The Body Next Door by Maia Chance

Author:Maia Chance
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises ULC
Published: 2024-06-05T19:10:26+00:00

* * *

Now, Caroline looks at Oliver, who’s still in the hallway. “I didn’t think it was him at first,” she says to me. “That Devil’s slap on his cheek, where did it—”

“We had it lasered off,” I say in a cutting, final tone. I look again to the hallway. Oliver is gone.

“But it’s still there,” Caroline says. “Underneath.”

“No, it’s not.”

“The mark of the beast.”

“Shut up!”

“I saw what he did to your little girl’s face. Uncle was right. He’s a monster.”

“You chose Uncle over your own child. You’re the monster.”

“You don’t know how I suffered. How I—”

“We all suffered. Uncle tormented all of us. The difference is us kids didn’t have any choice. You adults—you, and my mom, and Star and Smoke and Jacob and the rest—all of you chose to suffer. Chose freely. Because you were messed up and perverted, and you liked it. And now you have the nerve to act like you’re the one who suffered? No, Caroline. You were Uncle’s enabler. You were complicit. You’re just like all the other women in the world who let men abuse their children, who just stand by and watch, wringing their hands as though they can’t do anything. You could have. You could’ve saved us. You could’ve stopped everything in its tracks. You could’ve gotten us to safety. It would’ve saved Quill’s life. But no. You chose to stay because you liked being kicked around. Get out of my house. Now. Get out, or I’m calling the sheriff.”

“Call the sheriff?” she says. “You? No, you wouldn’t dare.”

“Get out,” I whisper.

She’s getting to her feet, clumping past me in her heavy orthopedic sneakers, holding her purse awkwardly to her midsection. “I’m surprised you keep leaving him alone with your girl,” she says. She radiates loathing so thick I can almost smell it. “You of all people should know better.”

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