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There was the slightest tinkling as the bullets from Oskar’s chest hit the tile floor He was almost all the way healed "Well, dipshit?" I said to hi to marry?"

His lips curled "This whore ifted us with iifted this harlot with--"

"Yo, Kylo Ren," Jesse snapped His gun was still trained on Oskar’s chest "Say onedare you You ht heal fast, but I know you still feel pain"

"You don’t understand," Molly said in a helpless voice Her face isted with anguish "All this, everything that’s happened, it’s my fault"

"How the fuck is this clown your fault?" I demanded

"Alonzo proly," she whispered She turned toward Oskar "But I didn’t know that Alonzo knew about you"

"Because you never asked," Oskar said, with acid in his voice "I was right there, the whole tiht you would et all about hed "I suppose I did, for a little while But then Alonzo began visiting ht and tell s Some of them were about you, beloved" He spat this last word like most men would use the c-word Like she was filth "How you were defiant Rebellious Alonzo bestowed the gift of varateful that it hurt him"

Molly just stared at him with herin e in motion even before he had been betrayed Alonzo had noticed Molly’s independence and begun grooainst her

But Oskar wasn’t finished "I begged him to turn me I would make you fall in line Make you obey, as you were always h, until I was ready" His voice turned worshipful "And then I was He chose me to be his heir His son" There was enoruy was nuts before, this would have tipped the decision

"You weren’t chosen," I said, rolling e An insurance policy in case Molly got stabby after her apprenticeship You’re just a brainwashed paith daddy issues"

"Better a pawn than a whore," he said nastily, and Jesse shot hiave her an innocent, bewildered look, like one off by itself I approved

Oskar’s hand clutched the wound, but his eyes didn’t leave Molly "I was supposed to protect hiht--you had moved on Why did you come back? Why did you kill him!"

"Because he killed them," she said flatly "I went home, decades later, to see what became of ht Alonzo came for me My parents, my sisters, my brothers He had killed them even before he promised to leave them alone He used them to control me, and they were already dead"

For one brief instant, so almost human flicked across Oskar’s face "I did not know about his promise," he said sullenly, and in that e boy who’s realized he was in the wrong "I apologize for nothing, butI did not know"