Besides, I’ll be damned if I have to sit here and watch whatever he’s planning to do to my mother with that rope.
“How?” I shout out in desperation as he approaches Mama again and her eyes slide closed.
“What?” He glances back at me in annoyance, like I just interrupted his preparation for an important case rather than another murder.
“How did Mama rip me away from you?”
He blows out a puff of air and the hair on his forehead ruffles. Then he steps over to me and touches the side of my face gently. I force myself not to jerk away. “She could’ve lied about being my alibi and kept me from ever going to prison. I might have forgiven her for killing your brother if she’d done that. But she didn’t. She said she didn’t want to lie, but she was just being selfish. She knew she would get you all to herself if I was locked away. But you didn’t forget about me, sweetheart. You just kept coming. Even when your mother stopped, you kept coming.”
Then he looks straight at me with so much love in his eyes that I truly feel pity and sorrow for whatever has gone so desperately wrong in my father’s mind. “You’re the only one I really need, Riley. No one else, just you.”
“Me?” I cry softly to myself, for my fear about Jordan, for the horrible pain I see on Mama’s face—and for the loss of the father that I loved so much. He’s undoubtedly sick and incredibly dangerous, but somewhere inside this monstrous person, the man I love still exists.
But no matter what else happens today, I will never be able to see that man again.
“My love for you, Riley. That’s the only reason your mother wasn’t my first victim.” He turns his gaze on Mama again and the rage and hatred return. “She was the key to your life, to raising you right. Without her, our lives wouldn’t have looked the way I wanted. What you show the world is what they believe you to be. Nothing else matters. Image matters.”
I stop trying to understand him. Reason and logic don’t apply here.
“But Daddy, I love them. Why would I go with you willingly if you kill Mama and Jordan?” I lean forward, trying to find some way to convince him to back down.
“Well, you don’t have to.” He’s calm and thoughtful, like we’re debating a chess move instead of him murdering everyone I care about. “It just depends on how much pain you want them to go through before they die. For example…” He picks up the small but deadly sharp knife I had earlier, steps next to Mama, and I scream as he plunges the blade halfway into the right side of her stomach.
“Stop! Please stop!” I yell out. Mama closes her eyes and all fluttering stops. The knife simply hangs there, half in and half out. Blood spills across the clean side of her shirt and down the front.
“That blade isn’t hitting any crucial organs right now, but an inch to the left or right and it will be.” Daddy looks at me the same way he used to when he taught me a particularly fascinating chess move.
I watch Mama and can’t seem to catch my breath. I’m panting and I just want it all to stop. Daddy notices my distress and pulls out the blade with a sigh, turning to set the knife back on the table. I see the tiniest movement on the stairs and realize Chief Vega is here. He crouches on the top step with his gun raised, but at his current angle, Daddy is too far to the right for the chief to even see my father, let alone get a good shot.
“I know it’s hard at first, but you’ll get used to it.” Daddy waves his hand at me like I’m upset that he had to prune my favorite rosebush or something. “Stacia was scared at first, too, but she changed her mind. It’s all about pressure points—you find the right ones and people will do anything you want.”
Daddy turns back to face me, and I put my eyes on him and only him. I know what I need to do. I need to lure my father closer to me so that Chief Vega can shoot him while Mama still has a chance to survive.
But he’s my father …
“I’m nothing like Stacia. Daddy, please don’t do that again,” I whisper so softly that Daddy steps toward me, his eyes filling with confusion and regret.
“I’m sorry, Riley,” he states simply as he moves a little closer.
“I know you are.” I look up into his eyes and sob freely as I say one final thing. It’s the thing I most need him to hear as I see Chief Vega line up his gun for a shot.
“I love you, Daddy.”
I hear two loud blasts and Daddy crashes down next to me. The shots are through his chest, and he doesn’t try to move. His eyes land on me as he takes his last breath, then he says the one thing I want to remember him saying for the rest of my life.
“I’m sorry, sweetie.”