Chapter 8
She probably shouldn’t be here right now.
She should be at school. If her grandfather found out that she’d skipped school again, he’d be really angry.
The last thing she wanted to do was make him angry or anything.
He turned so mean when that happened. But sometimes, there were things that had to be done.
Do the right thing—her mother had always told her she had to do what was right.
It had taken Riely a while to figure out what “right” was, though.
Riely knew what she was doing was crazy. But she had to know. These people right there… they weren't going to want anything to do with her. She knew that.
Not considering what her father had done and everything. Why would they want her around? What if she was as bad as he was? Her grandfather was a bad man. Her dad was bad. Other people in his family… she had thought they were probably bad too. Before they had all died too.
Maybe it was somehow in her blood or something.
She touched her necklace. She did that when she felt nervous now.
Riely had paid a lot of attention to how she felt at times.
So the counselor at the school would think she was okay and would focus on someone else.
She knew her grandfather had given her the necklace to prove a point.
She wasn't an idiot. She knew…what he had done. How he had gotten it.
Knew who it had once belonged to.
Maybe he hadn't done it himself but he had made someone do it for him. He had lots of power that way. He’d told her that before.
He hurt people. She knew he did. He liked to hurt people, and it got him what he wanted.
And if he knew what she was doing right now—he would probably kill her too.
He didn't really care that she was his son’s kid. If he did he would have told the world about her from the beginning. She’d figured that out years ago. She was just the grandkid he’d gotten stuck with so that no one would ask questions. He’d told her that before, too.
Her Grandpa didn’t really want her. He just hadn’t wanted anyone else to take her, either.
She just stood where she was and watched all the little kids at the park as they played. She remembered going to a playground with her mom all the time. When she had been a little girl and everything. When life was normal.
These little kids—they were so lucky. They had people who loved them.
She just walked over to the picnic table and watched.
There were a lot of little kids around here. And they…didn’t know there were monsters living right next door. Riely knew, though. She just didn’t know how to stop them.
She had little sisters out there somewhere, who needed the world to be safe for them.
She just didn’t know how to make that happen.
Riely stayed right where she was and cried.