Chapter 41 #3
I shook so hard that the device was nearly too blurry to see, but somehow, I managed to unlock it.
“Don’t you think this is a little overdramatic?”
I whipped my head around to find the beast standing in the balcony doorway, regarding me with a tilted salt and pepper head and hands shoved into his tux pockets. His frame filling the threshold was a clear message—he was there to block me, to trap me with him.
He shook his head and tutted like he was addressing a child. “You couldn’t cooperate for one photo for your brother? You were much more amiable when you were little.”
I peeled my lips back in a snarl as I screamed, “Stay the fuck away from me!”
Catsper’s back arched with raised hair as he stared at the stranger.
“Is that any way to talk to your father? We haven’t seen each other in so long.” His frown twitched with a growing grin. “And we were so close when you were little.”
“I said stay away!” I raged, grabbing the trash can and slinging it in his direction.
I was so flustered and drained that the metal can merely tipped and rolled his way, my vomit slowly pouring out.
Catsper leapt between the man and I, hissing in warning, but the man was oblivious to the ghost’s efforts.
Edwin Cartwright sighed. “How old are you now? Twenty-four? Can’t you act like it, Kendyll? We’re adults and can talk as such.”
“Adults?” I gritted out, my panic now mingling with more hatred and anger than should’ve been possible for one human to feel at once. My hand clenched around my phone, which reminded me of its presence.
This man had ruined me. This twisted man had fucking violated me. This man had tried to make those around us and any who might question the validity of my statements think I was crazy. I couldn’t let him turn me into that helpless little girl again. I wasn’t her anymore.
Laughing manically, I subtly hit the video record button on my phone and hung it by my side with the screen facing my hip. I slowly stood, my eyes never leaving his. My bloody fingers dug harder into the railing behind me.
“Should we talk about the kind of adult you are? You’re a sick fucking psycho who likes children. You’re a predator who likes sneaking into his daughter’s room to molest her, you fucking monster!”
His dark eyes narrowed into icy slits. “Still crazy, I see.”
“I’m not crazy,” I cried. “Despite how hard you tried to make it seem that way. How much did you pay your doctors at Mountview to paint me as a lying lunatic? Or did you agree to ignore their mistreatment of drugs and patients in exchange for their help in covering up what you did to me in your home and even at the hospital?”
“Rant all you want, Kendyll,” he growled. “No one will believe you.”
“Yeah, you made sure of that, didn’t you? Just like how you made sure to never miss bath nights or time at home when Terrance and Mom weren’t there.”
His flat face suddenly lifted with wickedness.
“You liked it. Trust me. I remember.” He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes in reverence, like sending a prayer up to his god.
“I still think about those sounds you’d make, the faces you’d wear, the way you felt and smelled.
If only you had stayed that way forever. ”
Repulsion so deep, so fierce, it practically became one with my veins filled me. More bile churned and rose while the invisible filth crawled along my skin. My phone buzzed once in my hand, and when I glanced down at it, the new text from Xander made the feelings recede like the tide rolling back.
On my way
I squeezed the phone tighter. Knowing my demon was seconds away emboldened me with the confidence to face this disgusting pig once and for all. I wanted to take him down, and I wanted to destroy him. I wanted him to know I ruined his life, just as he ruined mine.
“You’re a vile excuse for a human being,” I snarled as I hit stop on my recording. Fixing my venomous glare on the man, I waved my phone, my evidence, at him. “You won’t get away with what you did. I’ll make sure everyone knows! You thought you could hurt me, could break me, but I won’t let you!”
Another text came through from Xander, asking where I was.
He’s here!
I quickly typed out my location to him while continuing my rant. “Everyone will know what kind of sicko you are! You’ll lose everything! You’ll—”
A hand suddenly grabbed my wrist and yanked me forward. The rage-fueled words cut off in my throat as the beast glared down at me while squeezing my arm in a bruising grip. Catsper floated through the air to swat and claw at the man’s face, but it was no use.
“You’ve always been a lunatic, which is why no one will bat an eye when I tell them my mad, estranged daughter jumped, too jealous of her brother and the life she couldn’t have.”
“Wha—”
I gasped as he smacked my phone out of my hand and shoved me hard. The world blurred as my body tumbled over the railing, open air rushing past me. His malicious face peered over the railing as I plummeted fourteen stories down, my scream and desperation all that followed me.
But I should’ve known. I was right. I knew my story didn’t have a happy ending.