Page 82 of Tainted Love
“I was scared!” I shout, losing control of my temper. Benny pulls my arms further behind my back and my ribs scream in protest. “Fuck, I was sixteen, and I just watched the love of my life get stabbed to death in front of me. Madeline threatened to pin it all on me. What was I supposed to do?”
“The love of your life?” Jas snorts. “Is that why you were so quick to back up the story I’d run away? You didn’t care about me. You were too busy trying to cover your own arse.”
“Didn’t care about you?” My laugh is humourless. “Your death messed me up for six fucking years. I couldn’t stop thinking about that night. It was the best and worst fucking night of my life. Didn’t care about you? Your face has been the only thing I’ve seen when I close my eyes. You. Were. Dead. I held your lifeless body in my arms. I don’t understand how you survived.”
“While you went running after the arseholes who tried to take her life like the little bitch you always were, I stayed,” Benny hisses in my ear. “When I realised Jas was still alive, I called Dean. He helped get her medical attention and hid her until I aged out and joined her.”
“Is that why you convinced me to tell the police and the Ferguson’s she ran away? So no one would realise there was no body? But why? How?”
“Madeline would never confess to murdering someone in cold blood, and the Ferguson’s wouldn’t have believed us. They had money and would have pinned it on one or all of us. We were all screwed. It was easy to convince Madeline to fake that letter from Jas saying she’d run away.”
“But why didn’t you tell me?” My voice breaks and I can’t believe Benny kept it a secret from me. He’d seen how gutted I was the week before Oli and I left to go back to Mum. He’d watched me break down as we helped pack up Jas’s belongings for storage.
“Let’s be honest,” he continues, his voice cold and detached. “You never gave a shit about anyone other than yourself. You always thought you were so much better than us, and you didn’t bother to call or message after you left. I never changed my number. I was waiting to see if you’d reach out. Maybe if you cared about either of us, we would have let you in on everything.”
His words hit like another kick to the ribs. I lock eyes with Jas across the space. “I fucking loved you. How could you not tell me you were alive in all this time?”
“Did you hear that,” Jas asks Bea in a saccharine voice, and my stomach drops. “He loved me first,Duchess.”
I flinch at the harsh sound of my nickname for Bea as it comes from her lips.
My stepsister drops her eyes, and a tear slips down her cheek.Fuck.I was so shocked to see Jas alive, I never stopped to think about how my words would sound to Bea.
But Jas hasn’t finished. “Do you think he was thinking about me when he fucked you?”
“Stop it,” I grit out, struggling against Benny’s hold. Unfortunately, the fucker has clearly been working out because all I do is fire up the pain in my ribs.
Jas uses the knife to tilt Bea’s head up so she’s looking directly at me. “I mean, he said he loved me. Maybe he’s telling the truth.” She muses. “Besides, you can’t deny the resemblance between us, can you, Benny? Even Bea was able to spot it when I spoke to her earlier tonight. Karma can sure be a bitch sometimes.”
Benny’s laugh sends a shiver down my spine.
“What are you talking about?” I stumble, causing my arm to twist uncomfortably in Benny’s grip, and I yelp. My skull is now pulsing from the tension flowing through my body, and I’m finding it harder to remain upright.
“I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet, Genie.” She tsks as she shakes her head. “Your Duchess is none other than my little sister.”
Chapter 46
Bea
ELIAS’S WIDE EYES mirror my own.
“What are you talking about?” I whimper. “I don’t have a sister.”
My next inhale is sharp, and I cry out as Jas presses the knife into my skin.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, little sis, but you’re not the first daughter Mummy dearest didn’t want.”
“No.”
There’s no way. Dad would have told me if I had a sister. He wouldn’t keep something like that from me.
“Yes. From what I could gather from her best friend in high school, our mother got pregnant when she was only sixteen. Our religious grandparents wouldn’t let her keep the baby, so I was put up for adoption. You know how well that turned out for me, right, Genie?”
Elias’s face—already pale from the blood loss—blanches even further. He looks ready to pass out and needs urgent medical care. But it doesn’t look like we’re going to be getting that any time soon.
“I guess our mother didn’t learn her lesson aboutcontraception or keeping her legs shut, did she?” A tear slips down my cheek at her words and she uses the blade of the knife to swipe it away. “Aww, don’t cry for her, little sis. She made her own bed. Literally.”
“What’s your end game here, Jas?” Elias croaks out. “Are you going to kill us?”
