Chapter Sixteen
Jocelyn
S kylar is tired and so am I, but I should have known better.
She told me a secret that I promised I would keep, and I wouldn’t be able to say anything to Von in front of her.
I want her trust, because I’m more than likely the last person in the world that she can rely on.
I’m just angry with myself for not realizing it sooner. Now that I have, however, I’ll take her somewhere I know that she’ll be safe, even if it means I’ll never feel that way again.
“Daddy’s gonna be mad if I don’t go home tonight,” she wheedles for what seems like the hundredth time in ten minutes.
I drag her a few more blocks away, doing my best to ignore her pleas to stop before I finally do.
Leaning against the brick building we’ve taken refuge behind, I do my best to catch my breath.
Skylar does the same. I can tell by the heavy sounds of her breathing, and when I glance down at her, I feel worse than I did when I first saw her.
She wants to go home, but I don’t know if I have the heart to send her back to that monster. I don’t know if I truly have the heart to keep her from him, either.
His love is probably the only one that she remembers, because who knows how long Darby has actually been gone?
She looks so goddamn heartbroken.
I sigh as I push myself away from the wall and reach down for her hand. If she wants to go home, then I guess I’ll have to take her there.
___
“Hi, Momma!”
I gasp as I turn my face upward.
I can hear Darby’s voice at the opening of the oubliette, which means he brought her out here and told her where I am.
I always wondered if he could be any crueler than when I was in his home—in his bed playing wife—and I don’t know why it shocks me to find out that the answer was ‘yes.’
I hold a bruised hand up to shield my already sensitive eyes from the sunlight. I can make out their outline. He’s holding her in his arms, a leg hooked around his side as she peers down into the darkness at me.
She doesn’t understand why I’m down here, and I hope she never finds out for herself.
That would mean that he tried to make her into his wife too—and failed, because this is where all of his failures seem to go.
Down into the darkest pit of despair, with seemingly no way out.
What he doesn’t know is that by taunting me with her presence, he’s given me the strength he’s long since taken from me.