“What did you do?” she whispered, dreading the answer.
“I didn’t want to do it. I just didn’t want you to leave me.” He lowered himself to the ground, straddling her. He slid the barrel of the gun from between her breasts up to the middle of her forehead. “A shot through the brain, and it would all be over. But there was so much blood. So much blood. And you weren’t dead. You begged me to call an ambulance. I made you promise you’d never leave me. But you lied. And I couldn’t take you with me. I had to leave you all alone.”
She trembled violently. “Oh my God. You killed Mom.”
His face dipped down and hovered over hers. “I didn’t want to, but the voices made me. They told me if I killed you, I’d never lose you. But they’ve gotten louder and louder. They never shut up. And they were wrong. You left me. Asa knew he done me wrong. Thou shalt not covet another man’s wife.”
“How long had they been . . . ?” She couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
He frowned and got to his feet, as if he wasn’t sure how he’d gotten on the ground in the first place. “Not sure. How long had he been her favorite?”
As long as she could remember.
She noticed he’d said “her” and not “you.” He knew she was Annaliese.
“Did anything happen between Mom and Mitch?” she asked, sick to her stomach. Wobbling, she got to her feet.
Her dad tipped his head as he thought about it. “I don’t think so. Tell you the truth, I never asked. He was such an angry child. And he turned into an angry man. He didn’t know how to take his beatings like you did.” He shook his finger at her. “I know that husband of yours is into that BDSM shit, so I’m assuming you are, too. Guess you liked what I did to you, huh? Maybe I should’ve locked you up in a dark closet without food or water for a couple of days to teach you a lesson. That’s what my daddy did to me. Believe me, once you sit in your own shit and urine for days on end, starving and thirsty as hell, you learn not to piss off the old man.”
She rested up against the wall, using it for support, and slowly inched toward the door. “What happens between my husband and me is none of your business. But just because someone enjoys the pain aspect of BDSM doesn’t mean she enjoyed getting hit and kicked by her father. There’s a world of difference between the two. My husband has never harmed me and has always respected my limits. You broke my ribs. You beat me out of anger. Don’t ever confuse yourself with my husband. He’s the greatest man I’ve ever known. I love him. But I hate you.”
He suddenly began smashing the butt of the gun into his head over and over until blood dripped down the side of his face. “It’s time for us to be together, Helen. Asa is gone. Mitch is gone. There’s nothing left for us here in this world. But we can be together in the next. This time, I won’t chicken out. I’m going to kill myself too. This time, we’ll go at the same time.”
“I’m not Helen,” she shouted. “I’m your daughter, Annaliese. And I don’t want to die.”
She ran toward the door, praying he wouldn’t shoot her in the back. Her fingers covered the doorknob and pulled, but nothing happened. She’d forgotten Asa had locked it. Her shaky fingers attempted to turn the lock.
“I wouldn’t open the door if I were you,” he warned. “It’s connected to the bomb I built. It started counting down the minute Asa closed the door. We’ve got about ten minutes left before it goes off, but if you want to go sooner, feel free to trigger it. I’m good either way.”
She jumped back and confirmed a thin black wire was wound around the doorknob. Her gaze followed along the length of the wire until it came to a metal briefcase in the far corner of the room.
“Don’t believe me?” he asked in a singsong voice. “Check the suitcase, but be very gentle when you open it. You wouldn’t want it to accidentally go off. You thought you married a no-good idiot, but could an idiot build a bomb strong enough to take out this room? Would an idiot know how to wire the door so that no one could go in and out? It’s time for you to admit you underestimated me, Helen.”
She believed him about the bomb, and there was no way she was going anywhere near it. “Fine. I underestimated you,” she said, not wasting her time convincing him she wasn’t Helen. “Now, will you disarm the bomb and let me go?”
He covered his ears. “I want to, but the voices, they won’t let me. They’re getting louder and louder. Shut up, shut up, shut up!”