Hush Baby Hush

Janet waves her hands, flustered. “I won’t hear another word of this disgusting—”

“You never heard much of anything. You didn’t hear me crying in the shower, or scrubbing stains out of my underwear in the bathroom sink at four a.m.You refused to listen to Holly when she told you what was happening under your own roof.”

Ewan hasn’t looked up from the table since I started talking. Hisface is thinner than I remember, his shoulders narrow. When I was fourteen, he seemed so much bigger and stronger than me. Now he looks like an old man, frail and nervous.

“You’re smaller than I remember,” I say to him. “Maybe you werethat much bigger than me back then, but now, you’re just...pathetic. I built you up in my head to be this intimidating presence that I couldn't fight off. But Hoyt Renier was twice your size, and I fought him off. Austin shot him.”

“Need me to shoot someone else?” Austin growls.

I squeeze his hand, grateful for his presence. There’s no way I’d still be standing if he wasn’t beside me.

Ewan takes a shuddering breath and then mumbles, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, McKenzie. You know I would never hurt you.”

“Funny how you always used to say that right before you started hurting me. I don't expect you to admit what you did, and I know better than to expect an apology. I came here because I needed toface what happened to me in this house so that I can move past it.”

I don’t realize I’m shaking until Austin wraps his arm around me.

“Do you want to leave?” he whispers. I shake my head. As much as I want to just curl up against him and let him take me away from this place, I have to finish what I started.

“But it was your interview that made me realize it’s not enough to get past it. Because this nightmare doesn’t end with me. Not while you’re still taking in girls. I bet if I sat down with Iris and told her my story, she’d have her own story to tell about both of you.”

A look of dread passes between Ewan and Janet, and it’s the closest I’ve ever come to feeling validated. But I don’t have time to sit with my own closure just yet.

“We aren’t leaving this house without Iris,” I say.

Janet balks. “You can’t take her, that’s kidnapping. I’ll call the police.”

“Go ahead, call them. Save me the trouble. We’ll be waiting for them outside.”