Chapter 38

Dash

Whether I return or not is irrelevant. Mila has claimed a piece of me that I never knew existed. A part of me too frail to survive my world.

Maybe that ’ s why I ’ m cruel to her. She showed me what compassion was. Instead of running terrified, she fell for a broken, used, and abused demon.

My mom would have loved Mila; she would have demanded I treat her like my equal.

Perhaps I would have.

Love needs constant attention. Hate, well, that needs nothing but an empty void. I feel that emptiness as soon as Mila leaves, when my fingertips can ’ t brush against her flesh, when my eyes can ’ t look at her beautiful face.

I feel incomplete more often than content.

My future will be filled with people who require my attention. I ’ ll never have sufficient time for Mila.

I need her to know that.

I need my little fox to know this is all she can have; stolen moments.

She ’ s a thief. That ’ s always what she was, a sly fox. I just taught her how to accept her true nature.

“ You never really had me,” I tell her. Each syllable that leaves my wicked tongue feels like a lashing cutting me so deep it scars my bones.

It ’ s better this way. I don ’ t want Mila to live a life of waiting, of having expectations. I know my words are evil, but it ’ s the only way I know how to help her grow stronger.

I ’ m trying to help her. I always said I would fix her.

I also said I might break her after I watched her grow.

If ads affect your reading experience, click here to remove ads on this page.