She wasn’t prepared to raise a child, so your father and I found him a suitable home.”

“Did you even think to ask Faith what she wanted?”

The bitch huffed. “She was a child herself. She didn’t know what she wanted.”

“Because you never asked!” I shouted, making her jump. “My God! Did Faith and Hope even receive the treatment they needed or did you decide what was best for them in that regard as well?”

“My girls are stronger than you think, Zeke.”

And that was all I needed to know. That fucking bitch hid what happened to my sisters. Instead of getting the help they needed, their mother forced them to live with the aftermath.

What a fucking cunt!

“Are they?” I asked, getting right in her face. “Faith never leaves this damn greenhouse, Shirley. She doesn’t sleep. When she does, she sees Malachi and relives everything he’s done to her. Hope ignores the past as if it never happened. That isn’t right. None of this is right!”

“How would you know anything? You kill people for a living. You can’t kill someone who is already dead, Zeke!”

“I know that!” I shouted angrily. “But they deserved a choice, Shirley. A choice that you took from them. Their own mother. How could you? He raped and molested your daughters. You swept it all under the rug! How could you?”

“Shut up!” Shirley screeched. “You don’t know anything. It wasn’t just Malachi, okay!”

Stumbling back, I shook my head. “What the fuck are you talking about? The police report said it was only Malachi. Dad even said so. Who else was there?”

“Mom, stop,” Faith cried. “Please stop.”

“What is she talking about, Faith?” I asked, looking at my sister, who grabbed her head, covering her ears, trying to make it all go away.

“I don’t want to. Please don’t make me. I’ll be good. I promise,” Faith mumbled repeatedly.

“Look what you did!” Shirley shouted, moving towards Faith.

Pushing the woman out of the way, I gathered Faith in my arms. “Stay the fuck away from my sister, bitch!”

“You heard him,” a powerful male voice said behind me. Turning, I found Nevil standing in the doorway to the greenhouse, with a shovel in his hands. “I think you need to leave. Now.”

“I’m not going anywhere. That is my daughter!”

“Lady, you can either leave on your own accord or I will make you. Either way makes no difference to me.”

“Fine!” Shirley huffed, throwing her hands in the air. “You want to deal with the basket case and the tramp, knock yourself out. I’m done. I can’t deal with them anymore.”

“You aren’t fit to be a mother,” I stated flatly. “I’ll be calling Ghost. He will make arrangements to have Joy removed from your care.”

“She won’t go!”

“Yes, she will,” Charity said, walking in to stand next to Nevil. “Zeke is right, Mom. My sisters needed help and you ignored them. I won’t make that mistake.”

“Neither will I,” Nevil added.

“Me either,” I said, as Faith hugged my neck hard.

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