I was sure it sounded like a lie, like when you asked a child if they broke a rule and they said no.
But it was the truth. At leastmytruth.
“I don’t believe you,” Enzo said. “No one atones for sins if they didn’t commit them.”
Bold of him to think I’d had a choice.
He dragged the knife’s tip across my middle finger, slightly breaking skin.
“I had no choice,” I told him. “Not writing those sentences would have resulted in a worse punishment.”
“What sins did hethinkyou needed to atone for?”
My body relaxed when he lowered the knife, happy that I was answering questions, that I was spilling my secrets for him.
“Everything was a sin in my father’s eyes.” I motioned toward his glass. “A sin. If I backtalked, that was a sin. Me being left-handed was a sin. Anything he disapproved of, he deemed a sin.”
I left out the biggest sin he’d blamed me for.
No one else needed to know that.
Enzo set the knife down. “Sounds like your father is fucked up in the head.”
I nodded. “He is.”
“Where’s he now?”
I shrugged. “No clue. I cut off contact.”
He eyed me like he didn’t believe me. “Hmm.”
“Is there a way for me to get out of this Fawn thing?” I quickly asked, in desperate need to change the subject to anything.
He brushed his fingers against the same knuckles he’d just threatened with a knife as disappointment clouded his features. “Do you want out, Blair? Do you want to go back on your word?”
My mouth felt suddenly dry, and I took a drink of water.
It was thankfully just water.
“Technically,” I said, the words leaving me slowly, “I’m not a Fawn yet, right?”
He plucked the knife from the table and offered it to me. “Your turn to play. If you don’t hit a finger, I’ll consider letting you go.Releasing you.”
I took the knife from him like I was making a pact with the devil.
Sacrificing my soul for peace.
Plenty of times, my father had told me that the Devil was an angel first. Later, it was how he described me to others. His little girl, who’d once been an angel, had turned into something evil.
Enzo splayed his hand out on the table in front of me.
Staring down, I eyed his gold ring. It had the symbol of a broken halo engraved against the gold.
He didn’t have to ask me twice to use a knife on him. I carefully started driving the knife between his fingers.
While I didn’t plan to stab him, thrill pinched my insides at me being the one holding the knife.
“You have to go faster than that,” he snarled in irritation. “No pussyfooting around.”
