This time, the one carrying me stops and turns around.
“You just wouldn’t die, would you?” The voice sounds disapproving, angry almost. “You don’t deserve this life, Abigail and we both know that. It’ll all end today.”
And just like that, they march ahead. The whimpers grow far and quiet the more he walks. We’re leaving Ma behind. Why?
I’m trapped in and out of the darkness as if we’re playing hide-and-seek.
The person strides on and on.
I want to call for Daddy or Ma, but I can’t.
When I think they’ll never stop walking, they halt and place me on something soft. “Take her to the hospital. Call Blair and Jaxon Quinn, then watch from afar. Don’t interfere, and only make sure she’s safe.”
Daddy. Daddy. Save Daddy.
“Burn the whole mansion down,” the voice says in a sure tone.
“Are there any survivors inside?” Someone else asks.
“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 at 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.
Elsa
Present
I jump to my feet, my heart thundering viciously in my chest.
Agnus.
UncleAgnus.
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?
All this is completely abnormal.
Aiden stands and wraps my jacket around my shoulder. “What is it? Did you remember something crucial?”
My eyes bore into his darker ones, and my breathing calms down a little. “It was Agnus. He saved me and Dad, but he killed my mother.”
A frown etches between his brows. “Your mother was already dead.”
“No! I heard her whimpers and so did he when he carried me out of the basement, but do you know what he did? He just walked the fuck out. He wanted her dead, Aiden. He burned the mansion while she was in it.”
I’m shaking, my entire body going into some sort of shock and anger all at once. “He killed her… He killed my mother.”
“Calm down, Elsa.” Aiden rubs my arm, his voice strong but soothing.
“I can’t calm down! He killed Ma, Aiden!”
“She shot herself,” he grinds out, holding on to patience he doesn’t own. “She wanted to die.”
“Just because you wanted her to die doesn’t mean she wanted to die.”
His left eye twitches and I regret the words as soon as I say them. What the hell is wrong with me?
Ma is a monster in Aiden’s eyes. She was a monster to me as well, but I keep holding on to the fact that at some point she was my ma. Sweet and caring and with a blinding smile.
“I-I’m sorry, Aiden. I didn’t mean —”
“I never wanted her to die. I only wanted her to leave me the fuck alone.” He squares his shoulders. “You’re better off without her. She shot you and your father. What else do you need to let her go?”
My lips tremble and I fight the need to hit and scream at him.
I don’t because he’s right.
Ma was messed up, but maybe I’m messed up, too, if I can’t completely hate her.
Once we return, I need to talk to Dr Khan.
What if I eventually become like her? What if my trauma will take over my life like her trauma has taken over hers?
The door clicks open.
Both Aiden and I stand side by side as the newcomer steps into the basement. My hands ball into fists on either side of me.
Agnus.
Remaining at the door, he places both hands in his pockets.
He appears different now, more monstrous and vicious.
Agnus, Dad’s right hand man, Knox and Teal’s caretaker, our saviour, but he’s also a murderer.
That knowledge makes his features sharper, younger and harsher.
His light hair is styled back and his pale blue eyes appear serene. Confident. Just like when he ordered his men to burn down the mansion while Ma whimpered in it.
I start towards him, but Aiden wraps his hand around my arm protectively.
Agnus retrieves a cigarette from a pack, but he keeps it between his thumb and forefinger without lighting it.
That must be the source of cigarettes’ smell in the basement.
“How did you know we’d be here?” I ask.
“I get a direct notification when this door is opened.”
“Does Dad know about this?”
“He doesn’t need to.” Agnus pauses. “Yet.”