Page 200 of Nanny and the Beast

“I saw him behind the wheel,” he says. “He passed out after the collision. I escaped seconds before the car exploded.”

I grit my teeth. “But you left someone behind, didn’t you?”

“It all happened so fast,” he says.

“I bet.”

He’s quiet for a moment, watching me play with the knife.

“Your friend is lying to you,” he says. “He probably told you a part of the truth, but he didn’t tell you everything.”

My heart stutters in my chest.

Before tonight, I used to trust Alaric blindly. He never kept anything from me. He never gave me a reason to doubt him.

But after what he confessed earlier, I’m not sure if my blind trust still stands.

Richard uses that opportunity to set the stage. “He’s been in love with Sera the whole time.”

I grip the knife and plunge it into his thigh. He screams in agony, howling like an animal.

“Keep my sister’s name out of your fucking mouth,” I say.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” The mask slips momentarily, revealing his true self. “It’s no wonder she couldn’t trust you. You’re a fucking asshole.”

I remove the knife from his thigh. He screams again, his teeth clenched together so tightly that the veins on his neck bulge against his skin.

He takes deep breaths to compose himself.

I don’t think he knows how much he’s messing with my head right now.

The guilt of not being there for Sera is worse than ever. I should have been the one to help her. I should have been someone she could rely on.

But instead, she was made to feel like she didn’t have anyone in this world.

“It’s true, I swear,” Richard says. “Alaric tried to get rid of me so he could be with her. He wanted her the whole time, and taking me out of the picture was the only way to achieve it. He wanted to play the hero to the damsel in distress.”

There’s a flare of hot anger in his eyes. He might be acting right now, but some of his emotion is real.

I remember what Alaric told me. Richard knew that my sister went to Alaric for help. That must have really bruised his big ego.

“So it has nothing to do with the fact that my sister wanted to leave you?” I ask.

“She would never leave me,” he says. “We loved each other.”

“You never loved her. You only loved having control over her. You loved that she was crazy about you.”

“Look, we had our issues, but it was never anything we couldn’t fix,” he says.

“I read her diary, you son of a bitch,” I say. “I knew exactly what you did to her.”

He’s putting on an Oscar-worthy performance, but I’m not falling for it.

“I lose control sometimes,” he says, looking up at me. “I’m sure that you can relate.”

“You and I are not the same, motherfucker. I would never raise my hand on a woman,” I say.

“I never meant to,” he says. “It was a mistake.”

---