Page 17 of Maddening Fixation

Three days without food.

“I took every beatin’ they meant for her. She was all I had left.”

My voice finally broke.

I looked directly at my grandfather.

“Please...”

The plea barely escaped my lips.

“Please... believe me. Someone did this.”

My voice splintered beneath the weight of my desperation.

“Someone murdered Sarah and they’re trying to frame me.”

I fought to steady my breathing, but every word came out broken.

“I gave Mam my word.”

Tears blurred what little vision remained, mingling with the blood that streamed from my shattered eye.

“I promised her I’d protect Sarah.”

My voice cracked, raw with grief.

“I’ve spent my whole life protecting her. I’d have died before I’d ever let anyone hurt her.”

A broken sob escaped me.

“I failed to save her...”

I lifted my eyes to Grandfather Flynn, clinging to the last shred of hope I had left.

“But I didn’t kill her.”

A sob escaped before I could stop it.

For one impossible second...

I thought I saw something flicker across the old man’s face.

Not compassion.

Recognition.

As though somewhere beneath decades of ruthlessness, he remembered the frightened boy who had buried his mother.

Then it vanished.

Without saying a single word...

He turned his back on me.

The movement was deliberate and absolute.

It was worse than any verdict.