Page 112 of Arranged Addiction

“Exactly. He was stalking her. I bet he was threatening her.”

“But she didn’t feel the same way.”

“Not even a little bit… and he couldn’t accept it.”

There’s a noise in the back of the house. It’s a thump and a human groan. I move forward, but Declan holds me back and steps in my place. He shakes his head and indicates that I stay behind him. I shiver, terrified, and every part of me wants to run from this house. There’s too much sickness.

But now I understand.

This is why he hates me so much.

Because my mother was never his…

And I’m my father’s daughter.

I follow Declan into the next room. It’s a kitchen and living area. Except there’s no furniture. No table, no chairs, no couch or anywhere to sit. The floors are dominated by dust, spiderwebs, and a trail of blood.

My toes go cold. Senesi’s kneeling in the middle of the den with blood pouring down his arms. Cuts are sliced deep into his biceps. He’s breathing fast and shallow, but he doesn’t seem like he’s in pain.

Declan keeps his gun trained on the ruined old man.

“It went all wrong,” Senesi says, raspy and soft, almost like he’s talking to himself. “She wasn’t supposed to marry him… she wasn’t supposed to leave.”

“You were stalking my mother.” I stand next to Declan, despite his warnings to stay behind. “You loved her, didn’t you?”

“She was my sunshine…” He looks at his blood-covered hands. He’s wearing an old suit, ruined now. A knife lies on the floor beside him.

“Why did you do this? Why did you come back?”

“I got tired of running. I couldn’t get her out of my dreams. Even after I killed her, she wouldn’t leave me alone. It was worse after that, so much worse, even though I begged her… I pleaded with her every night…”

Declan whispers softly, “He’s deranged. Let me put him down.”

I put a hand on his wrist. “Not yet.”

Senesi slumps forward. His head nearly touches the floor and his arms hang limply behind him. “I hoped you would be like her… I wanted you to fix me… but you’re more likehim.”

“Like my father.”

“I hate him. I hate him so much. He stole her from me. He took what’s mine and I could never get her back…” He sits up suddenly. I flinch back, terrified, as Senesi slices a hand through the air. Blood splatters across the front of my vest. “Now I’m reduced to this. I’m wretched… I’ve always been wretched…”

Pity swells in my stomach. This man is pathetic. Even after all this time, he still holds on to a woman who never cared about him. She actively hated him and worked to take him down just to be rid of him. Instead, he engineered her murder and disappeared, only to return years later, still unable to let her go.

It’d be sad if he weren’t so dangerous.

“She hated you.” I can barely feel as I speak the words. It’s like I’m shedding layers and layers of burden. “She despised you. But she loved my father and she loved me. You were nothing to her.”

“You’re wrong.” Tears roll down his twisted face. “You have to be wrong!”

“That’s why she sold you out to the FBI. That’s why she tried to ruin you. My mother hated you. She was never yours and never would have been.”

He screams and throws himself forward. His body launches itself from the floor, his injured arms flailing. Declan knocks me sideways, sends me careening to the floor, and pulls the trigger.

One bullet smashes into Senesi’s chest. The old man wheezes and keeps coming, a knife in his hand suddenly, torn from some hidden pocket. He slices and stabs, screaming like a monster. Declan shoots again, again, again, three more bullets, as Senesi hammers the blade down into the Kevlar vest.

I scream and leap to my feet. Senesi falls on Declan, the tip of the knife buried in Declan’s vest. They struggle, fighting for control of the gun as Senesi bleeds all over the place.

I leap across the room. The other knife is lying in a puddle a few feet to my left. I grab the hilt, sticky and red, and leap onto the old monster’s back.