Vicious Minds: Part 2 (Children of Vice 5)

“No!” I hollered, trying to yank back my arm.

“Wyatt!” he screamed, grabbing and shaking me. “You’re fucking breaking down. Remember whose mother that is! She needs you first!”

I broke out of his arms, nearly ready to beat his face in. “I don’t need you to fucking lecture me! I know who the fuck that is! I know! Which is why I need to fucking save her! Helen needs me to save her!”

“She needed you to…you couldn’t. Now she needs you to save her. Don’t fail her there.”

“Fuck you,” I whispered, shaking my head. “Fuck you and your fucking wife, this fucking wedding. Fuck this family, fuck everything.” Stepping away from him, I didn’t know what to do.

So, I did what I was used to…I ran.

HELEN

I saw her, and I screamed.

I screamed to heaven.

I screamed to hell.

“Mommy!”

EVELYN

How many times?

How many more?

God, how many more people did I have to grieve, did I have to bury? Was this my punishment?

Was this my hell?

That one by one, I’d watch my family die helplessly around me?

I was tired.

So fucking tired.

Sedric, my love, I’m tired.

What am I supposed to say to them? When they were children, I could just hold them in my arms and let them cry. I would tell them everything was going to be okay, and they believed me. Even though I knew it wasn’t going to be okay.

Now, since they were adults, what was I supposed to say?

I looked at Declan. He was my son. Another woman birthed him, but he was my son. I raised him; I watched him fight every day against all the darkness and pain that weighed on him. Of all my boys, he had been the one to suffer the most, and of all of them, he had only ever asked me for one thing…to love and accept Coraline. She was the only thing he begged Sedric for. All his pain, his anger, his fury…they had nearly disappeared because of her. And now she was gone. Killed in the house that he’d brought her to.

I wanted to hug him.

To hear him scream and weep the way Helen was as she hugged her mother’s body. Because then I would know he was alive. But he didn’t. Darcy knelt at the side of the bed, holding and kissing her hand, tears silently falling from his eyes. However, Declan…he sat off the bed, just staring at her feet. His face was blank and he was not making a sound, not even blinking, barely breathing.

What was I supposed to do?

“Nana.”

Turning around, I found Ethan outside the door. His face was grimmer than I had ever seen despite his best effort. Walking over, I hugged him tightly. He stiffened and stilled for a moment before exhaling.

“I need you to go with us to explain to the guests.”

“What?” I let go to face him.