Chapter 41 #2
I grabbed my phone in case Xander called sooner than expected.
I shoved it into my dress pocket and followed my brother.
Terrance was livelier than I’d ever seen him as we took the elevator to the fourteenth floor where his suite was, but I could hardly hear anything he said.
I felt submerged underwater, an almost weightless, hazy delirium pulling my anxious gaze and mind every which way.
I searched with quickening breaths for the beast lurking within the elevator or within the hall leading to our destination.
“Here we are,” Terrance chirped as he opened his suite door.
A sitting area welcomed us, and connected to the vast space was a large bedroom.
Balcony doors were open, and they led onto a stone balcony that looked out on the city below, though the street on this side of the building was closed due to construction.
Still, the creature of my memories didn’t appear.
“I think the photographer is still on the balcony,” Terrance explained, waving me along. “That’s where we’ve been taking the pictures since the lighting is so good out there.”
I followed Terrance out onto the large balcony where the photographer stood, looking down at her camera. When she looked up, she smiled at us. “Oh, great! You found her! It’s crunch time, so you two come stand here.”
She waved her hand at a space that had been decorated with hanging white and green sheer curtains, floral arrangements, and a stone archway.
The haze clouding my mind began to ebb as I followed Terrance to the backdrop.
I stared down at my dress and pretended to adjust the skirt just to give my quivering hands something to do as I finally let go of the wary tension in my gut.
It was fine. I was fine. We were alone.
“Perfect!” the woman gushed. “Now you two come in and get on either side of them.”
The air rushed from my lungs. My eyes widened where I stared down at my dress skirt, and I felt the color drain from my face. New voices drifted closer, voices I’d long forgotten. Or tried to.
“Wait,” Terrance called out. “What are you guys doing here? I told you to go downstairs to get a drink.”
“We thought it would be a fun surprise,” a high-pitched feminine voice laughed.
“Come now,” a deep voice chuckled. “Did you really expect us to pass up on a chance to get a family photo after thirteen years?”
A pair of black dress shoes filled my peripheral while the sweet cologne I recalled from all those nights filled my nose. Slowly, I looked up while my heart crashed further and further down. I met those evil dark blue eyes and chilling smile set in an aged face.
“Don’t you think so, daughter?”
Everything froze. The world came to a screeching halt with a terrible whine ringing in my head. I wavered on my feet, only to have an arm wrap around my waist.
“You look lovely,” the man and owner of that arm grinned. “All grown up like this.”
“Dad,” Terrance grumbled between his teeth.
“Hurry, hurry,” the camera woman yelled. “The lighting now is perfect! Everyone squeeze together, face me, and smile! Yay wedding day for Terrance!”
I couldn’t get oxygen in. Even as the photographer got impatient with me and turned my head to stare her way.
Even as Terrance stepped into my opposite side with quiet questions on if I was okay.
Even as I stared wide-eyed and blankly at the camera while she snapped photos, only to grumble about my uncooperative facial expression.
He was touching me.
He was holding me.
He was staring at me.
He was—
“You can calm down,” his hot voice whispered into my ear. “You aren’t my type anymore.”
Bile rocked violently through me. I barely managed to stumble away as vomit sputtered out of me and onto the balcony. Tears streamed down my face, and I blearily strumbled to the balcony railing as more vomit choked me and rained over the edge onto the closed street below.
“Kendyll!” Terrance cried. “Everyone, please go. We’ll—We’ll do more photos later, Trish. Please, everyone, give my sister some space.”
My breath ran away from me as I fell to my knees with one hand still grappling onto the railing.
My nails dug into the rough stone, tearing up my nails until I felt the burn of them bleeding.
I gagged and sputtered around another wave of puke just as a metal trash can appeared in front of me with Terrance’s worried face hovering beside me.
“Fuck, Kendyll,” Terrance whimpered. “Are you alright? What happened? Are you sick? No, don’t answer that. Just wait here. I sent everyone out. I’m going to run downstairs to grab you a water, ginger ale, crackers, all of it! Just wait here. Don’t move.”
He might as well have been speaking another language, because I didn’t hear anything he said. I could barely hear my own sobs as I retched into the trashcan. All I could hear was that voice.
Be good for daddy, Princess.
It’s okay. This is normal. You trust daddy, don’t you?
Shh. Don’t be scared. You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. This is because I love you. My pretty little girl. You love daddy, too, right? So do this for me. This is how you show me that you love me.
I covered my ears with both hands, wailing for the voice to stop. But it kept going. It kept playing over and over, growing louder and louder.
“Meow!”
Through my tears, I caught sight of Catsper restlessly pacing all around the air in front of me. He tried rubbing his spectral body all along me, but the ghost cat passed through. Still, he was an anchor that brought enough sense back to me to search my dress pocket for my phone.
Xander.
I needed my Mr. Monster, my shadow, my demon.