Page 198 of Lau Ahi
I held up my hand so he wouldn’t press the issue. “He was impotent so he had other objects as stand-ins to show me the ways of wickedness. When I fought back we would fight. That’s how I ended up with extensive damage.”
“And it’s why you don’t think you can have kids.”
“Yeah. My family couldn’t very well take me somewhere and have them look me over because that would raise every red flag possible. A private physician might be bound by ethics but everyone slips up.”
“So they just let you…heal on your own?” Disgust. It was loud in how he spoke and the look on his face. And pain. He was hurt at the idea of me enduring all of that alone.
“Had to keep up appearances.” I spoke flippantly but it truly did bother me.
“I’m losing more respect for your father by the day.”
“Don’t be mad at him. He was willing to charter a flight to take me to Eritrea but I didn’t want to leave the house after I’d gotten there.”
“How’d you escape?”
“He made the mistake of allowing me a phone call. The last call to say goodbye to my family before I died.”
“Cell phone towers.”
“Yep. My father’s head of security was the only person who knew what was happening and he could locate my phone fairly quickly. My father refused to let anyone accompany him but when he got there… I’m sure he wished he had.”
“What did he see?”
I smiled in a way that was probably too wicked for the situation but it was how I felt. The scene was truly appalling but I had been through so much and didn’t care that I looked likeCarriewhen he walked in the door. I thought he was a figment of my imagination at first until he started speaking to me in Tigrinya. His daughter covered in blood, some of it mine some of it Brandt’s, as I plunged a knife into his chest repeatedly.”
“A knife?”
“He decided I needed one last meal. His mother’s pot roast. Said it was a treat to send me off to the other side. But something about it wasn’t right.”
“What do you mean?” Ori asked so cautiously I knew he was already putting the pieces together before I could say something.
“It wasn’t a roast. I mean it was, but not a beef roast.”
“You mean—”
“Yes. He was a cannibal. It was a human thigh he was attempting to serve me. I refused to eat it and he started to hit me, screaming that I was ruining his plan. I didn’t know it but he’d done this before. Stolen someone and then forced them to consume parts of others. It made them tainted enough to become the next person on his plate and my refusal did something to him.”
“He got careless didn’t he?”
“He did. I wasn’t sure which part of me realized that the knife was within reach but as soon as the idea was in my head I didn’t wait to act on it. I took the knife and stabbed him in the leg, praying I’d hit his femoral artery.”
“And did you?”
I scrunched my nose up at his doubting my abilities despite everything I’d been through. I knew he didn’t mean it but it felt like a slight.
“I was in bloody advanced Biology despite the work we did. Of course I hit it.”
He patted his chest apologetically before giving voice to it. “Forgive me for doubting you.”
“Well, you know how blood loss goes quickly but I couldn’t stop myself. I just kept finding a new spot to stab him. I thought of the pain he’d inflicted. I got angry at the idea that he was going to do this to my sister…”
I paused feeling the anger wash back over me and wishing I wasn’t touching him as I was having these emotions. I never wanted to conflate Ori with Jason. I shuddered again remembering what I’d survived and how Sasha might have been the person who was going to have that inflicted upon her. Myheart broke at the idea and I almost broke down until I felt Ori give my hips a gentle squeeze.
My eyes went to his and they didn’t hold the look of pity that I expected. There was sympathy but not disgust. In fact, he looked proud of me and not horrified. “You good?”
A question more about my mental state than my physical one. He wanted me to continue but only if I was okay to do so. It was making it even harder to continue lying to myself.
I tried to make my smile as reassuring as possible and I stretched my arms to soak in as much sun as I could to ward off the chill. “I’m fine.”
