“No,” the voice says. “We’re leaving. Now.”
Daddy.
Daddy is still in there.
And Ma, too.
My eyes flutter open the slightest bit. Two men climb into the back of a black van. One of them is Dr Shepherd, Dad’s personal doctor.
He leans over a body wearing a bloodied white shirt.
It’s Daddy.
Don’t leave me.
The other man sits on Dad’s other side, watching him closely.
“Burn it,” he tells a man in black standing near the van.
The man speaks into his hand and the mansion catches on fire.
I stare a
t the man beside Dad through blurry eyes. He watches the house being eaten by flames with a neutral expression as if there isn’t a person inside. A person whimpering and asking for help.
“Let’s go,” he commands and the van flies down the road with other black cars following it.
His voice.
It’s him.
The one who told my ma she doesn’t deserve this life and that it’ll end today.
The one who’s currently burning my ma inside.
The one who’s taking Daddy away like heaven took away Eli.
The one without emotions as he does it all.
Uncle Agnus.
33
Elsa
Present
I jump to my feet, my heart thundering viciously in my chest.
Agnus.
Uncle Agnus.
He’s the one behind the fire and the one who killed my mother. Well, she shot herself, but she wasn’t dead yet. He burned the mansion down while knowing she was in it.
He was by my father’s side all this time, and he kept an eye on me.
For what?