Page 19 of Property of Bones

It took months before the truth clawed its way into daylight. Forensics proved what I already knew: I didn’t kill her.

She died from a gunshot to the head. In the basement.

But he moved her. Staged the scene in his bedroom. Thought he was smart. Thought he’d covered his tracks.

He wasn’t as good as he thought.

After weeks of scrubbing that basement, the forensic team found what I told them they’d find.

Her blood. Her hair.

And two tiny skeletons wrapped in plastic.

The babies she had after me. The ones he never let her keep.

I was cleared. He was convicted.

And I’ve never seen him since. Died three years ago from a stab wound inflicted by another inmate.

Good fucking riddance.

Didn’t have any family who wanted the kid of a monster. No aunts. No uncles. No long-lost cousins stepping up. Just a boy soaked in scandal and headlines, and nobody willing to see past the blood in his veins.

If it wasn’t for Marv and his wife, I’d have been shoved into the system and forgotten. Some case number with a bruised soul.

But Marv and Cheryl stepped up.

They took me in. Raised me like I was their own. Didn’t care that I flinched at loud voices or refused to sleep in the dark. Didn’t care that the world saw a monster in the making.

They were the parents I never had.

And now…they’re one of the only ones who see the manI’m tryingto be.

“You keep carrying his sins like they’re yours,” Marv says, voice rough as gravel. “But they’re not. You’re not him, Jack. You’ve got scars, sure. But those don’t make you a monster. They make youa survivor.”

My hand twitches, instinctively brushing the rough ridges that mark my face. The ones everyone notices first. The ones nobody ever dares to ask about.

“He gave me these,” I say flatly. “Said a real man needed to learn how to take pain. That it’d make me tougher.” I scoff.“Didn’t feel so tough when I was ten and bleeding all over the kitchen floor.”

Marv scoots closer, voice quieter now. “Those scars don’t show what he did. They show whatyousurvived.”

I clench my jaw, still staring at the screen. Still watchingher. The way she laughs like she’s never known fear. Like the world’s still good. Even after the shit she witnessed.

“She deserves more than a man like me,” I mutter.

Marv lets out a dry laugh. “She deserves someone who’d burn the world down to keep her safe. Someone whoknowsdarkness and would still choose her light. Sounds a hell of a lot like you, son.”

I swallow hard. Can’t speak. Can barely breathe.

“Stop looking for reasons to stay in the shadows,” he says. “Start looking for reasons to step into the light.”

He claps a heavy hand on my shoulder. Not to comfort. To steady.

“Trust that Sunny-girl,” he adds, voice dipping with something close to reverence. “She’s sweet, yeah… but she’s got a bite to her. Don’t mistake her sunshine for softness. That girl’s got steel in her spine. And if she’s lookin’ your way, it ain’t by accident. Look at her, son. She just witnessed a murder and still finds a way to gift the world a smile. You grab her before someone else sees what we all see…and doesn’t hesitate to make her his.”

Fuck.

Chapter Eight

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