Page 46 of The Truth Between

“But she disobeyed—”

“She was your daughter!” My shout echoed around the room. “Your own flesh and blood, and you tried to sell her to the highest bidder.”

His eyes darted all over the room as I stared him down. When he focused a little too long on the door, my rage increased tenfold. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide from what he’d done.

I was determined to make him pay.

“You sold your daughter’s hand in marriage, causing her to be so desperate that we agreed to get married to keep her other marriage from happening.”

“And a whole lot of good that did me.”

I slammed my fist into the wooden wall just above his head. “Your daughter was murdered because she married me instead of whoever the fuck you sold her to!”

This time, his eyes cut to look straight at me, almost as if he was shooting daggers out of his eyes. “It was your job to protect her. She died on your watch.”

“Don’t you dare attempt to put this on me. You should have never put her in that position to begin with.”

He shrank back from me, and I enjoyed the slight power struggle going on between us. If he thought he was getting out of this alive, he had another thing coming.

I was tired of this. I pulled out my knife and watched his eyes widen in fear as he realized what was about to happen.

“Nothing I say to you or to anyone else will bring her back or erase the guilt I felt seeing my best friend die in front of my eyes. But, fuck, seeing you bleed out on this floor would still be worth it.”

I pressed the blade to his throat as a warning, and he visibly swallowed hard. His eyes were glued to mine, and I could see all the guilt, shame, and regret in them.

My grip tightened around the knife handle as I stared him down. He knew what was coming.

But he didn’t know how I was going to do it until I made my move. And this wasn’t going to be an easy, quick death.

I slashed the blade across his midsection and smirked when he screamed in agony as the blood started to flow from his body. I didn’t stop there though; I continued to slice and stab him until he was left a bloody mess on the floor.

I wanted him to suffer for what he had done, so I made sure that death would be a slow and agonizing process for him. He deserved nothing less than that for what he had done.

When it was finally over, I stepped back and watched as his blood seeped out of him onto the cold hardwood floors. Once I made sure that he was indeed dead, I made my way to the front of the cabin.

As I stepped out of the building, I checked my watch to see the time: 3:05 a.m.

Perfect.

I completed my assignment five minutes early.

I took off my bloody clothes and dumped them into a garbage bag in the trunk of my car. The scene I’d left at the cabin had been a bit bloodier than I thought it would be and it was something I would have to live with. I didn’t mean for my emotions to spiral, but they had.

The drive back to my home was in complete silence. The only thing keeping me occupied was my thoughts. I slipped back into my home, and as quietly as possible, I made my way upstairs to my room, where I quickly stripped out of my clothes.

Once under the hot spray of my shower, I tried to decrease my adrenaline, but nothing was working. I stood there for what felt like an eternity, letting the warm water cascade over my body.

Finally, I started to feel a sense of peace wash over me. Satisfaction settled within me as I came to terms with taking another life, but it was one that needed to be taken in order for justice to be served.

Once I finished, I stepped out of my shower feeling refreshed, and the only thing I could think of was pulling Iris into my arms and going to sleep.

It had been the first time in a long time that I felt the desire to sleep beside someone in bed. Although I wanted to bring her into my room so that she could sleep in my bed, I didn’t want to disturb her rest. Instead, I walked into my bedroom, threw on what I planned on wearing to bed, and walked into the hallway.

My eyes were zeroed in on Iris’s door as I strolled down the hallway, and before I knew it, I was opening her door and stepping inside.

The room was dark, lit only by the dim light coming from the window. Dawn would soon be here, but I was willing to take the few hours that I could have her in my arms versus not having her there at all. I walked over to her bed and gently pulled back the covers.

Before getting in, I took a few moments to look at her sleeping form. She looked so peaceful and beautiful as she lay there, almost as if she was an angel sent down from heaven. Her long brown hair cascaded over her pillow, and her face had an expression of contentment that I’d only recently gotten to see on her face when she was awake.

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