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“See her?” Daddy snaps. “See how useless women are?”
I nod. I’ve known women are useless for as long as I can remember.
Good for only one thing, Daddy always says.
I don’t know what that one thing is.
Momma wasn’t good at cooking, nor cleaning, nor raising me the way he saw fit.
As the red continues to grow, I still don’t know what Momma was good for.
“Fuck!”
My eyes snap to Daddy, watching as he runs rough, irritated hands over the top of his head.
Wild eyes dart around the room, but this is nothing new. Daddy always looks a little frenzied, a little out of control.
“I have to go,” he snaps. “I’m calling Poppa. He’ll come get you.”
I tremble with the news. His father, Poppa, is worse than Daddy.
Daddy only taught lessons to Momma.
Poppa likes to teachmelessons.
But when I learn, the lessons change. I can never get it right.
Silence swims around me, the soft swish of the ceiling fan the only thing I hear.
The sun rises further, casting shadows over Momma.
The red pooled around her turns black before I’m yanked up from the floor by rough, calloused hands.
“I fucked up with your daddy,” Poppa says, his dark eyes wilder than I’ve ever seen. “I won’t make the same mistake with you.”
I was born Benito Corea.
That person died the day my mother did.
The man I became later is much worse.
Chapter 1
Angel
Numbness.
Most people feel it at some point in their lives.
They try to chase it away.
They medicate.
They seek happiness.
They seek pain.
Anything to just… feel.