Page 24 of Covert Desires

The guilt tore me apart.

It was all my fault.

Until the day I learned that it wasn’t…

It wasn’t my fault at all.

My life is divided into two distinct periods: Before Anikka and After Annika.

The latter era became a cruel joke of pointless days and painful nightmares.

The only thing that took the edge off was breaking someone open until blood red spilled over stone.

That and a boatload of alcohol.

I knew I was toxic; I couldn’t get close to anyone again. They would inevitably end up dead.

No, it was better I focused on work—much to my parents’ relief.

And then that heartless cunt that called himself my father got a bit too liberal with his words one drunken evening, a bit too free. He let something slip that I couldn’t let go.

I tugged and tugged on the thread until the entire nasty mess untangled before me.

The part where my father raped my bride and had her killed shouldn’t have been a surprise to me.

But the part where he boasted about Annika accepting the generous cash bribe to leave me, that part stung.

The betrayal was unbearable…on all sides.

It didn’t matter that she changed her mind and wanted to give the cash back—the whole reason my father took care of her and wiped her off the face of the planet.

The fact that she could evenconsiderhis offer was too painful to bear.

The day he told me, rage ripped through my body as I stared at my inappropriately cheerful father. The asshole was proud of his sins.

My hands had clenched and unclenched with such might that I could hear every knuckle crack individually.

But I didn’t kill him then.

No, I bided my time.

I wanted him to have a slow and painful death—poison.

It was already planned, ready.

I had the perfect alibi lined up.

But things didn’t work out that way.

It all went wrong.

Someone beat me to it.

Someone who wanted me to take the fall for the crime.

When I woke up next to his lifeless body, I knew I had to get out of there before my brother buried me next to our father without giving me a second to explain.

Nobody on the payroll could help me; I wasn’t stupid.

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