Page 123 of Under Your Scars

“Do it,” he taunts.

I shove the gun even further into his chin, causing his head to tilt back slightly. My finger is on the trigger one fucking millimeter from painting the gray brick of this house with his blood.

“She’ll never forgive you.”

That sentence makes me pause, because he’s fucking right. If I pull this trigger, Elena willneverforgive me. It doesn’t matter if it’s justified revenge.

All she’d see is that I murdered her father in cold blood.

I bare my teeth and tears prick in my eyes.

The man who killed my parents is Elena’s fuckingfather.

“Fuck,” I spit through gritted teeth.

I’ve imagined this moment so many times. How poetic the justice would be to hunt down the man in the red bandana and show him that I have a mask now, too. Thatheis the reason my mask is red.

I became a monster because I wanted the man who killed my parents to witness the same inhumanity he showed me thirty years ago.

It’s no wonder he hates me. His punishment for killing my parents is having to watch his precious daughter fall in love with the son of his mortal nemesis.

Slowly, I lower the gun from his chin.

His revelation has made all the missing parts of the memory of that night fill in. I had lost it from the trauma. Forced myself to forget. But now I see his face so vividly. Thirty years younger, but Elliot is the man who was staring at me through the window of the restaurant, waiting for my father to emerge. He wanted payback, and he got it.

And now he must live with the punishment.

We’re both murderers, and now we must face our consequences: each other.

“Why did you leave me alive? Why didn’t you just fucking shoot me and leave the Reeves family in the past?”

“Because I saw the look on your face when I had that gun to your head, and I saw the face of my daughters when your father shot them. All I can see when I look at you is the man who killed my wife and little girls. The moment I walked into that hospital room I knew you looked familiar, but now that I know who you are, it’s like your father still found a way to haunt me. My family.”

I bite the inside of my cheek hard enough that I taste blood. “If you expected yourrevelationto convince me to let Elena go, you were wrong.”

I take a deep breath, sagging my shoulders. This entire situation is so fucked. Not only did I just find out that murder runs in my veins, but the man who killed my parents is the father of the love of my fucking life.

Letting her go is not an option.

If someone had told me twenty minutes ago that I was about to extend a white flag to the man who ruined my life, I would have ripped out their spinal cord through their throat.

But, well, here we are.

“Look, we both love Elena. Don’t mistake my love for her as forgiveness for what you did to me. For her sake, I am willing totolerateyour presence in my life. I’m going to slowly torture you by making you watch as I become a permanent part of your life. This is your first, last, and final warning. If you try to tear us apart, my love for Elena won’t save you.”

After my ultimatum, there’s a long silence. Elliot lights another cigarette and brings it to his mouth. “If you’re anything like your father, your relationship will fall apart at the seams with no effort on my part.” There’s another long pause. “This has to stay between us. Elena can never know. Not about any of it.”

“Because you don’t want her to find out her dad’s a murderer?” I taunt, even though the irony of this conversation is killing me. “Or are you afraid she won’t take your side?”

“What the fuck does it matter? Keep your mouth shut about it. I gave you the truth, now you owe it to me. Tell me what you did to my daughter. You didn’t know about my involvement in your parents’ deaths, so meeting her is just fate giving us both the middle finger, but there is a reason she’s so glued to your side. She did not want to be with you when we stayed in your mansion. She couldn’t wait to leave. Then, suddenly, on the day we’re supposed to fly to Texas, she wants to stay. How does that happen?”

Fine. I can give him the truth. A very, very,verywatered-down version, but the truth, nonetheless.

Sighing, I take the rest of Elliot’s scotch and down it for him.

“I’ve been suicidal for the better part of my life. I met Elena shortly after a suicide attempt. It’s…why I call her angel.”

I’m hoping it’s not obvious that ‘shortlyafter’actually means ‘during’.