16 years later
“Fuck you!” Lilly screams at me, the sound of our front door slamming closed as I stand, leaning my hands on the kitchen counter and trying to calm my anger and terror.
My hands clenched in fists of anger and concern, one shaking around the newspaper clipping I’m clutching tightly. It’s an article about an award for a creative writing competition that Lilly won. It’s already two weeks old, and she had it hidden in her room. I hate that she felt like she had to hide it, knowing that I would freak out, but it’s for the best that there are no images of her anywhere. She’s not allowed any social media accounts, which we’ve fought over, and I can never give her a good enough answer. She looks so much like me, and although it’s been almost seventeen years since I ran, Ace’s reach is endless.
I’ve tried to keep us safe, by being anonymous, but of course, Lilly just sees an overbearing and controlling mother who’s trying to ruin her life, as most teenagers think when it comes to their parents. How can I tell her that her father is not absent, but a monster that I had to escape from? It’s been the hardest thing to keep from her, but it’s what keeps her safe and that is my priority.
We’ve been fighting so much recently, and not just about my refusal to let her get Facebook, or Tik Tok, or whatever it is she wants to post pictures of her life onto. She hates that I won’t commit to Ryan fully, I still can’t bring myself to put him in that kind of danger. He knows something happened, I’ve never fully divulged my past, but I’m sure he can make an educated guess from the little that I have told him. We’re good friends, with a few benefits when Lilly is away for the night at a friend’s, which isn’t often as I need to know who she’s with to make sure that she’s safe.
It’s all such a mess!
I stay there for what feels like hours but is probably only thirty minutes or so, just breathing, listening to the radio and trying to calm down, when I hear the front door open again. Turning to face her, an apology springs to my lips.
“Lilly, I’m so sor…” I come to a shuddering halt, my whole body flushing with a white-hot terror that freezes me like the burn of ice running through my veins. My heart pounds, and it feels like the whole world has paused on its axis.
“Hello, Violet,” his voice is just as dark as I remember from my nightmares, and although older, he’s just as devastatingly beautiful, too. His eyes have not changed, if anything they look deader than they used to, like the small shred of humanity that used to be in there is completely snuffed out and gone.
“Ace,” I manage to whisper out, my voice broken. “How did you find me?”
“Now, that’s just ill-mannered, Violet, not even asking after my well-being, and I know you were brought up better than that. Although, you were also brought up not to steal, whore yourself out, show your body to others…” he trails off like my litany of sins is just too much for him to remember them all. Or like he no longer cares.
His body is loose, like a hunting tiger, as he stalks over to our small kitchen table and sits down, straightening the cuffs of his dark suit jacket like he’s at a business meeting. His dark eyes look back up, locking with mine, another chill sweeping over me at the way he looks at me. Like I’m no longer a person, I wonder if I ever was to him?
“H-how are you, Ace?” I ask, voice shaking as I slip back into old habits of shrinking into myself and trying to appear small.
He nods his approval. “Well, considering you stole my share in Black Knight Corporation sixteen years ago, not to mention hiding my heir from me, I am not too happy with you, Violet.” His eyes cut to me, slicing into me like a honed blade. “It’s a shame she’s a girl when the others all have male heirs, but some things can’t be helped,” he adds, almost to himself.
“What?” A fresh wave of terror washes over me. He knows! How does he know?!
“Don’t be coy, Violet. You left the evidence behind, and you never leave evidence behind,” he tells me, anger flashes in his eyes at my refusal to acknowledge Lilly out loud to him.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I stammer, flinching when he slams his hands down on the tabletop, his calm disintegrating.
“Don’t lie to me, Violet!” he hisses out, suddenly standing up, and I flinch again from the vitriol in his voice and the wild look in his eyes. “You left the test behind, and I found it that night. You never were the smartest woman,” he sneers, his hands sliding down the front of his jacket, smoothing out any wrinkles as he sits down again.
Oh god, the test. I’d completely forgotten that I’d hidden it in the cleaning cupboard. And of course, he found it, he always was methodical and thorough.
“I see you’ve finally remembered,” he smirks at me, straightening his tie. “Now, the important thing is you will tell me where the bonds that you stole from me are, and we can maybe put all this unpleasantness behind us.” I swallow as his eyes flit back up, boring into me like he can dig the information out of my brain.
“No,” I reply, my eyes flitting around to try and find my phone. If I could only call Lexi or Ryan, I may be able to get help. Thank god Lilly is out with friends, even if I don’t know where exactly.
“No?” he questions, tone sharp and a tic twitching next to his right eye.
“I-I won’t give them to you. They’re Lilly’s,” I say more firmly, standing up a little straighter. He bullied me for years, and I don’t have to take it anymore. I have a life now with people who care about me, and those bonds are mine by right. My money was used to purchase them after all. And they’re Lilly’s future.
“They are not Lilly’s,” he spits, standing up once again and taking menacing steps towards me. “They are mine, and you stole them from me. Enough with this little game, Violet. You’ll give them back to me, now!”
I hear Every Breath You Take by Chase Holfelder come on the radio in the silence as he reaches me, standing so close I can see the slight stubble on his cheek.
“No,” I say again, knowing that if I give in, he will have won and running would have been all for nothing. They are Lilly’s security, something to ensure her comfort in life. “I’ll never give them to you, and you’ll never find them.”
“It’s my fucking business!” he screams, and he’s so close that I feel spittle land on my cheek. “You stole it from me, you worthless bitch. I earned it, I fucking earned it! I took the risks! I took the paths no one else dared to!” His eyes are wild, his veins bulging in his neck. “Do you want to know why I’m so successful? I am like a fucking surgeon, Violet; clinical, detached, precise. I take what doesn’t work and cut it away, dispose of it. How dare you question me? Steal from me? Take what is mine?” he’s panting, and I watch as he seems to calm himself down, taking in a great lungful of air.
He laughs then, and it’s a cruel sound full of shards of broken glass and poison. It makes me wince. It’s so cutting. His cheeks are flushed, and his hands clench and unclench into fists.
He leans in so that his lips are next to my ear. “Oh, I’ll find the bonds, Violet, just like I was able to find you,” he whispers in a lover’s caress that leaves me queasy and shaking. He leans back, his eyes looking away from me.
“You’ll never get your hands on them, Ace, I can guarantee you that,” my voice is firm, and I realise that I’m not scared of him. Not anymore.
I see the glint of silver in the corner of my eye seconds before a line of fire races across my chest. Gasping, my hand flies to the pain only to come away stained with red. I look up at Ace to see the silver of one of my kitchen knives in his hand, dripping with blood. My blood. I watch with frightened eyes as it comes down towards me, as if in slow motion, unable to stop it as it enters my stomach smoothly. I grunt with the impact, but there’s no fire this time, just a sort of fascination as he pulls it back out, blood pouring out of me and splattering the floor.
My knees give way, and I land on them on the lino tiles that I’d only cleaned that morning. Vaguely, I hear the haunting tones of Akine singing Devil Like Me. I love this song, I think as I sink down onto my side, then roll onto my back. The sunlight coming in from the window waves and undulates as it’s filtered through the trees outside, creating beautiful patterns across the ceiling.
Vaguely, I register another impact on my body, then another and another, but there’s no more pain. I think there should be, and for a brief moment, my body panics but the comforting numbness soon returns.
Oh Lilly, I think with sorrow. My beautiful Lilly flower. I’m so sorry for leaving you. I know a moment of true regret with the realisation that I’m leaving her all alone. Not completely alone, I remember as my mind supplies Lexi and Ryan’s faces flashing before me. I feel my lips pull into a smile before they disappear to be replaced with the face of the devil.
“I’ll be sure to keep a close eye on our daughter,” he says, voice soft, and I think that I should feel terror at that statement. But all I feel is the darkness coming to wrap me in its comforting embrace.
