Page 198 of Bound By Crimson
Lyric sat frozen in the silence, her body still weak, but her rage rising like fire in her blood.
They took her baby.
They stole her name.
They rewrote her life.
They can do what they want to me. But they will never take my son!
Chapter Seventy-Two
The Unclean
The silence after Editha’s exit rang louder than her words.
Lyric stared at the door like it might disappear.
Her hands were still shaking. Her stomach hurt—not from labor, but from something deeper. Something that didn’t bleed. Something that just… hollowed.
Shame.
Grief.
Clarity.
The room was still.
She heard the distant groan of old plumbing. The hum of the walls. The faint rustle of a curtain that never moved.
She could still taste the worduncleon her tongue.
It sat there like poison.
I let him touch me.
I kissed him.
I wanted him.
She pressed her hand to her chest, like it might stop her heart from splitting open.
He was my uncle.
My uncle.
Her skin crawled. Her mouth filled with saliva. She swallowed it down.
What kind of person does this?
What kind of family hides this?
She shook her head, trying to shake it off—but it was in her.
I didn’t know—but I do now.
And she felt ashamed.
She wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes.
