Page 196 of Fly's Path

“Then where did you get that?” He nods at the bruise forming on my cheek.

None of your business. I shut my mouth and stare at him.

“Sheri, talk to me.”

“Why?”

“Excuse me?”

“You aren’t my boss, and you clearly don’t want to be my brother anymore, so why?”

“Because you’re in my office, mixed up with a man who kills with a smile on his face because it entertains him. A monster called me and asked for a favor. You’re that favor. So tell me why is my sister, the good one, the one who never did anything wrong in her life, here in my office because of a monster?”

“I’m sure he’s not a monster.” Even though I have no clue who he is.

“Sheri.”

“My name is Sheridan Wholes. Only my friends call me Sheri.” My hands tremble.

“You have to understand.”

“No, I don’t. You got out. You made it. Then you left me there.”

“I couldn’t come back. You have to understand, the man I am today isn’t the man we thought I would become.”

“I don’t care what you’ve become. Unless you’re the monster. Are you?” Please say no.

Draven walks away, running a hand through his hair. “I’m not a monster, but I’m not a good man.”

“Perfection was never expected. But love was.”

“Sheri, I always loved you. I will always love you. You’re my sister.”

“You don’t leave someone you love to suffer while you find the easy way out.”

“The easy way. You think my life was the easy way?”

“It was easier to do whatever you were doing than to come back and get me.”

“That wasn’t easy. It was the hardest decision I ever made, leaving you. But it was for your own good.”

My own good. My own good. “You left me in a shack with a woman who didn’t care if I lived or died…no, that’s not true. She would have preferred I was dead. You left me there.”

“I sent you money. The second I got anything, I sent it to you so you could get out of there. Even before I took care of myself, I sent it to you. And I’ve sent money every month since then. I never once forgot you. Never.”

“Money isn’t love.”

“But it was a way out. I gave you the way out. Why didn’t you take it? Why didn’t you leave?”

“Because I couldn’t. By then she was sick. If I had walked away like I wanted to, like I dreamed of, she would have died in those woods. If I had walked away, then I would have been no better than her.”

“She didn’t deserve that.”

No. No, she didn’t. “What she deserved didn’t matter.”

“You stayed with her.”

“I’m still taking care of her.”