Page 208 of Burning Daylight

“Because you fuckingdruggedher!” I snap.

“Because we needed to ensure she’d cooperate,” he replies calmly.

My breathing is ragged as my eyes shoot wildly back to my mother. “Just how involved in thisareyou, Ma? Jesus.” My voice breaks. “Why would you do this?”

“Because he didn’t pick me,” she sneers. “Because no matter how many nights I gave him, no matter how many years I waited, I was never enough.”

I stare at her. At the hollow shell of the woman who raised me.

“I loved Marcus,” she whispers. “I thought if I stayed close—if I stayed loyal—he’d give me something back. But he just kept me in the dark. And then Eleanor died, and everything started to fall apart, and Freddy found me and promised it could be different.”

My throat burns.

“What’d he promise you?” I ask, then hold up a hand. “No, wait, let me guess. Drugs? Money?”

She doesn’t deny it.

“He made it easier,” she says. “And all I had to do was follow his rules. Get you desperate enough to go back home, while he convinced Marcus to let you back in. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, you know? You were supposed to have a reason to come back, and then a reason to run away, leaving the money tous.”

The words hit like a gunshot to my brain, filtering like sludge down through my body.

“What did you say?” I tilt my head, my body vibrating with untapped rage. “What did you just fucking say?” I step forward. “Repeat those words exactly to me.”

Her mouth opens and closes like a fish.

“You said, ‘get me desperate.” I curl my hands into fists to stop the shaking. “Just how did you do that,Ma? Did you…” I lick my lips, breathing deep.There’s no way.“Did you do something to Brooklynn to make me go running to my father?”

Guilt flashes through her eyes, and she gulps, staring down at the ground.

Oh my God.Nausea surges through me, my body revolting from the implication that she was messing with Brooklynn in order to get to me.

I bite down so hard on my tongue, I taste the blood, and I stem the burning in my eyes by pressing my palms into the sockets. “Did you know what was wrong with her?”

Frederick scoffs. “I’m done wasting this time. She knew. She poisoned her just the way I asked. Enough to get her sick and enough to keep you pathetic anddesperate, just like she said.”

My eyes fly back up to my mom, the remnants of my heart breaking into a million pieces and lodging in my throat, my eyes, my fucking teeth.

“I should kill you,” I hiss at her.

She stumbles back like I’ve struck her. And I want to. I want to hit her. Want to wrap my hands around her neck and screamwhywhile I watch her suffer the same way she’s made Brooke and me suffer.

Frederick steps in again, smoothing his suit like this is just business.

“Your mother’s choices are tragic, yes,” he says. “But let’s not forget who put the gun in her hand. Marcus. The Montgomery name. The town that rewards cruelty and punishes honesty.”

“And that’s what this is?” I snap. “You punishing the town?”

“No,” he says. “This is me cleansing it. Eleanor was my sister. And Marcus killed her.”

“You couldn’t save her, so now you’re what? Playing God?”

“I’mrewriting history,” he says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the gun from last night.

My blood runs cold, and I step to my right, trying to make sure I’m as far away from Juliette as possible while still shielding her.

It’s me he’s after. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to kill a Calloway child,would he?

“Spare me the theatrics,” he snaps. “You’ve already lost.”