Marnie blanches.
Jack chuckles.
“You killed my dad.The only thing I want to hear from you is why.Unless you’re telling me that, just shut the hell up!”I shout, too tired to be reasonable.Too exhausted to care.I’ve never hated anyone before but right now, I hate her.I hate her so much.
She’s taken everything from me.My dad.Rhys.Everything.
“It was an accident, Raven,” Marnie says, wringing her hands together.“He was laundering money through the company.When I confronted him about it, he got angry.He threatened to take the baby.He tried to grab me.I pushed him and he fell over the coffee table.”She cries without tears, sobbing with dry eyes.“I didn’t mean for it to happen!”
“You’re a liar.”
“I’m not lying!”she cries.“I loved your dad.I still love him.”
“No, you don’t.If you did, you wouldn’t be able to stand here and lie about him like that,” I growl, yanking at the tape binding me to the chair.It doesn’t move.I think they used a whole roll.“He would never launder money through the company, and you know it.He would never grab you or try to hurt you.Heworshippedyou.”
“No,” she says, switching from tears to sneering so fast it’s startling.“He worshippedyou.All he talked about wasyou.It was always Raven this and Raven that.I could never compete with you!”
I gape at her, incredulous.“Are you kidding me right now?It was never a competition, Marnie!He was your husband.He was my dad.We weren’t in competition for his affection or his love.He had enough for both of us.When he came to visit me, all he talked about was you.He loved talking about you because he loved you and he wanted me to love you just as much.That’s who he was.He talked about the people he loved because to him, they were his world.Wewere his world.”
“Rhys took one look at you and fell head over heels.”
“You’re in love with Rhys?”I feel like I’m going to throw up.
“God no.I can’t stand him.”She scrunches up her face and shudders in revulsion.“But everyone loves you, Raven.They fall all over themselves to be close to you.Your dad would drop everything to rush to your side.Rhys would give up everything for you.You have no idea the things he’s done for you.I could never compete with that.Even when you weren’t here, the whole world revolved around you.”
”Ineverwanted the world to revolve around me.”
“I did!”she cries.“I wanted it to revolve around me.Just once, I wanted to come first to Brant.Just once, I wanted him to love me as much as I love him.Just once, I wanted to be the one he dropped everything to come running for.But it was always you.When your mom died, he left me alone forweeks.”
I stare at her, taken aback.I’ve always known that Marnie was self-absorbed.But I never knew how callous and heartless she was until today.I never knew how cruel she was until today.My mom died, and all she cared about was that my dad left her alone to be there for me.She hates me because my dad was a good dad.
She killed him because he was a good father.There’s something so inherently wrong with that, something so twisted andfucked upthat there are no words for it.I thought coming here would give me answers, but there are no answers.There’s just…nothing.My dad didn’t die because of anything he did to her.He died because she is who she is.Because she’s so fundamentally broken that love is a weapon to her, something you wield to exert control.
I was wrong.I don’t hate her.I can’t.Ipityher.
“You’re not raising my sibling,” I say.“If Jack doesn’t kill me today, I’m taking him or her from you.You aren’t capable of raising a child.You aren’t capable of loving one.”
Jack laughs suddenly.“Do you want to tell her, or should I?”
Marnie spins to face him.
“Come on, it’ll be fun,” he says, a bitter, mocking smile on his face.
“Don’t,” she whispers.
But he doesn’t have to say it.I’m not blind.I can see what’s right in front of me.The baby isn’t my dad’s.It’s Jack’s.He’s in love with her.And he just listened to her pour her heart out about my dad.That has to sting.
I don’t feel sorry for him in the slightest.Probably because he’s been holding me at gunpoint for the last hour and a half.It’s not exactly giving me warm and fuzzy feelings about him.
“Why not?”he asks her, setting his brandy aside.The glass is empty.Half the bottle is empty.“It’s not like she’s going to survive the day anyway.That is your plan, isn’t it?Have poor old Jack blow her head off, leaving you and the baby everything.”
“What?”Marnie gasps.“No, of course not.”
A movement in the hallway catches my attention.I subtly shift my gaze that way, trying not to draw attention to it.My heart leaps into my throat when I see Rhys standing in the shadows.His eyes connect with mine.
My soul cries out for him.
Even now, I love him.I don’t know what that says about me, but it’s true.
