Page 4 of Unspoken Lies

Mr. Emil’s heavy knock on the front door has me flinching, my fear of him not waning.

“Liliana, you’re worrying me,” he mutters, moving to answer the door.

Mr. Emil is the only one who comes to the house without calling, which is how I know it’s him. If I’m honest with myself, I’m also worried about my current mental state.

My father opens the door with a frown, nodding sharply to his boss and allowing him entrance.

“Why didn’t you tell me about the altercation at Carlysle Prep, Lili?” he asks. My eyes widen because I didn’t think he’d be here for me.

“It was nothing,” I promise, waiting for his eyes to land on me. My father closes the door with a heavy sigh, sounding exhausted. I feel bad that I’ve become such a burden for him.

“Liliana, you can’t let them get to you,” Mr. Emil says, surprising me. “I have my plans in place, I promise. I just need time. You need to live your life.”

“What life!” I scream, my hand slapping on my mouth. Fuck, he’s going to kill me. My breaths are coming faster and faster.

I can’t believe that I forgot myself like that.

“Hey,” he growls, snapping his fingers in my face. “Breathe. Passing out will just force me to wake you up, and I have too much to do tonight. Get your shit together.”

Nodding as I tremble, my breaths begin to normalize, though my eyes are huge as I wait for his next words. My father doesn’t appear too worried, simply crossing his arms across his chest as he waits for this to play out.

“Now, I can see that you’re having a moment, Lili,” Mr. Emil murmurs. “I get it. Julia isn’t handling this very well either. We lost them both for really terrible reasons. Nacio and Rachelle wouldn’t want us to completely lose ourselves. I’m not going to force you to go to therapy if you don’t want to. We all saw how great that turned out for Rachelle. If killing people will make you feel a little bit of peace, so be it. The men downstairs are marked for death. I don’t even need answers from them.”

“Just make it hurt,” my father grunts. “I suppose we can practice your skinning techniques.”

He’s trying to get me to decide against going downstairs because the last time he showed me how to skin a person alive, it made me queasy. I don’t think I’ll have the same issues this time. I’m too fucking mad and I haven’t eaten anything all day.

Bring it on,viejo.

“That’ll be fine,” I say shortly, dropping my hand from my mouth. My voice is raspy and fucked because of the pendulum of harsh emotions that I’ve been feeling.

I expect I’ll be harboring these sentiments for a long time. I’ve been able to ice them out when necessary, but they alwayshave a way of bubbling up. I know this isn’t healthy, I just don’t know how to survive without them.

I used to be stronger than this, and then I fell in love. Are they making me weak, or am I finally feeling the full range of human emotions?

For the record, it fucking sucks. My future stretches out in front of me like a black void, hopeless and lonely. College looms in front of me, and I have a reprieve from packing for now. Dad said that if I needed to, I could start in the spring. It’s at least a chance to attempt to get my shit together.

I don’t know how I’m going to be able to cope.

What’s the point of living unless it’s for revenge? My footsteps are as heavy as my heart as I walk down the stairs to the basement. I know Rachelle wouldn’t like where I’m heading, both in life and now.

I don’t want to disappoint her, but she’s gone now. Nacio would tell me to cling to whatever I can until he can join me, and for him I’ll try. His life sentence can’t stand, it’s too cruel.

I feel so lost right now. Hope or despair, two sides of a coin, and equally cruel taskmasters. For now, I’m straddling the line, but one day I’ll fall. It’s just a matter of time.

CHAPTER 2

THEO

Idon’t know how I ended up getting roped into driving the moving truck, but here we are. I’m usually the person who navigates, has their computer open to take a deep dive into the ins and outs of our next conquest, yet the truth is I haven’t had the heart to touch my computer much to code or hack.

Unless it’s a specific request from the Kings Society or something the guys ask me to look up, I’m letting my skills collect dust. It doesn’t feel right after Rachelle died and we let Nacio take the fall for it. I don’t have many emotions, I’m pretty broken if I’m honest, but I’ve been having nightmares about blue lips and Nacio’s screams.

My eyes feel like sandpaper as I rub them, and I reach for my energy drink before I slam it down. I have candy as well for the drive, however, the caffeinated drink is cold and burns on the way down. I feel the need to punish my body right now. Candy will give me pleasure that I don’t deserve.

Elijah is driving my car, and Jared is driving his own vehicle. Elijah typically gets rides from us, and chose to leave his car behind. It comes with too many strings. In fact, he left behind a lot of the things his parents have given him.

His inheritance unlocks when he’s twenty-one, and he was able to get one of the members of the Society to become the guardian for it. His parents agreed to transfer the guardianship for it because he completed the bet. While he’s free from them in some ways, I have a feeling that they’ll continue to be an issue. He has one more year of guardianship before his inheritance is completely his.