SARAH Confess. To openly admit something or declare something that you’ve been hiding, keeping secret, or feeling guilty about. Turns out what the rest of the world knows—and that includes their psychotic foster father who has been out of touch with the world, their world, for almost twenty fucking years—that I don’t, exists. It is not just a concept I made up in my head. It is not an abstract. It is a thing. It is their history, their truth. Which means they lied. They looked me in the eyes, time and time again, and lied to me. Luke pulls a plastic chair from the darkness and sets it in front of me. There, he settles with his legs crossed and a twisted smile on his face. The bruises from my fingers are all over his forehead and neck. Before he somehow managed to make me unconscious, I was determined to fight him till the very end. I tear my gaze away from Luke, fixing it on the phone screen he’s held out. Jaxon’s face greets me. I see it. The fear and guilt in his eyes. It doesn’t matter that he’s doing everything to look away from me. Jaxon. My sweet, ever loving, innocent, bold, golden retriever of a boyfriend doesn’t look me in the eyes. He can’t. There are so many words running through my mind, so many questions I have to ask. But I can’t. Not with my mouth gagged with the filthy rag. So, I speak in the only way I can. I let him see my fear, my pain, my anger, all through the tears that rush down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Sarah,” he starts to speak. His voice is trembling. Every word that comes out of his mouth feels like a fucking glitch. Liar. I repeat the word in my head over and over again. Liar. Liar. Liar. It’s all I can see, all I can think of. “There’s a lot we haven’t told you about. We hid the truth about a lot of things from you. I thought we would have more time. We…there’s…” “Get to it, boy!” Luke snarls. “Do you think I fucking have all day?” Jaxon exhales. I can tell he’s shaking from the phone. He has always worn his feelings on his sleeve. I know what it is now. A fucking armor. If there is nothing in him, there is nothing to pierce, nothing to hurt. He let himself be a ticking time bomb to shield himself, to keep people away. “I know we told you our father…Luke ran away on the day our mother was found dead. But…” he stops and shakes his head, like he cannot believe what he’s about to say. “He didn’t run away, Sarah. We got rid of him.” Shock slices through me. It is cold and merciless, my skin prickles from the invisible blocks of ice. Got rid of him. What the fuck does that even mean? “And they did a shitty job at it. Tell her, Jaxon.” Luke cuts in again. Jaxon heaves another sigh. “I stabbed him, drove a knife into his skin. I wanted to kill him like he killed our mother. I wanted to send him to hell! Malachi and Ronan weren’t there. They had no idea what my plan was. When they came, Luke was bleeding all over the floor. We were confused, we knew we couldn’t let him survive or we risked getting exposed. He would kill us the moment he was able to recover. So, we got our uncle to take him away. He was supposed to disappear forever. Apparently, that didn’t happen.” Luke throws his head back in laughter. His left hand hits his knee over and over again. The brothers do not speak. Just like me, they know it’s not necessary. If I’m going to survive this, I’m going to have to be as complacent as humanly possible. When his laughter dies, he wipes the tears underneath his eyes and looks at me. “ Guess what I did? You know, I’m really surprised they haven’t asked me how I survived yet. You see,” he leans out of the plastic chair, inching closer at me. I’m left with no other choice than to glare at him. “Their uncle, Abel, would never do his dirty work for himself. I was able to escape the claws of his bastard men, and I ran away. Of course, it was tough for a couple of years. I had to wipe every trace of my old self that existed. Their uncle has eyes everywhere, you see. I couldn’t have anything for so long. Money, friends, I lost every fucking thing.” Slowly, his wicked grin morphs into a scowl so deep, the lines run from his forehead to the fold underneath his jaw. “And these boys got everything. My wife’s money, the house, the cars, the trust. Their fucking uncle took them in and raised them to be just as brutal. The whole world looks at them! Three brothers who rose from the ashes like phoenixes!” Another mocking laughter echoes in the room. Luke spits on the ground, barely inches away from my feet, and I flinch on impact. “There were no bloody ashes to begin with. They were looked after and protected. Abel had the guts to tell me I wasn’t good enough for his sister, when he’s nothing but a con man, a murderer, and your men…whatever you think your relationship is…are no better.” My eyes darken as I glare at him. I wish he would just take the rag off my mouth. Yes. Jaxon attempted to kill him. But if I’m correct, he was only a little boy that watched him abuse their mother daily. I would want to kill a man like Luke too. It doesn’t change the fact that they lied to me. I have them chances, again and again, to tell me the truth, and they didn’t. What else? What else are they keeping from me? Who else have they gotten rid off or tried to get rid of? The Jaxon I thought I knew doesn’t exist. There’s a darkness in his heart that I never saw, never recognized. I see it now, all of it. And it’s disgusting. “Luke, you don’t have to do this.” It’s Malachi who speaks next. “Like Ronan said, we would give you anything you want. Whatever it is. You would never run out of money as long as we’re alive. You have our word. Please…please just let her go. She hasn’t done anything to you.” “But you have.” Luke snaps. “And judging from how panic stricken Ronan is, and how fidgety you are, she means a damn lot to you three. I should get rid of her first. That’ll make sure you don’t have the strength to find what comes next.” “Touch my sister you moron, and I’ll kill you with my bare hands!” Kevin! My eyes widen immediately. His face, although bruised, covers the whole screen. “Listen here, you dimwit,” he breathes hard. “You can have your revenge. Hell! Set them on fire if you like. But you would not touch my sister, or I’ll burn you alive! Do you hear me? Can you fucking hear me?” I shake my head as tears, hot and salty, pour from my eyes. My heart shrinks in my chest, tighter and tighter until I can barely breathe. Kevin’s words from the party suddenly make a lot of sense. Getting involved with the HawkThorne brothers made me a target, a primary target of everyone who has a bone to pick with them. Luke has a huge ass bone. A vendetta he’s been planning for years. How many more people have they hurt? How many people hate them enough to hurt them by hurting me? “Quick question, Mal.” Luke responds to them, completely ignoring my brother’s outburst. “How much do you think fifteen years of my life is going to cost? One million dollars? Ten? Twenty? A hundred?” He scoffs. “Even a hundred million wouldn’t mean anything to you three. You have claws in every financial sector that fucking matters. So I ask you again, how much do you think fifteen years of my life would cost?” Dear God, if you can hear me, please just get me out of this. I promise I will change my taste in men entirely. I promise I would never, ever, have anything to do with lying murderers. I don’t have to suffer so much pain because of them. A pain that would have been avoided if they told me the fucking truth. “Take us, Luke.” Ronan’s voice rings in my ears. “We’re the ones you want, not her.” He rolls his eyes. “I cannot try to touch you, at least not now. Be patient, son. Sit and wait. I’m about to bring your whole world crumbling down.” He finally turns the phone screen away from me, plastering a smile on his face. “I think she might have something to say now,” he rises from his seat and walks over to me. I close my eyes, relief flooding me as he loosens my gag from the back. The ashy taste leaves my tongue immediately. My lips wobble as the part, gasping for air. “Come on, Sarah. I know you have something to say to them. Hurry up, it might be your last words.” I suck in deep breaths, each one faltering even worse than before. Molten rage courses through my blood. The venom blends with the anxiety and fear clogged in my chest. When my tears fall, it’s not from pain. This time, it’s from anger. A deep, burning rage that burns the surface of my skin, my face, and the corners of my eyes. There is nothing to do now. This might just be my last word. I must make it count. I peel my eyes open to the nightmare in front of me. Ronan’s face is on the screen. The worry in his electric blue eyes makes me nauseous. I reel it in. The only place I want to puke is on his fucking face. One last deep breath before I gather the words to speak. Then, with my gaze focused on his forlorn face, I part my lips to speak. “I hate you.” The words feel heavy on my tongue, only because of how much I mean them. “I fucking hate you.”