Chapter 136
Faith’s Pov
I stood in front everyone, the silence of the too loud and I looked down at the paper in my hands. It wasn’t a speech it was a confession. It was an open letter to the two people lying in the caskets
before me.
I took a shaky breath, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Mother. Dad. First of all I have to say that I loved you because it’s the truth, and it’s the one thing I held onto even when I thought I hated you.”
I paused when the memories started flooding in.
“I remember how much I looked up on you when I was a kid. At just five years old all I wanted was for you to see me.
Mother, you were angry. Always angry. It felt like a hurricane lived inside our house, and I was the one who bore the brunt of it. I remember the yelling, the backhands, the bruises that covered my
I thought if I just did the dishes faster, or done better, or
legs. I remember thinking it was my e
stayed quieter maybe just maybe you would smile at me.”
My voice cracked, but I forced the words out.
“An innocent seven–year–old tried everything. I tried and tried and tried to be worthy of your love, but nothing was ever enough. It would have been easier, maybe, if I had a father who could stand up and say no. But Dad, you didn’t. You just watched. You loved me, I know that, but you watched.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, pulling myself back to the present.
“I don’t remember a single careless smile from my childhood. Not one. And thinking about it now, I don’t blame you.”
Why should I blame you? My biological mother didn’t want me. She abandoned me. If the woman who carried me couldn’t love me, who were you two to step in and fill that space? At least you gave me a roof over my head. At least you gave me the little bit of quiet affection I got from my father when Mother wasn’t looking.”
I laughed, a short, sharp sound that felt wrong in a church.
“I’m not saying this because I hate you. I don’t. Forgiveness might have come eventually. But what good is forgiveness if you can’t forget? The things you did are tattooed on my memory. But today, I won’t remember the abuse. I will only remember the good. The small things.”
Chapter 136
I looked at Dad’s casket. “Dad, you were the first man to ever love me. Thank you for that. I will remember you for the little bits of sweet comfort you gave me.”
Then I looked at Mother’s. “And Mother, I will remember you for the strength you forced into me.
You made me resilient. You made me strong enough to take anything. My childhood will forever be
a lesson for me. If I survived that, I can survive anything.”
I stopped, realizing my chest was tight with guilt.
“Your lives were cut too short. Everybody deserves to live, and nobody has the right to take a life. I will forever feel guilty that you are dead because of who I am and what I am tied to.”
I looked out at the faces in the room. They were blurred with tears and shock.
“I forgive you and I hope that in time, I will forget. But if I don’t forget, I want you to know that you will forever be an integral part of my life. Goodbye, Mother and Dad.”
I folded the paper and stepped away from the podium. My legs felt shaky, but I had to keep
moving.
On my way back to my seat, I passed her. Alice.
She was sitting in the front row, heavily guarded, chains cutting into her wrists and ankles. She looked small, bruised, and broken. As much as I hate her, as much as I never want her to see the light of day again, I still gave this day to her. She had as much right to be here as anyone. More,
even.
I knelt down in front of her.
“I approved you being here, Alice,” I whispered, keeping my voice low. “It’s what my father would
have wanted.”
She looked up at me, her eyes red and puffy. I nodded slowly.
“They loved you, Alice. More than anything in the world. And honestly? that’s why mother hated me so much. Why she abused me. Because I wasn’t you.”
Alice looked down, a wave of terrible guilt across her face.
I reached out and gently raised her chin with my thumb. “Don’t you dare bear a cross that is not yours to carry. You have too many of your own sins to pretend like you’re a good person. Say goodbye to them. And after this, you will never get out. You will pay for everything you put me through.”
She nodded quickly, tears spilling onto her cheeks. I released her and moved away, settling back next to Astor.
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Astor wrapped his hand around mine. He looked at me with pity, but also with fierce admiration. It was comforting and grounding.
We sat through the next few speechesa distant cousin, pack members and then Alice stood up to speak, her voice trembling throughout.
It was during her shaky speech that I felt it.
A presence. Cold. Wrong. Somebody I know too well shouldn’t be here. It was close. Too close.
My breath hitched. I squeezed Astor’s hand, my mind racing.
He’s here.
I stood up and Astor looked up immediately, his eyes full of questions.
“Where are you going, Faith?” he asked through the mindlink, his voice laced with instant suspicion. “The bathroom,” I replied quickly.” I just need a minute alone. I’m okay, Astor, truly.”
“I will go with you.” he said.
“No,” I insisted. I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I’m okay. There are guards all over the place. I’ll only be a minute.”
I walked towards the housr, forcing myself to look calm and mournful, even as every nerve ending screamed danger.
When I got there I slipped out through the window. It was old, small, and I knew exactly how to open it without making a sound. I used this window a hundred times when I was a teenager running away from a beating.
The scent led me to the edge of the woods behind the property. I walked a little distance following the scent and stopped dead.
He was there. Leaning against a massive tree smiling in that lazy, cruel way of his. Kyle.
“You have guts,” I spat, my voice tight with disbelief, “showing your face here after murdering my parents.”
He pushed off the tree and took a step toward me.
“Murder?” he drawled, tilting his head. “Come on, Faith. Don’t lie to yourself. Deep down, this is what you wanted.”
My blood ran cold. “No.”
“Yes,” he insisted, walking closer. His eyes were shining with sick satisfaction. “You wanted them
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Chapter 136
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dead for the abuse, for the beatings, for the years they made you feel worthless. I just fulfilled my sister’s wish. I gave you the revenge you are too good, too pure, to take yourself.”
It hurt to laugh, but I did anyway. It was a breathless, miserable sound.
“You are wrong, Kyle. Completely and utterly wrong. I didn’t want them dead. I was ready to live the rest of my life dealing with the ghosts of the past, not adding new ones unlike you who is hell bent on living in the past.
You came here because you’re a narcissist. You get off on people’s pain. You thought you could
did.” come here and watch what you
I straightened my spine, feeling the power in me start to grow. The heat of my White Wolf began to rise and it’s now or never.
“But the joke’s on you,” I whispered, a slow smile spreading on my face. “I knew you would come. And I prepared for this moment. Because you took away the only man I’ve ever known as my father
”
Kyle’s smile faltered slightly. He noticed the shift in my posture, the cold intensity in my eyes.
“You can’t touch me, Faith-”
He never finished the sentence. I didn’t need to shift, the power was already surging. I focused every ounce of my rage, my grief, and silent, blinding white light gathered at my outstretched hand and a focused silver energy meant to tear through him, meant to end the darkness he carried.
I pushed the power out in a single, silent blast, aimed straight at his heart.
I saw the flash of panic in his eyes, but he then instinctively shifted his weight, moving a single step to the side.
Suddenly there was someone else in front of me.
I striked someone else and I saw him fall down with a thud..
I killed someone.
