The accusation sounds absurd.
Abstract.
As if spoken in an ancient, long-dead fucking language.
She’s saying that Rhett murdered his own daughter. The child he wanted. The child he planned, nurtured, and loved. The apple of his eye, his very reason for existence.
It’s unbelievable but Rhett’s silence fuckingscreams.
Guilt lines his face, regret glimmers in his eyes, and his shoulders slump under the weight of his actions.
“She begged you not to hurt Alex...” Hailey continues, still stumping down the stairs. “She told you she loved him and you... you shot her.”
A heavy silence engulfs us, punctuated by the drumbeat of my heart and Hailey’s dazed footsteps. She pauses halfway down when Broadway holds his hand out to stop her.
“You said she committed suicide,” I seethe at Rhett, grasping my gun tighter. “You lied through your teeth! How could you kill your own daughter?!”
“It was an accident,” he stammers, a feeble attempt to justify the unjustifiable. “I didn’t mean to, I... I don’t even know how it happened. That whole night is a blur. The last thing I rememberclearly is someone texting me a picture of Alex and Aalyiah, captionedhe’s a cop.”
“Someone?” I spit out. “Not evenyouknew Aalyiah was dating him, so who the fuck tipped you off?!”
“I did.”
The admission fills the room like a church bell.
Vaughn’s words are a match tossed into dry grass and as they roll off Vaughn’s tongue all hell breaks loose.
Rhett explodes with a vengeance.
Time slows to a crawl as he raises his gun at Vaughn.
At the same time, Hailey cries out a resoundingno! The pain and fear layering her voice are the last fucking straw. The last sin Rhett Willard will ever commit.
I pull the trigger.
The sound of my bullet leaving the chamber with abang!isn’t the onlybangripping through the loft. Rhett’s tommy gun spits out a round of ammo just as my bullet strikes home.
My father goes down, a chunk of dead meat...
So does Vaughn.
Hailey’s scream pierces the momentary trance. It shatters the eerie calm that permeated my bones when the gaping gunshot wound filled the center of Rhett’s forehead.
My body winds up tight, combat-ready when Hailey rushes to Vaughn’s side, skittering down the stairs. Her hands shake so hard she can’t apply enough pressure to his wounds.
“Dad!” she cries out, her panic palpable in the air. “Please, stay with me!”
I lower my gun, dropping it, eyes swinging back to Rhett’s contorted face, his skin paling by the second. Apollo’s not in the doorway anymore, gone the second his boss hit the ground.
I’m not surprised.
My Glock clatters against the floor.
Checkmate. The king has fallen.
All the lies he’s told over the past few months replay louder and louder in my head, cutting me deeper and deeper. He murdered my sister. He murdered his own daughter and threatened the safety of everything I hold dear.
It’s particularly beautiful tonight... the chaos.
