Page 115 of Speak No Claim

There was a boy around my age, standing near his sister. He was holding her hand in the corner of the room, looking right at me.

I had never seen them either. I didn’t like this house or these people. I wanted to go home, but Mamá said we had to find Daddy. My grandparents were at the hotel, and Mamá wouldn’t let me stay with them.

Little by little, I started not being able to breathe, but that only triggered more of my memory.

“Reason?” Mamá repeated. “I’ll give you fucking reason!”

I jumped when I heard another voice shout, “Get the fuck out of my house!”

That time it was a man I’d never seen, and the kids in the corner looked scared of him. The boy hugged his sister tight to his body, and I wanted to run over there to be with them, so I did.

I ran as fast as my legs could get me there until he extended his hand out for me to take, and I did.

There… now I felt safe again.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I hid my face into his chest like his sister. She grabbed my hand too, shutting her eyes like me.

“Not here!” Mamá's voice echoed off the walls.

I heard Onyx’s voice, shouting for me, but I couldn’t follow it, needing to finally come face-to-face with the truth my mind had been hiding from me. Staying in my memory, I felt the warmth of my father grabbing me.

Then all of a sudden, I opened my gaze, finding my papa there.

He’d make everything better now. He always did.

“Mi vida, te quiero con toda mi alma. Perdóname, pero lo voy a arreglar, te prometo que lo voy a arreglar todo para que tú no sufras por mis pecados.” He said, “My world, I love you with all my soul. Forgive me, but I’m going to fix it. I promise you, I’ll fix everything, so you won’t pay for my sins.” He kissed all over my face.

I love Daddy’s kisses. They made me feel so happy.

Mamá didn’t look happy, though. She was crying, watching us only. He kissed my cheek one last time before looking at the other little girl who was still hiding in her brother’s chest.

Slowly, he whispered in her ear, “I wish things could’ve been different. I’m sorry, Deja. In another life maybe…”

I gasped, snapping back to the present while the light in me was dimming.

“No!” Onyx continued yelling for me. “Stop it! You’re fucking killing her!”

“You did this, Onyx,” the council member clutched onto my throat harder, booming, “This is what happens when you betray us!”

“What the fuck did you expect?” Onyx spoke out, hanging on by a thread.

I’d never forget who told me the truth of a secret that was supposed to stay buried for all of my life. Never expecting in my wildest dreams that it’d have the power to bury me with it.

As Onyx confessed…

* * *

“If my mother couldn’t resist falling in love with her father, how the fuck did you think I wouldn’t fall in love with his daughter?”

Chapter

Thirty-Seven

Onyx: The truth will set you free because the lie has only ever incarcerated you.

The council stopped choking Hennessy, and she instantly went lax, coughing up a storm. Before relief could take over, he lifted a gun, the red dot aimed directly at my forehead.

“You’re going to pay for that!” With his finger on the trigger, he was about to shoot.