I share a quick glance with Colton. Then, sensing that shit is about to get a whole lot worse, I wrap my arms over Amira’s chest and imprison her in a cage of my grasp when Colton says, “There was another box, more photos… some tapes, all of you, and your mom.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
AMIRA
Saturday
March 27, 2021
Ihad read they found tapes in Fallon’s apartment, but I didn’t believe they were of me.
I’ve never seen a video camera in all the times they’d fucked me, but I guess I wasn’t conscious for a lot of our games… it would have been easy to miss.
“Did you watch them?” I ask, forcing the question out through my grinding teeth, scraping my nails over my flesh until my palms drip with blood again.
Officer Colton looks at me in disgust, wincing in repulsion as he backs away. Then, pacing the ground in front of him, he snarls, “Fuck no! That’s fucking sick, but I did see the pictures… only the ones on top… of you… of your mother, and fuck. That shit was enough to haunt me for the rest of my fucking life.”
Shuddering, he continues, “I packed it all in my car, threw it all in a metal bin and lit it up, made sure it was nothing but ash before flushing it down the drain.”
“Why would you do that?” I ask, squeezing the blanket tighter around my shoulders, warding off the oncoming wind that’s sure to blow me away as I sway unsteadily on my feet.
“Because I saw you the night you were born. I was across the hall, watching my little girl come into the world. Amy, remember her? You two had Mrs. Cornwall together in the second grade.”
I filter through the years, nodding when a bright-eyed, strawberry blonde girl pops into my head. In second grade, Amy Colton was my best friend, the only girl who would trade her cupcake for my cookie.
“Yeah… I remember Amy.”
“I remember standing at the gate, right beside your mom, as we waited for the kids to get out of class. She was always smiling… always kind, even when you could see tears in her eyes. Whenever she would see you coming down those stairs, she would do a little dance, said nothing was better than seeing your precious face after a hard day.”
She would.
Mom would stand outside the fence, fingers corded in the chain links while she hopped up and down. A beaming smile plastered along her red-painted lips as she called out for me to run to her.
“Adrianna really had a way with the locals, and when she died, it hit us hard… we all mourned her, but it was hardest for you. Amy said you never came back to school, and eventually, you were a phantom, popping up here and there, groceries in hand.”
Swallowing deeply, Colton blinks away the tears, hand patting his shuddering chest before carrying on. “You disappeared, and somebody should have checked on you.I should have checked on you,” he says, tears finally breaking past the barrier, sliding down his aged, worn face, as he takes my trembling fingers in his grip.
“I have no excuse, Amira. I should have fucking been there. I should have come by and taken you far away from this hellhole. That’s what your mom would have wanted, and I’m so sorry. I’m so so fucking sorry for everything you had to suffer through.”
I’m left speechless, sagging against Roman’s solid weight as my mind tries to process the emotion in Officer Colton’s tone. I don’t understand why he’s so sorry. He never hurt me. And I don’t think he ever would.
“You don’t have to be sorry, Officer Colton… you didn’t know.”
“But I fucking should have, Amira! McLaren was my boss! I drank at Fallon’s every night with those shitheads, including your fucking father and brother, and everything seemed fucking normal, but it wasn’t fucking normal! Because behind the motherfucking curtain, they were raping, abusing, and fucking torturing you and your fucking mother, and I-I didn’t even realize.”
Prying my hands out of Colton’s hold, I unravel the blanket from my shoulders and hand it back. “I don’t need your apologies, and your pity isn’t welcome, Officer. What’s done is done, and none of us can change that. All I ask now is you let me and Roman leave. Don’t report us… Please don’t come looking for us. Just let us go…please.”
Taking the blanket from my outstretched hand, Colton nods earnestly, gesturing to Roman’s still running car.
I reach back for Roman’s hand, intertwining our fingers before I drag us away.
“Are you okay?” Roman asks softly, dipping, so his lips brush against the shell of my ear.
“I’m okay,” I mumble robotically, mind on getting away before Officer Colton changes his mind and decides to do his police duty and take Roman away.
Roman barely gets my door open when Colton calls out his name, dread instantly dripping ice through my veins.
Please don’t take him.
