14. Kane
FOURTEEN
KANE
From where I stood hidden in the shadows across the street, I stared up at the seventh floor to the darkened window. The faintest glow glimmered from within.
I could see her there. A few feet back from the glass.
Her silhouette.
Her shape.
This woman who had the power to do me in.
One who’d touched me two nights ago in a way that no one before her had had the ability to do.
A woman I could never keep.
One I shouldn’t want to keep.
Not her nor the little girl I could somehow feel beating through my veins.
I knew better.
Knew this life.
Knew what I’d done.
The horrible ways that I’d failed.
I needed to get over this shit. This insane idea that had crept over me throughout the day, growing stronger with each second that had passed.
Like building blocks that threatened to become set in stone.
I’d be nothing but a monster dragging an innocent into this life.
Selfish to the extreme.
I would meet my daughter. Hear her voice and tuck it down where it belonged—with the rest of the ones that I’d lost.
I’d be sure she was set for life.
That she’d never want.
That she’d have everything she needed and more because I knew firsthand what it was like to go without. To scrounge and suffer and wonder where your next meal was coming from.
Then I’d keep an eye from a distance. Ensure she was always safe. That anyone who ever threatened to harm her would come to their end.
Because that’s what I was good for.
The ending .
And I’d be a fool trying to ignite something I had no business starting.