Page 297 of When We Fall: Part Two

He ran his hand up my torso before he pressed it to my chest.

“I pushed my blade through her heart as I lay with her.”

I shook harder beneath his touch. He cradled my face again.

“Does that scare you, sister?”

“You scare me.”

He pulled away from me, frowning. “I-I don’t know how to be with you. You-You remind me of her.” His frown deepened.

“Why did you kill her?” I choked out.

“Because she was suffering.” A look of sad devastation washed over his face. “I loved her so much, and she loved me.She protected me the best she could. You look like her. Your lips.” He reached out and traced my lips. “Full. Just like hers. Your eyes. Your nose. The curve of your jaw. How small and delicate you are. Your hair. Hers was blonde, but I used to twist it around my finger at night while I lay in bed with her, scared of what the next day would bring.”

I breathed out at his soft words.

“My father is not a nice man. He hurt her. Repeatedly. He beat her. Raped her. Let others have their way with her. Sometimes he made me watch. She tried to escape with me. He’d find us and hurt her some more. She tried to kill herself so many times to escape. And he’d know. He’d punish her for it. Make me punish her. She always held me when it was over. Told me she loved me. That I would be a good man someday.” He wiped quickly at his eyes.

“Y-You loved her?”

“With everything I was,” he answered, his voice shaking. “I am a monster, Rosalie, but I am merciful. She was suffering. I knew she was. She did not deserve the life she was given. She deserved to be free. So I freed her. She said to me,How hell has blessed me. I was a devil sent to do the work of an angel. I set her free. She smiled as she died. For the first time since I’d known her, she was happy.”

I cried softly at his story. He reached out and thumbed my tears away.

“When I learned you were mine, I knew I had to protect you. I couldn’t protect her, but I could protect you. I could do for you what I failed to do for her. I am a monster, Rosalie, but I am not the monster who hunts you. I am the one who will protect you.”

I cried harder, so confused by this beautiful man in front of me. My brother. A monster, truly, but was he more? I was conflicted.

“I did not kill Fox,” he continued softly. “I fucking didn’t. I tried to save him. For you. I tried.”

I wept harder. He dragged me against his body, holding me tightly as I cried.

“I would never do anything that harms you, Rosalie. Never. I tried.I tried.I promise you that I did. It wasn’t me who did it. I swear it.”

I clung to him; something in the way he spoke and held me felt like a breakthrough. He was genuine. I didn’t take him as someone who would lie. He was clearly troubled, but I didn’t believe he was lying to me.

“I keep you here because I care. I worry. I don’t want you to suffer,” he continued as he held me. “You are what’s left of her. I will do everything I can to ensure you’re safe. I’m sorry if I’m too much, but I don’t know how to be any other way. I feel like I’ve waited my entire life to find you. She-She wanted me to protect you.”

He pulled away and brushed my hair away from my face. “I have a gift for you.”

He got up, went into the closet, and returned with an envelope. My name was scrawled across the front.

“This is for you from our mother. She wanted you to have it.”

I blinked back my tears as he placed the envelope on the bedside table before he went back to the dresser and lifted the key to the cuffs from it.

He came back, unlocked the cuff, and freed me before backing away.

“Read the letter. Come see me when you’re done. I’ll be outside.”

I didn’t say anything, and neither did he as he left the room.

I sat on the bed, not moving, for a long time. So many thoughts raced through my head. While off his rocker, Dantetruly did seem genuine. I prayed he was. If he was telling the truth about Fox… God.

I wiped at the tears on my cheeks as I stared down at the envelope in my hands.

My real mom. A letter. Her words for me.