“Terry told me.” The shock that covered my face made her shake her head. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked so quietly, I struggled to hear the words leave her.
She was hurt, and I understood that, but whether she’d understand my reason was a different matter. “Because you’d have blamed yourself. Because I couldn’t bear to see the life die in your eyes before I went. Because I wanted your beautiful smile to be the last thing I saw, not your tears. Not tears I had caused. I couldn’t bear to go with that in my heart.”
She nodded and smiled. “You should have still trusted me, Anderson. If you think I would allow you to throw a fight, for me, especially when that means death then you’re mistaken. When I told you I loved you, I meant it. Love, as you said before, it’s violent, it’s furious. A storm of rage that burns right down to my soul. And that storm, that violent rage that you give me with your love makes me fight, it makes me strong as a person and it gives me courage, Anderson. As you would fight for me, I’ll always fight for you.”
I opened my mouth to speak but she shook her head. Taking my hand, she led me over to the basement door and pulled me down behind her. The smell of blood hit me and I grimaced; I didn’t think the scent would ever leave. It penetrated the floor, the walls, and every molecule of air in the place.
Knowing she was about to give me the pain I needed, I squeezed her hand tighter. She didn’t respond. Instead she continued guiding me down.
My mouth fell open when my gaze landed on Ivan Moritz, hanging from the same chain Terry had not days ago.
“Kloe?”
She looked furious, her wild eyes glaring at me. “As I said, you should have trusted me!”
“What the fuck? You can’t do this. I made a deal, Kloe! A deal that shouldn’t be broken!”
She scoffed, shaking her head and taking a step towards me. “A deal that should never have been made in the first place!”
Robbie was stood against the back wall, watching me. He wasn’t wary like I’d have expected him to be. He knew what a deal meant in our world and he should have been dubious of my reaction, but he wasn’t. He was angry. As angry as Kloe.
Ivan was unconscious, his chin on his chest as he hung limply. It made me wonder how the hell they had managed to subdue him. Ivan was as tough as they came; he was strong and violent. It didn’t make sense.
“How the hell did you get him here?”
Kloe smirked, and then, surprising me, she laughed. But it wasn’t humorous. Everything but. A chill raced over me and I licked at my dry lips.
“It was strange, you know,” she said as she looked straight at me. “When I was hung from the chain, and you came to get me, my mind filled with visions of my father. I’d never really thought about him before. Never really felt a connection with him. And then, all of a sudden, he was with me, like he was in the room with me.”
My soul ached for her. All she ever wanted was to be loved. But once again, sensing my emotions, she shook her head.
“There was a simple reason for that, Anderson. It was because he was in the room with me.”
My eyes widened as my throat constricted. “W-what?”
She turned to Ivan. Pure hatred seeped from her, and she spat. “Meet my father, Anderson.”
“YOU GREW INTO A BEAUTIFUL woman, Samantha.”
My father sat in the chair opposite me. As if he knew his life was over, he had become sombre and agreeable, his bright blue eyes that were the mirror image of mine hadn’t left my face for the last hour.
It was time. Time to end it all.
But first I wanted answers, except I wasn’t sure I was going to get any.
“Where did you go?”
“Prison.”
That shocked me, not his answer but the fact he had answered me.
“There’s so much you don’t know, Sammy.”
I flinched at his affectionate shortening of my name. “So tell me.”
He snorted. “Life is never that simple.”
“No,” I replied. “But death is.”
His smile looked wrong against the pale sharpness of his face. He was Russian, and it surprised me to know that I held those genes within me. The only parts of him I’d been gifted were my blue eyes and my strawberry blonde hair. Other than that, we were nothing alike.
“Death is the only simple thing in life,” he agreed, his smile widening as if he’d just made a joke.
“So, are you going to enlighten me before your own death? Or do I have to go through life forever wondering why God thought I deserved such wonderful parents?”