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“You expect me to tell them what I did You want me tell them I went to Novak”

“I don’t expect it, I know it If you don’t do this, the next call will be from your new boyfriend because he’s on the way to their bodies Do you understand me?”

“You’ll kill theh my parents and I weren’t really close, I still couldn’t let him do that to the that they were related to h I was strong, the weight of uilt and more bodies would cripple me

“I haven’t killed anyone who didn’t deserve it” That voice was so seductive, just begging me to believe him

“Oh yeah? What about the girl on the docks? You want me to believe you didn’t have your hands in that? She looked just like me”

He laughed a little bit “She had your sht have taken a personal interest in her and gotten a little overzealous in trying to teach her what happens to pretty, o home, Reeve Go alone If the cop shows, it won’t end well for anyone”

I whi to want to knohere I’ to be pissed that I was leaving the condo in the first place When he found out why, he was going to callinto one of Roark’s traps

“Well, you better buy yourself so and your new boyfriend isn’t going to mess withyou soon, Reeve” It sounded like he blew ing up the phone I just sat there staring at it for a long tiether until I realized I was crying and big, fat teardrops were hitting the screen Going to see my parents was a stupid risk to take I could take a cab to their house, explain what I had done, and Conner could still send Zero after theo, they were dead for sure There was no winning in this scenario, and as usual, at the end of the day I ca I didn’t really have a choice, that a ho and a co overdue anyway, I called my mom back and told her I would be home for dinner I was surprised at how excited she sounded to see me, and the lure of new inforhter’s death, had her practically giddy It made my heart hurt

I put on so I needed it like war paint to psych myself up, and then called for a cab Titus tried to call e and I knew if I tried to talk to hi and why I had to do it, he wouldn’t let o alone Hell, part of et rab me I had the Glock in my purse and that confrontation was one I was prepared for Far more than I was prepared for this new one withTitus about the ine trying to find the right words to justify my actions to my parents

Conner wasn’t just evil, he isted and cruel He knew that telling ed for a murder, that I had sold s they had for their surviving daughter This wasn’t about hurtingme as bad a person as he was He wanted to re me how different Titus and I were That wounded It burned and festered inside ofthat it was

I called a cab and decided to turn my phone off It wouldn’t keep Titus at bay forever, but it would hold hiured if thefor Conner, they would fill him in on the fact I was on thehoue idea of what I was up to I kneould have a ht up to htness flavor the disco as I headed toward the outskirts of the city

My parents still lived in the Point They had a town house behind a stripbeen abandoned and left to rot The side of the building where they lived was covered in graffiti and all the s had vertical bars running across the problea kids that had fallen hopelessly in love, had a baby way too young, and never h in any job to invest in their future My parents were the working poor, they always had been, and the Point fit them like a comfortable old shoe My mom worked as a waitress, had since she was a teen, andon the Hill He tended to ju extra growing up, there had always been enough

As I looked at the faded paint on the front door memories flooded in All I could see was my sister All I could feel was the loss and the eered when it caht back more tears when I lifted my hand to knock on the door

When uess I expected her to look older, still drawn and ravaged with grief She didn’t In fact she looked so much like she had before Rissa was murdered it madeas she reached out and wrappedI was so shocked by the contact I didn’t even hug her back The warm reception stunned me and made the reason I was here after all this time even harder to choke down

“You look so pretty It’s been so long” She led h a familiar hallway littered with pictures fro up The memories knocked me sideways so hard I had to put a hand on the wall to stay upright My uideroo the ith questions about where I had been and what I had been up to My father was lounging in his easy chair watching TV He looked so normal, just like my mother did, that I practically fell into the couch when the backs of one on for therief and sorroithout doing soaze from one to the other in shock This was not the family I had left behind This was a family that had healed and moved on without me