Red shakes her head. “N-no.”
“Good.” Alyss smiles, but there’s no humour in it. “Who dumped him and left him to die in that fucking alley?”
“Knave,” I murmur. “He’s dead.”
Alyss nods. Tilts her head.
Red cries out as she reaches out, grabbing her hair and ripping her head back.
“You will tell him,” Alyss says softly. “You will tell him the truth. For every lie, every refusal, I will remove a body part. Do you understand?”
“Fucking psycho.” Red gasps the words, her eyes smarting from the grip Alyss has on her hair.
That grip only tightens as Alyss snarls in her face. “I’m a product of my goddamned fucking environment. I am what you, and people like youmademe. Now answer the questions.”
Aiden shifts to let me slip into the space next to Alyss. “Did you arrange their deaths?”
Red spits at me.
Without blinking, Alyss draws a knife from her trousers and slices it.
She holds up the majority of Red’s hair, clutching it in her fist before she throws the pieces. “Warning enough? I can do a finger instead.”
Red stares as her hair scatters around her. The remainder hangs from her head in a chunk. “P-please. My arms.”
“Answer the question.”
She debates it. I can see it in her eyes.
Alyss holds out the knife. Presses it against her ear.
“Yes,” Red blurts. Her eyes dart to mine. “Yes. I planned it.”
My world shortens. Narrows.
She did this. Planned it.
She took my family away.
She killed my daughter.
I stagger back, my hand reaching for my heart.
My fault.
If I had never come here—
But Alyss follows me. Her hands cup my cheeks, dragging my head down.
“There is only one person to blame here,” she forces out. And her eyes, they shimmer with tears. She blinks them away. “She’s behind us. Not you. You were desperate and scared, and Red took advantage of that. She fuckingstoleyou, and she took them from you.”
Red took Erin from me.
She’s thrashing against the twin’s grip. Her wrists must be screaming in pain by now, but she doesn’t mention them. She only stares at me, her eyes wild.
“I had to,” she pants. “You didn’t want to come. I had to force your hand, Hatter. I knew you’d fit better here than anywhere else.”
“Wrong,” I say hoarsely. “I never fitted here. I hate you. Every part of you. You know where I fit? With myfamily. And that has never included you.”
