But this…
Holy shit.
Hearing that you’ve been kept in a prison of your own mind, held hostage by overmedication and the demons inside you that those very meds feed, ishorrifying.
Of all the betrayals…this one cuts the deepest.
“Lark.”
I don’t even look at him when my father croaks my name.
“Lark, I’m so sorry.”
“That’s good, Cesare.”
I blink, my body feeling slower, number.
Colder.
My gaze drifts sluggishly back to my coffee.
Whatever Melinda put in it, it’s really starting to kick in.
“Say your apologies, Cesare,” Melinda says quietly. “I have a way forward for us, my love.”
Slowly, like my head weighs a thousand pounds, I twist to look at her. She’s still got the gun trained on me as she looks right at my dad.
“I know why you could never be with me,” she chokes, smiling at him as tears fill her eyes. “And I know how to fix it.”
Her hand holding the gun trembles.
“You could never be with me because there were too many other distractions. Too many other women. Too many commitmentstothose other women.”
She turns back to me.
“Commitments like her.”
Oh my God.
She wraps her other hand around the grip of the pistol to steady it, a manic glint in her eyes as she looks right down the barrel of the gun at me.
“I can fix things for us, Cesare.”
“Melinda,stop pointing that fucking gun at her!!”
“I’m doing this for us?—”
“Point it at me!” My dad staggers to his feet. His eyes shift to me, full of remorse. “Lark, honey, I’m sorry. I’mso fucking sorry. I was a shit father! I was a monster! I am so?—”
“I can fix this, baby.”
“Point it at me, Mel!!” he screams. “Point it at me!!”
Melinda isn’t even hearing him.
Not seeing him.
Just looking at me down the barrel of her loaded gun.
