Chapter 2
“Ma’am,” the guard said, “he’s okay. Passed out. Mr. Masterson had rescue pads installed under the crane. He landed safely.”
I collapsed. I sobbed so hard I couldn’t see. Hakeem came over, all calm and proud. “This is what happens when you disobey me,” he said quietly. “Let’s not go through that again.”
Then he walked off.
Rain started pouring.
And I… I stood there. Alone with my brother. Soaking wet. Numb.
I pulled out the old burner phone I kept hidden in the lining of my bag. The one he didn’t
know about.
I dialed.
“It’s me,” I said. My voice was cold. Empty. “I want out. I’ve got one month. Erase everything. I want to disappear.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
After Hakeem left me there on that goddamn site, I carried Aziel on my back through the storm. No car. No guards. Just the rain beating down on us like the world wanted us dead.
His body was burning with fever. Mine wasn’t any better. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I held
him up
o all night, stumbling
“ot through mud and gravel, until we reached the estate.
I collapsed right at the front gate.
Next thing I knew, I was in a hospital bed, shivering, hooked up to an IV. They said I’d been unconscious for three days. Fever was too high and my body nearly gave out.
Aziel was in the next room. Weak, scared, but alive.
Hakeem didn’t visit us. Not once. He was too busy playing house with Margaret.
On the fourth day, they discharged both of us.
When we got home… I saw Margaret. Curled up in Hakeem’s lap like a damn queen. She didn’t even look surprised to see me.
Hakeem didn’t even look up from stroking her hair. “Margaret doesn’t like storms. She’ll be staying in the master bedroom for now. You’ll move to the guest room.”
I didn’t cry. Didn’t scream. I just stood there.
“Fine,” I said, voice flat. “Whatever you want.”
I
He didn’t know what those three days were like for me. The hell I walked through. The way my tears soaked into a hospital pillow until I had nothing left inside me.
The love I had for him didn’t just fade. It died. I didn’t want his love anymore. Not if this
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was what it looked like.
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That night, while I was unpacking in the guest room, he came to the door and leaned against the frame like nothing happened.
“Oh, Harmony,” he said, real casual. “Margaret’s got a therapy pet. You’ll take care of it.”
I froze. “What?”
The front door opened and out came a man in a raincoat, holding a thick plastic container with holes. Inside it was a massive python, coiled and twitching under the light.
I stumbled back, hitting the cabinet so hard my shoulder cracked. Hakeem knew what snakes did to me. He knew. After my dad died, my mom, Aziel, and I lived in this shack behind an old scrap yard. One night a python slid through the cracks in the floorboards. Wrapped around my ankle before I could scream. I still have the scar. Still remember the sound it made hissing in the dark.
But Hakeem just said lazily, “I know you’re scared, but the doctor says it helps her anxiety. That snake’s her medicine. Be a good wife, yeah? Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
There was a threat under those words. Quiet but sharp. Like a noose pulling tight behind the smile.
I bit down my pride. Swallowed every last bit of dignity I had. “A–alright,” I said. “I’ll take care of it.”
Margaret smiled like I’d just handed her my throne. “Thanks, Harmony. Oh, and isn’t it sweet? His name’s Armie. Same as yours.”
I blinked. My heart clenched. And I smiled through the burn. “Adorable.”
After that, I fed it. Cleaned its tank. I stayed far as I could, only using tongs and gloves. The damn thing would lift its head and hiss every time I got close. One night, it tried to lunge at me through the glass. I nearly dropped the whole tank.
I didn’t sleep that night.
A week passed. I came home from the market, Aziel trailing behind me quietly right away, clutching a juice box. Then I heard crying.
I dropped the groceries, rushed in and found Margaret shaking on the floor. The snake’s tank was tipped over. Hakeem was pacing like a demon, eyes wild.
“Where the fuck is the doctor?!”
Margaret looked up, face streaked with tears, then pointed at Aziel with a trembling hand. “Him,” she whispered. “He did it. He killed Armie…”
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I blinked, stunned. “What?!”
Hakeem turned to me, his voice a low growl. “What the hell did she just say?”
Margaret sniffled, pulled herself up, holding something in her hand a shattered ceramic dish from the tank. “I saw it. He reached in when I stepped out. Started smashing. I tried to stop him, but it was too late.”
“No!” I snapped, stepping between them. “He wouldn’t. Aziel wouldn’t hurt anything. He doesn’t even step on ants. He covers his ears when people yell. You’re lying.”
Margaret looked at me like I just confessed to the murder myself. “He has episodes, doesn’t he? You told me that. He didn’t understand what he was doing. He snapped.” Margaret clung to Hakeem’s arm, fake–sobbing. “That snake was my only comfort, Hakeem… and she let him kill it.”
He stared at me. Not with rage. With disappointment.
“Your brother murdered her therapy animal.”
“No, Hakeem, please, he didn’t! How can an eight years old kid-”
“You’ve fucked up again, sweetheart.” Then he nodded once to the guards. “Teach the boy a lesson.”
Aziel’s eyes widened. He backed into the wall, shaking. “No, no, no–I didn’t… I didn’t touch
it…”
I ran in front of him.
“NO!” I screamed. “Whip me instead. Please. Don’t touch him. He doesn’t understand what’s happening!”
“Move,” the guard said.
I spread my arms, hugging Aziel tight. “Whip me! I’m the one you hate, right? I’m the one who failed you. Then punish me.”
Hakeem didn’t speak. The whip cracked through the air.
The first lash hit my back like a blade. I screamed, but I didn’t let go of Aziel. He was crying, trembling in my arms, and I held him tighter.
The second lash tore skin. Blood bloomed.
By the fifth, my knees buckled. The world blurred.
By the seventh, I collapsed over Aziel, shielding him with my body, whispering, “It’s okay… it’s okay… don’t be scared…
They kept going.
Until I stopped moving.
ט כ כ
Until all I heard was Aziel sobbing into my hair.
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Until everything faded into black.
