Chapter 30
“Dad!!!”
The gunshot is so loud, Leah throws the phone away from her
ear.
Realizing what she did, she scrambles across the room and grabs it off the floor. “Dad! Daddy!!!”
She’s screaming and wailing.
But there’s no point.
He’s dead. We both know it.
She sobs on the ground.
I’m not in shock. I can’t even say I’m all that surprised. Alpha Roberts has been declining for a decade.
Leah’s breathing begins to shudder, she’s gasping like she’s going into shock, and the way her heart is pounding, this is more than just an anxiety attack.
“Take it easy,” I tell her. “Just breathe.”
She’s going to pass out.
Sweat glistens on her forehead and tears flow down her face.
She sobs, her hand wrapped around the phone, her fingers wh ite and the bones visible with as hard as she’s gripping it.
“Daddy!”
It’s the cries of a daughter mourning her father, of the little girl who was dropped into my possession, abandoned. She didn’t cry then, but she does now.
She’s inconsolable.
I stand here in the small cabin, a few feet from her. But I might as well be a million miles away. She’s lost to her grief.
I’m helpless to do anything.
募
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LEAH
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The room is silent. There’s just my crying and loud breathing.
Aaron doesn’t move.
I’m filled with despair. With an almost detached sense of
disbelief.
I stare at the phone.
That really didn’t just happen.
My father is home and he’s fine.
My hands are shaking as I try to check the call log.
I hit send on Dad’s name. I call. And call again when no one
answers.
Still nothing.
The shaking in my hands seems to progress into my body. I can’t catch my breath, and I’m having trouble thinking clearly.
This can’t be happening.
This can’t be happening.
“Daddy!”
I dial again and scream.
When it goes to voicemail, I try to call my brother but my fingers don’t seem to work no matter how hard I stab at the screen.
Everything is blurry.
Something big moves into my line of vision.
By shape and smell, I know it’s Aaron.
His big hands hold my shoulders.
“No! No! Let me go!”
He releases me immediately, and I scramble backwards, the motion jarring my ankle and I yelp.
I keep edging away from him. Away from everything.
“Leah, I need you to calm down. You’re going into shock. Sit down, honey.”
Honey? Honey?
Now, he wants to treat me well and use terms of endearment? Now he wants to act like he cares and make a mockery of the fact that it’s all his fault that we are here.
“Stay away from me!” I scream. “Don’t you touch me!”
I blink through my tears.
Aaron doesn’t move. His dark eyes are clear.
“You did this! You’re the reason my dad-”
I can’t say the words. And this all must be one big mistake, right? It can’t be real.
I’m supposed to d ie. Not my father.
Aaron holds his arms out. “Breathe, Leah. Your heart is beating too fast.”
The room starts to spin. There are bursts of color at the corners of my periphery.
All of a sudden I start to wretch. My stomach heaves and I cough and gag. I don’t vomit, but I do spit up.
I spit blood all over the carpet.
