CHAPTER 256

Melina

He leans across me first and turns off the light. I don’t mind. If it makes it easier for him to talk in the dark, I’m good. “She was a bitch.” He remains silent for a minute and I give him time. “She sold me to men who liked little boys and then to men who liked older boys. She was a fucked-up mess for as far back as I can remember. Not mother material.”

I dig my fingers into the skin of his arm, but he doesn’t flinch. “Her boyfriend, from the article, was he one of them?”

“The worst.”

I can just barely make out his face in the dark and I lift my hand to his cheek. It’s what he isn’t saying that’s even more horrifying. He was only twelve when he killed them. To give a child no other way out is inconceivable and at the same time not surprising. I thought of killing my father for what he did to my mother. I’ve thought of killing my brother for what he’s done to me and any person or animal I’ve cared for. To push Austin over the edge at twelve had to be a living nightmare. “I’m g