Jesus Christ.
Maeve tried to kill her. For a bit of fucking online banter. She tried to actuallykillher. Her chest tightens and her heart is beating faster now. Maeve Khoury tried to kill her. How dare she? Her breath quickens and blood pounds in her ears. Thatbitch. If she was here right now, Nika would grab her by her stupid throat and smash her head against a wall. She’s shaking, shaking with rage.
One thing’s for sure.
She’s not going to get away with it.
75
Venetia
Last week
She’s not going to get away with it.
Those words kept swirling in Venetia’s mind as she hovered by the wall of her sister’s bedroom, ignoring the pulpy, bloody mess of Rory’s head. Felipe was standing in the open doorway to the en suite, face in hands, almost catatonic. Above him, just inside the en suite, the open skylight window showed a slice of navy sky and let in the sounds of the neighborhood—a car door closing, a front door opening.
How long had they been there? Why wasn’t she crying? Maybe she was still in shock, or maybe she was too filled with rage to let the grief in yet. She looked at her phone again. At the glib, throwaway message that had ended her sister’s life.The glib, throwaway, factually incorrect message, said a little voice in her head. Venetia ignored it, still looking at her phone.
As she glanced up again, she saw her sister’s lifeless body on the bed and rage fired up inside her, propelling her away from the bedroom wall.
“Where are you going? We should…we should call the police.” Felipe sounded broken. They were both broken. They’d never be the same again.
“I’m going to see her. The woman who sent the message.”
“We need to call the police.”
They stared at each other for a beat, Felipe still in the en suite doorway, her car keys in his hand. Venetia looked over at Rory.
“I’m not going to prison for him.” She shook her head. “Not after what he did tonight and how he treated her all these years. No way.”
“What do you mean, ‘treated her’?”
She looked over at her sister. “He’d been hurting her. She was going to leave.”
“What?Rory?”
“Yes, Rory.” She glanced at the bloodied mess of her brother-in-law’s body. Like someone had put his head in a food processor.
“But he was so…are you sure?”
“Were you going to say ‘nice’? Or ‘normal’? Of course he seemed normal to you. But you don’t know what was going on behind closed doors.”
Felipe looked utterly horror-struck.
“Venetia, why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s private. Family stuff.” Suddenly clear-headed, she pulled the thin nylon scarf from around her neck and reached for the barbell.
“But they’re my family too. I could have helped!”
“No.” The barbell didn’t even feel that heavy in her hands now. How was there so much blood? “You couldn’t help, Felipe. I tried to. She was going to leave. Tomorrow. And look what happened.” As she spoke, she used her scarf to wipe the bar. The whole length of it, not just where she’d gripped it. Her fingerprints wouldn’t be in any database, but still.What about DNA?Can you really wipe away DNA?
“That message. All because of one stupid screenshot. And now she’s dead.” Still she polished. “We need to go, Felipe. We need to be gone before they’re found.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Venetia, I don’t know.”
“Do you want me to go to jail for this?”
