Page 71 of Blazing Desires
“Tell me, Anthony. Did my mother beg for her life before you put a bullet in her brain? How about yourwife? Did you alwaysknow you would bury them beneath this room, or did you have other plans? Was it too much that they loved each other more than your wife couldeverlove you? You’re pathetic.”
Confusion hits me over what he’s implying, I thought he had told me everything before we came and now here he is dropping new information at a time when I can’t process it fast enough.
“They were fucking each other! In my house! Under my roof! Your mother stole my wife from me after everything I had given to her, they were nothing but sluts, whores! So I took them from each other!”
My father explodes from his chair, tipping it backwards. Spit flies from his mouth like a raging animal at his shouted confession, and he smacks his hands on the table. My legs tremble and only Blaze’s strong grip on my hair keeps me from falling to the ground in disbelief.
They were in love with each other.
I want to deny it to protect myself from the heartache that is inevitable from this revelation, but it makes so much sense. All the memories I have of them together, laughing and joking. Dancing around the house and all of the soft touches, the secret glances. My mind rewrites all of their time together and it fits.
“Did you kill them for being two women in love? Please, I have to know.” I beg.
“Of course not! I killed his mother for taking what was mine. I killed your mother for thinking she could ever leave me, she belonged to me.”
Tears fall harder on my face, and I choke on a sob. They were happy and he took that away from them. They’d found love in each other after all the hardships they’d been through, and thisfuckertook them from me. From Blaze. Before Blaze can respond, my mouth moves of its own accord.
“Ifucking hate you!”
My dear dad is merely amused at my outburst, like he finds this whole thing entertaining, and I’ve never wanted to end someone more than I do him I this moment.
“Yes, I imagine you do. But you’ll end up hatinghimmore.”
He tilts his head at Blaze and patiently waits for me to ask him what he means by that.
“Don’t.”
Blaze whispers so quietly in my ear that I nearly miss it. But it’s too much, everything I’ve been through and everything my father has done to others is too much for me to hold in anymore. I don’t care about how much this will hurt me.
“Why? Why will I hate him more?!”
I should have known better than to ask. The sheer glee on my dad’s face should be reason enough for me to turn and run, to be sure that I’m better off never knowing. But I’m glued to the spot. If I could look in a mirror at my face, I’m sure even I would be scared by the emptiness I find there as I wait for the earth to open up beneath me.
“I’msoglad you asked, sweetheart. You see, I found someone Blaze here used to be friends with before he fucked him over and your boyfriend decided to ruin his life. He was originally going to be involved in this,” he waves his hand in the air, “revenge operation and knew all of his plans.”
My dad begins to pace as he recounts the story, the sound of his smart shoes clicking on the tiles like a countdown to death. He’s in his element now.
“The plan was that they would both get employed here, steal information from me that could be used against me, and get me locked up for a long time. Which is not a very nice thing to do by the way. Anyway, safe to say that didn’t happen and it was after Blaze found out you still lived here with me?—”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Blaze cuts him off, his voice like ice. My father carries on like he hasn’t even spoken, and Blaze loosens his grip on my hair.
“That was when he changed the plan. To seduce you, use you and make you fall for him, exactly as he just confessed.”
My dad sighs as if this pains him, but it’s all an act. He’s secretly enjoying every second of pain he inflicts on me and has always known it is words that can scar me deeper than any physical punishment.
“He was going to break you and use you as collateral in the attempt to take me down. Well, his friend didn’t like that plan and tried to convince him to do it another way. I believe you said something along the lines of ‘she’s nothing to me, simply a means to an end and she deserves everything I plan to put her through because she’s a spoiled daddy’s girl who doesn’t know what a hard life is.’ So, he gave up trying to convince Blaze and left him to it. Blaze didn’t trust that he wouldn’t talk so he stripped everything from him and held it over his head. But I offered his friend a way out of his predicament. And here we are—looks like your boyfriend got everything he wanted after all.”
“Don’t listen to him, he’s trying to get you killed.”
Blaze rushes to convince me, his breath tickles my ear as he speaks. My head swirls, I feel like I’ve been spun around so many times that I don’t know which way is up. It all makes sense though, all the lies and things he would say to me. How he was able to be so hot and cold with me. What is left of my heart splinters into dust. Everything stops. My thoughts, feelings, and reaction to all of this stops.
I feel nothing.
“You killed him,” I state, no emotion in my voice.
“Naturally!” my father nods and appears to be proud of himself.
