“Does that mean Seri does know at least some of it?”

“No. Seri doesn’t know about us.”

“But she knew who Kyle was. She said she saw him.”

“When we were in Montana, we saw Kyle. We knew Seri was in danger. We gave her the image of Kyle as her sister’s killer so she would know who he was, and then we left. We needed to go as far away as possible.”

I remember another question I had on my list.

“Netti? Where are Iris and Seri’s parents?” I ask. From everything she and Iris have said, they are good people. Why didn’t Seri go to her parents for help?”

“Our parents are dead.”

“What happened to them?”

“Kyle warned us.” Netti’s voice gets softer as she stares down at the floor. “When he first discovered the missing heroin, he said he would make Iris pay for what she had done. We tried to warn them, but they were gone.”

“Gone?”

“Vanished,” Netti says. “There was no sign of a break-in, no robbery, and no bodies. They have never been found. He made sure there was no place we could go for help. Montana was remote and isolated, but he found us there. We realized we had used Iris’s maiden name on a motel where we stayed. We didn’t make that mistake again.”

“So you traveled north.”

“We had used almost all of our money,” Netti tells me. “We tried to find work in Calgary, but every place we tried wanted references. We didn’t want to leave a trail. We wandered farther north, hoping to just go far enough away that he would stop looking, but he never did.”

“And you ran out of money.”

“Yes.” Netti gives me a half smile. “We left Indiana with nearly fifty thousand dollars. We thought it would last longer.”

“Fifty grand?” I can’t hide my shock.

“We were afraid. We stayed at hotels with security systems and ordered room service instead of going out and being seen.”

“I only make about fifteen in a year, and that’s in Canadian dollars.” I laugh. “And then you tried to steal donuts from a gas station.” I shake my head and snicker again. Everything has come full circle. I’m not sure I understand, but at least the timeline makes sense. “I still don’t understand how Seri doesn’t know any of this.”

“We want Seri to be happy. We don’t want her to be afraid. She deserves to be happy.”

“What about Iris?”

“What about her?” Netti’s voice is controlled and unfeeling.

“Doesn’t Iris deserve to be happy, too?” I make a gesture towards her chest. “She was in there first.”

“Iris is…unworthy.” Netti narrows her eyes and looks away.

“Unworthy?”

“Seri was the one who deserved life.” Netti’s words are short and concise. “Iris gave it back to her, sacrificing herself in the process. At least, that’s how it was supposed to be.”

“But Iris doesn’t want to leave.”

“She knows that she should,” Netti says, “but she fears for Seri. She wants to remain to protect her.”

I take a deep breath and try to process all this additional information. Iris was first, but she and Netti were supposed to give up their personalities—their lives—so that Seri could live a happy life. Put so succinctly, it sounds simple, but there are still a lot of questions.

“Do you understand now?” Netti asks.

“Better than I did before.” I rub my fingers with my eyes. “It’s a lot to take in.”

Tags: Shay Savage Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net