Chapter 45: The Mother

KADE

He had never said those would out loud before. He thought them on a daily bases. He dreamed them. He let them consume him. But he never spoke them.

Weight lifted from his chest. Someone else finally knew the biggest secret he kept, and he knew she wouldn't tell a soul. If she did, it implicated her too.

Nine's violet eyes watered, the first display of emotion he'd seen regarding the way Michael treated him throughout his childhood and well into adulthood. It validated him. It validated his emotions, his trauma.

"How?" Nine asked, her voice barely a whisper. "How did he…"

"Kill her?"

He thought back to that night when the storm raged harder than ever. Horizontal rain hit the windows, thunder shook the walls, and the howling wind whipped underneath the eaves, threatening to rip the roof off. Michael wanted to take her to the city. They had never left for the city at night time before, so that struck him as odd.