Chapter Thirty-Two
Athens
“Girl, get the fuck on with it,” Fred snaps, shoving me forward when my feet forget how to move.
I don’t know why I let them drag me here. Scratch that. I do. Because I’m a coward.
This house, this moment, this conversation… it’s a reckoning. And I’ve been dodging it like it owes me blood.
What the hell do I even say?
Sorry I ghosted you after reading how our lives were torn apart in someone else's handwriting? Sorry I found out you were my sister and ran like a bitch instead of facing it? Sorry I let the monsters win by hiding in silence?
Yeah. All of that. And still, none of it feels like enough.
“Do you realize you talk out loud when you spiral?” Ryan asks, dry as dust, arms crossed like she’s waiting on popcorn.
“I do not.”
“Mmm.” She taps her chin, eyes lit with trouble. “You lie as easy as you breathe. Must be in the blood.”
“Shut up,” I snap, shifting like I can outrun the shame pooling in my chest. “I don’t want to do this.”
“Tough.” Fred’s voice hardens. “We read the journals. You cried. We cried. Now it’s time to grab the bull by the fuckin’ balls and choke him out.”
“That’s not how the saying goes.”
“It is when it’s my life.” Ryan shrugs, and for once, I don’t want to slap her.
“Let’s just get it over with,” Fred mutters, looping her arm through mine like she knows I’m one flinch from bolting.
We step up to the door like we’re about to breach a crime scene. Knock. Knock. Knock. And with each rap, my heart pounds louder.
I didn’t just ignore them. I exiled myself. From my mother.
From my sister. From the only truth I’ve ever known.
Therapy’s never been my thing. Strangers don't get to fix me. I fix myself, by force if I have to. But those journals? They cracked me open. I bled through every page.
And then the door opens. And her voice does something no memory ever could.
“Athens? Baby, are you okay?”
Suddenly, I’m eight years old again, hiding behind her skirt, her hand on my head, blood dripping from the blade she buried in my father’s chest.
And this is how I repaid her? Silence? Distance? A fucking betrayal in its own right?
“Mama?” My voice shatters as I crash into her. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“No, baby.” She clutches me like I’m still made of pieces. “ I’m sorry. Sorry you had to find out the way you did… but it had to come from you. I couldn’t steal that from you again.”
“I hated reading them, but I needed it. Still feels like there’s more. Like something’s missing.”
“There is,” she whispers. “But you’ll find it.”
Behind me, Ryan clears her throat, and I remember I didn’t come alone.
“Mama, this is Ryan and Fred. My, uh, my ride or die degenerates. They dragged my ass here when I was ready to keep running.”
“Well then, I owe you two a thank you,” my mother says, stepping aside. “Come on in. Let’s stop bleeding on the porch.”
Inside, the place is different. Cleaned. Rebuilt. A graveyard with new paint.
“What the hell happened in here?” I ask, voice tight.
“Your sister and I thought it was time for a change.” That word slaps me in the face. Sister.
“Wait,” Fred says with a fake-ass gasp, “You have a sister?!”
I glare at her. “Fred, I can’t even remember what I wore yesterday.”
“Let’s pretend you never told us,” Ryan chimes in with a smirk, just as Gaia slips into the room.
Her eyes avoid mine like I’m poison. And maybe I am.
“Hey. I’m Gaia. Just grabbing some water.” She makes a beeline for the fridge. I block her path.
“Gaia… can we talk?”
“There’s nothing to say.” Her voice is so small it cuts deeper than any scream.
“Gaia, I’m fucking sorry.” The words rush out, raw and broken. “I handled it like a coward, and if I could redo it all, I would.”
“Cool,” she says flatly. “Turns out I’m not thirsty anymore.” She spins on her heel. “I’ll be in my room, Josie.”
As her footsteps vanish upstairs, I drop my head into my hands. “I fucked that up.”
“No shit,” Ryan says.
“Ryan!” Fred slaps her arm.
“What? She knows! But that’s the thing about fuckups, they’re a setup for redemption.” She narrows her eyes at me. “So get your thick-ass upstairs, fix it, then get your shit right with your mom.”
“She’s not wrong,” Fred adds.
I let out a breath, walk over, and wrap my arms around Ryan like she just dragged me from a burning building.
“You need a hug or some dick.”
“Don’t change the subject.” She smirks. “Fix it, devil girl.”
I head upstairs. Gaia’s door is cracked just enough for me to see her curled in the bay window, knees up, chin tucked.
Her hair falls in loose waves, black with streaks of midnight, just like mine. Her nose, the slant of her jaw, those gray eyes. All mine.
Or maybe… all hers.
“You’re the spitting image of me,” I say softly. “Not a carbon copy. Just enough to see the truth I refused to look at.”
She doesn’t respond.
I step in, close the door, and cross the room.
“I was scared, Gaia. Betrayed. And I let that fear drown the people who never stopped loving me. That’s on me. Not you. Not Mama. And if I had one bullet left, it’d be for Bash… or my father. They built the walls. I just lived in them.”
She’s still silent. Still hurting.
So I go darker.
I grab her wrist and yank her up. “I said I was sorry. I won’t keep begging. You either forgive me, or don’t. But we’ve got blood between us now, and I’m not walking away again.”
She blinks, stunned. “Damn. Someone finally grew a pair.”
“Life forced me to.”
“You know what it’s like,” she says, voice cracking, “watching your sister vanish after you waited your whole life to be seen?”
“I do. But I’m done hiding. So here’s the deal, ” I square my shoulders. “We either put this shit behind us and take down the monsters that built our pain… or we keep bleeding separately and let them win.”
She stares at me. Then down at her wrist.
“Let me go, drama queen. We’re pale. We bruise easy.”
“Right. Sorry.” I release her but don’t move back.
Her silence stretches a second longer.
Then… “You owe me a lot of sister time.”
“I’ve got forever if you do.”
A crooked smile ghosts her lips. “Let’s burn Bash’s empire to the fucking ground.”
And just like that, we’re good again. Not perfect. Not healed. But ready to make the world pay.
Together. Like Devils.
Her eyes land on mine, sharp as blades, and that smirk curls like a loaded gun. “Second, take a step back. I can smell your breath, and it’s giving fish and coffee. Nasty combo, bitch.”
She’s teasing, half a smile bleeding at the edges of her mouth, but I don’t move. She steps back first, and I win.
“You bitch, I did not.” Her brow rises like a loaded verdict.
“Okay, fine,” I grunt. “Yeah, I did. But so what? You didn’t really smell it.” I kick at nothing. Dust. Guilt. Nerves. “So… what now?”
“I think I like this new version of you,” she says. “But enough bullshit, it’s time we stop pretending. You want your memories back? All of them?” Her voice shifts, low and dangerous. “There’s a way.”
I blink. “A way? To remember… everything? ”
“Yes. But it’s not like reading a journal. This is feeling it. Reliving it. Bone-deep pain, no filter.” She steps closer. “Mrs. Kaia taught me how to unlock it when the time was right.”
My pulse spikes. “So… if I go through with this, I’ll know what really happened to me?”
She nods, dead serious. “Yeah. But you’ll need backup when it hits. Because this shit? It breaks people. And you’re already cracked, sis.”
The Devils are out handling business. I don’t need to ask where, they're probably bleeding someone dry. But Ryan and Fred? They’re here. Loyal. Unhinged in all the right ways.
“They’ll be enough,” I say, jaw tight. “You. Mama. Them. No one else.”
Gaia’s eyes flash. “Good. Because if you even think about calling that snake Cressida, I’ll knock your ass out myself. Something about her smells rotten, and I don’t like it.”
“I haven’t seen her. Or Crew.”
“Who the hell is Crew?”
“Security on campus. Ran into him once, literally. Now he’s… around.”
She scowls. “That’s your fucking problem. Always collecting strangers like they’re stray pets. No vetting. No instinct.”
She moves past me, descending the stairs like a queen who's survived too many assassinations. “You wanna do this now, or you planning on stalling ‘til the next trauma hits?”
“Now’s fine,” I mutter, brushing past her. But I pause halfway down. “First… tell me what you remember about my childhood.”
She stops. Her whole face changes. The light vanishes from her eyes. Her lips twitch.
She knows something.
“Gaia,” I say, quiet and hollow. “Don’t play with me. Tell me. ”
She exhales like it physically hurts her. “Mr. Henry and Mrs. Kaia were saints. Taking you in nearly destroyed them.”
“Why?” Her silence is answer enough. I press. “ Why? ”
“Because…” Her voice breaks. “Because they knew Bash.”
My stomach turns to ice. “What?”
She closes her eyes. “Athens, I swear I didn’t want to be the one to tell you this-”
“ Say it. ” My voice shakes. “Spit it the fuck out.”
“He had them killed. Mrs. Kaia. Mr. Henry. And your mother would’ve been next... if you hadn’t already fallen in love with the monster.”
Everything inside me cracks.
I can’t breathe.
My knees give out, and I hit the stairs hard, shoulder, hip, skull, bones rattling against wood like death knocking at every joint.
Each step slaps the breath from my lungs.
And then… Black.
“Hey, look, she’s waking up.” Fred’s voice cuts through the fog like a broken siren, too bright, too shrill, too alive for the dark weight pressing on my skull.
“Fuck,” I groan, squinting. “Why are you so goddamn loud?”
“Sorry,” she winces. “You scared the shit out of us.”
My head throbs in rhythm with the tension crawling through the room. The kind of silence that makes your skin itch. Something’s off. I feel it in the air. “What happened?”
They all share a look, the kind that says more than anyone’s brave enough to say out loud, until Mama steps forward, her voice low and velvet-soft. “You fainted. After Gaia answered your question.”