Page 47 of Fighting My Demons

“Isobella was my twin.”

“So she is the one that is missing, not Arabella,” Latham says, and I nod, not bothering to figure out how he knew that.

“Isobella isn’t missing. She is dead. I killed her. I didn't mean to, but it happened so quickly,” I tell them, and if they were shocked before, they are horrified now.

Chapter Twenty-Five

I feel sick saying that out loud. I’ve never admitted it before, but now I wish I could take the words back, stuff them back in my box of secrets, and try to forget about it.

“You killed someone? Your own sister?” Blaine asks in disbelief.

If only they knew the rest, if only they knew the true extent of what I have done. They would hate me. I hate me. So many lives were ruined all because of me, all because I couldn’t get my shit together.

I don’t answer. I can tell they weren’t expecting that for an answer, yet Latham doesn’t let me go. I shift uncomfortably. I just blurted out the one thing I can’t afford anyone to know. They are going to report me. They will hand me in, and everyone will learn I am a fraud, that this persona is a front.

People will know what I did, and my brother will hunt me down when he realizes I am not Isobella but the sister he helped sell, the one he blamed for everything. I was the monster in our story. The one nobody wanted and was going to toss away like I meant nothing. And now they know how terrible I truly am. They would toss me away, too. Arabella was always the toss-away, while Isobella was the good child, the sane one, the one everyone loved. They would be no different.

I swallow. My mouth feels so dry. My heart is beating like a drum against my ribs painfully. Moving, I unwrap Latham’s arms from around me, trying to get to my feet.

Please be a nightmare.

“Bella?” Latham asks as I stumble toward the bedroom door.

“It’s fine, I understand. This is why I never told anyone,” I tell him.

“What are you talking about? Where are you going?”

“Home, do what you gotta do. I should never have let you get involved,” I tell them, and they look at each other.

“You aren’t leaving,” Xavier says.

“I am going home. I swear if you call the cops, I won’t run. I will be right next door. Just let me get better clothes on before they haul me away,” I tell them, walking to the door when Blaine appears in front of me, blocking my exit.

“You think we would report you to authorities?” he asks.

What does he mean? I just told him I killed my sister, and that isn’t even half of what I did. Why wouldn't they report me to the authorities?

“If you are going home we are coming with you,” Latham says, his chest pressing against my back.

The heat of him seeps into my bones, and I want to melt against him, breathing in his smoky scent.

“I told you I won’t run. I have nowhere to go, anyway.”

“She seriously thinks we would report her?” Blaine chuckles, and I let out a breath.

Maybe if I hand myself in, it would be better?

“We just told you we are demons, and you think we would hand you over to the police for killing one person? We eat souls, Bella. Souls. Do you think people live after that? They don’t live. They die, as in dead. You killed one person in twenty-three years? Shit, I killed more people than your age the day before. We aren’t judging you,” Blaine says.

“So you won’t tell, and you won’t tell my brother?” I ask, looking over my shoulder at Latham.

His hand moves to my hip, and he pulls me back against him.

“Your secret is safe with us, Bella. I will take it back to hell with me,” he laughs.

“So there really is a hell. What about heaven? Is that real too?” I ask, horrified.

I am definitely going to hell. I am going to burn. Should I repent? That’s the word isn’t it? I should have gone to church and listened.