Milo
I come back to the present with a roar and I am on him before he has the chance to react.
He looks genuinely startled just as my fist connects with his face, and I don’t stop.
I drive another punch into him, another, and then another, each one harder than the last.
“Fight me back,” I roar. “Fight back, you vile excuse for a man.”
I hit him harder, faster, putting everything into each punch, but he doesn’t fight back. He fucking can’t.
He’s a coward who only knows how to hurt people who are weaker than him.
Time disappears with every punch, until I feel a soft hand on my shoulder.
I snap my head up.
“Milo,” she says quietly.
I glance at the man lying at my feet, unconscious and bloodied, and then lift my eyes to her.
She smiles sadly.
“I always imagined I would be the one to end his loathsome existence,” she says softly. “But I’m glad it was you. Just as you promised.”
Her words press against my chest.
I find I despise myself a little more.
How does she not hate me?
How can she stand to be near me when the blood running through my veins is stained with his DNA?
Now everything clicks.
I finally understand why she kept her distance in the beginning. There was always something guarded in her eyes, and the way she reacted when that girl lied suddenly makes sense.
This bastard hurt her.
The girl that night… it was her.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
It’s hard to breathe.
I couldn’t protect her then, and I couldn’t protect her now.
This will haunt me for the rest of my life.
But never again.
She looks at him briefly. “He should have suffered longer,” she murmurs.
“I know,” I say through clenched teeth. “But I lost myself in my anger. I needed him gone. He laid his hands on you. He hurt you.”
She reaches for me, trying to pull me to my feet, and I let her.
She winces as she moves, and I have to clench my jaw to keep from losing it.
Again.
Her arms slide around my waist.
“It’s over now,” she whispers into my chest.
I give a humourless laugh. “I don’t know how you can stand me. How you can even look at me.”
She lifts her head and cups my face gently.
“Because none of this was your fault,” she says quietly. “We don’t answer for our parents’ sins. I would never blame you for what he did. You were as much a victim as I was. I was blinded by rage at the beginning… and I couldn’t see that.”
Her voice cracks.
“I wanted to hate you,” she admits. “I truly did. For what I believed you did to that girl. I thought you were just like him. And, if I’m honest, I hated you for who your father is. But I was wrong…”
My chest tightens.
“I should never have blamed you or punished you for that. We don’t get to choose how we’re born, we simply are. And I hate myself for hurting you the way I did. I’m sorry, baby.”
She goes up on her toes and I bend to meet her, kissing her slowly.
Her fingers tremble against my jaw. “I had nightmares for years. I couldn’t stand being touched, not even in my sleep. But then you came into my life… and I found myself craving your touch. It calmed me. You made the nightmares fade. You really are my better half.”
I kiss her again.
I lift my head just as I catch movement in the corner of my eye.
The man on the floor is stirring.
Yuri.
He must have been awake longer than I realised, because he reaches to his side, pulls a gun, and aims it straight at Octavia before I can even move.
Everything slows.
I twist us just as the first shot rings out.
The second round buries itself in me, and the pain that follows is so violent it rips the breath from my lungs.
My knees buckle beneath me.
“Milo!” Octavia screams, her voice breaking apart.
More shots fire behind me, three in quick succession.
I don’t feel those… they aren’t in me.
Good.
Isaak or Ido must have taken care of him.
I crash to the floor.
Octavia drops with me, on her knees, her hands on my face, pushing my hair back from my eyes.
“Oh my God, Milo, no, please…” she cries.
I suck in a breath through the pain.
“Why the fuck would you do that?” she sobs.
“Because I’ll never let you get hurt again,” I rasp. “You’ve already been hurt too many times.”
“Milo,” she cries, her cheeks soaked with tears.
I lift a trembling hand to her face and wipe them away.
“You never used to say my name,” I murmur hoarsely. “I like the way it sounds on your lips. Say it again… fucking please.”
Everything goes black.