Page 122 of Forgive Me, Father

My eyelids were heavy—like stone—but behind them, there was light.Not the suffocating darkness I’d grown used to.This was different.

“Darling,” my mother’s voice came from just beside me, soft but trembling.

My eyes flew open.They burned like fire, but I forced them to stay open.Ihadto.

Tears clouded my vision as the numbness began to lift, replaced by a deep, stabbing ache that came from somewhere far beyond the cuts and bruises.

It was a pain in my soul.

My lip trembled.How was I even still alive?

My mother gently wiped the tears from my face, her touch feather-light.“Shh,” she whispered.“You’re okay now.”

“I’m going to get Alfonso,” my sister whispered, her voice barely holding steady.The door clicked shut behind her.

“Kill me, please?”I begged through a sob.

“What?”my mother gasped, her voice laced with disbelief.

“Just kill me, mom!”I demanded loudly.

Her warm arms wrapped around me, but it did nothing to stop the spiral.

In my mind, I was back in that dungeon—wrists bound, skin raw, breath shallow.

And then I heard it.

His laughter.Echoing.Haunting.Real.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!”I yelled at her, fighting to get out of her grasp.

She pulled away from me like I was a burning coal, like just touching me had scorched her.

Every part of me ached—bone-deep and hollow.

My mother’s sobs filled the room, followed by the harsh scrape of a chair against the floor.Then her presence faded, her crying trailing behind her as she fled to the door.

A hand—steady, warm, strong—cupped my face.

And then came the scent.

Familiar.Safe.Like a distant memory fighting its way through the thick, suffocating dark.

“Look at me,” Alfonso’s voice broke through the fog.I forced my eyes open.“You are going to be okay.”

That’s when it hit me.All of it.

A scream I never knew I possessed ripped from my chest—raw, endless, feral.I screamed until there was nothing left, until the pain hollowed out everything inside me.

The darkness pulled me under again.And this time, I didn’t fight it.

* * *

“You need to fucking fight, Camilla,” Alfonso screamed at me as he pinned me down on the bed.

“Alfonso, please,” my mother begged.

“Stay out of this, Kitty,” he roared at my mother as he cupped my face.“I promised you would be okay, but you need to do your part.Fight with me.”