“No!” she screamed.
My dad stepped in front of her.
The gunshot was so loud it stripped everything else away.
My ears rang. High-pitched and constant.
I watched my dad take the bullet. Watched his body jerk backward. Watched him fall.
“No!” My mom screamed. “No, no, no!”
My dad collapsed against her. Blood spreading across his chest.
She tried to hold him up, but he was too heavy. They both went down.
Zinnia was crying into my shoulder, covering her ears with her tiny hands.
Damien walked into the kitchen like nothing happened. He grabbed a paper towel and wiped down the gun carefully.
Then he walked back over. “Here. Take it.”
My mom looked up at him. Her face was streaked with tears. She grabbed the gun and pointed it at Damien with shaking hands.
“What did you do! What did you do!” she cried.
He put his hands up. “Are you really going to shoot me in front of your daughters?”
She turned around and remembered we were standing there.
She dropped the gun and ran toward us.
“So this is what we’re going to do, Laura,” Damien said. His voice was cold. “Your ex here has been stalking you. Wouldn’t leave you alone. He broke in—”
“Fuck you!” she screamed. She spun around. “Lily! Get your sister into the bedroom right now!”
I couldn’t move.
My legs wouldn’t work. My body was frozen.
My dad was lying on the ground, dead. His blood… it was…
She turned to yell at me again, and Damien grabbed her by the hair and forced her to look at my dad.
“You’re going to listen to me closely, Laura. You shot your lover. You killed him. You’re the one going to prison.”
“No!” She tried to pull away.
He forced her to face us. He made her look at me and Zinnia.
“Your daughters are going to be on my side. Aren’t you, Lily?”
My teeth were chattering even though I wasn’t cold.
“Aren’t you, Lily?” He screamed it this time.
I nodded, terrified he was going to hurt my mom next.
“So when the police come, who killed your dad?”
