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“You are crying.”

I didn’t know I was. I… wasn’t supposed to cry here.

Enzo… was not my destination. He was a pit stop.

Like everyone I had killed. I had to discard him when the time came.

“Will you stop if I ask you to stop?” I bit out, clenching the bedcover between my fingers.

“Of course. Why would I not—” His eyes widened. “Did someone… not stop when you asked them to stop?” he gritted out, jaw clenching. “Trish?”

“I’m not a good person, Enzo,” I said when he wiped my tears away.

“Trish? Who did that to you?”

“Do you hear me? I’m not a good woman.”

I shouldn’t have said that; I shouldn’t have done any of this… but here I was. The Strangler, weeping in front of a man. Even that… that felt like a failure.

“You are. A good person.”

I shook my head, standing up from the bed. This had gone too far. I couldn’t spoil the life I wanted with Yara. She had been the one thing that kept me alive, pushed me to survive.

She was everything. She was my God.

The devil’s touch was only a temptation, and he’d lead you astray.

“No.”

“Who hurt you? Tell me. I-I will hurt him back. I’ll kill him. You’re not a bad person because someone hurt you, Trish. You’re not a bad person because some fucking man touched you without your consent.” The rage… his rage lit the room. “It makes you a victim.”

“I’m not a victim,” I gritted out, taking a deep breath. I didn’t want him to look at me like that, eyes full of pity.

“No, you’re a survivor. You’re a fighter.”

What would this fool say when he realized who I was?

“Who did that to you?”

“I was sixteen.”

It was liberating to finally say it out loud, to confess. To finally not carry the festering wound within me, all by my lonely self.

I had never told anyone about it. Even after Tany died, I hadn’t told anyone that Robert Miller did the same to me. I was ashamed of what he did to me; I was ashamed and guilty. I blamed myself for what he did to me, what he did to Tany.

“He was a teacher.”

Enzo cursed, punching the bed, and then stopped.

“Tell me who he is, where is he from? Which school? Tell me something, and I’ll find him for you.”

“And?”

“And I will destroy him. I…” He paused, careful not to say things he shouldn’t. “I’ll kill him.”

“He died.” I almost told him Yara killed him. I didn’t. That would be one too many coincidences, and I couldn’t afford anyone connecting the dots.

“Good. If he hadn’t, I would have.” The look in his eyes, the anger—he wasn’t saying this to comfort me. I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew if Robert Miller hadn’t died, he would have killed him for me.