Page 18 of Dance With A Devil

Her words land heavy. I look at her harder now, and suddenly I see it. The curve of her nose. The shape of her mouth. The pain behind her eyes that I never could name.

All these years... It was right in front of me.

But I don't say that. I don’t say anything. Because I need her to keep going. I need to know what else she’s buried.

“I don’t have time to tell you everything now,” she murmurs. “But ask me the question. The one you’ve been dying to say since the dreams started again.”

My stomach knots.

“Again?”

She nods slowly. And then she says it.

“When you were a child… I killed your father.”

The air leaves the room.

I can’t breathe. I don’t move. I just stare.

“What?” My voice cuts out like glass against steel. I didn’t mean to scream, but what the fuck do you expect?

“Why?”

It’s not a question. It’s a desperate plea.

Her hands tremble. She looks away. And when she speaks again, her voice is broken.

“Your father was molesting you.”

Silence. She continues. Each word a blade.

“I don’t know how long it had been going on. I didn’t want to believe it. There were signs, little ones… but I ignored them. Until one night, you begged me not to leave for work. You clung to me, sobbing. I didn’t listen.” She swallows, eyes shining with unshed tears. “I turned around. It was raining. Slippery roads. Call it mother’s intuition, but the second I pulled into the driveway, I knew something was wrong. I walked in, and I saw it. Him. You.”

She chokes on the memory. “I snapped. He tried to shut the door, tried to stop me, but he couldn’t. Because you were my baby. And I would kill for you.”

She cups my face, her touch warm. Fragile. “So I did. I killed him. And I’d do it again.”

I can't speak. I can’t scream. There’s something acidic crawling up my throat, but it won’t come out. It just burns.

She continues, voice lower now, more confessional than explanation. “Those dreams you’ve been having? They're not nightmares. They’re memories. You buried them deep. Kaia helped you forget. She was a hypnotist. And my best friend.”

Kaia.

I can barely form the thought before I’m shaking my head.

“No. No, molesting me? Why would he do that?”I don’t realize I’m crying until I taste the salt on my lips. “To his own daughter?”

“Babe...”

Gaia’s voice breaks through. I'd forgotten she was even in the room.

“What part do you play in this?” I demand, turning to her, voice splintered with rage. She flinches like I struck her.

“Believe it or not... I don’t. We met after you were placed with the foster family. We just clicked. That’s it.”Her arms fold over her chest, defensive.

Too defensive.

My hands tremble from how badly I want to break something.