Page 145 of Forgotten Prejudice

“S-Shut up,” he snapped into my words, but I went on.

There are much bigger demons lurking between those pages.

“The DNA results show a perfect match between the victim and the—”

“I said shut up!” he shouted, clenching the folder in his fist. He then looked down, covering his face with his hands before moving them up to his scalp. “Just shut the fuck up.”

My stomach flipped, and my throat dried. I’d never held any attachment toward any of my previous clients, but this? Camilo? He was different. I knew he hated me, as he hated everyone around him, but his pain reached me.

“I know that with what happened to your sister, it’s hard for you to accept that this happened to Shay-Lee, too, but—”

“Don’t you dare say his name,” he hissed, voice hoarse. “Don’t you dare say his name like you know anything about him.” He finally looked at me again, his murderous eyes filled with so much rage and hate.

“I know that he was raped by his own father.”

“Shut up!” he roared, then tossed the folder away and charged at me. Despite his cuffs, he managed to get his hands around the collar of my shirt and pulled me closer. Everything happened so fast, and he was in my face before I could even recall my words.

“If you spit that shit to even one person, I swear to God I’ll murder you.” By now, the guards had already come into the room and tried separating us, only Camilo didn’t budge and held my shirt so tight it was hard to breathe. “You hear me?”

I nodded.

“So don’t you dare bring it up in court, or I’ll confess. I’ll confess to everything they are accusing me of.” He finally dropped his hands, and I gasped for air just as the guard pulled him away from me.

“You got that?” he hissed while fighting the man pulling him out of the room.

“Y-Yeah,” I gasped, my throat burning with the need for air.

Camilo was already out of the room, but I still heard his shouts. He was screaming, and so were the guards, but his voice was stronger, carrying through the halls like thunder. Eventually, the voices stopped, and shocked, I stared around the empty room.

I knew Camilo would take it hard, but I didn’t expect him to react this way. This new revelation was supposed to be my way of getting him out of here. Yet, he refused. More than that. Camilo said that he’d confess if I were to take this thing public. I thought we finally had the upper hand, only to discover that we didn’t, and instead, we’d only added more pain to this horror show.

Kai

I’d been fucking up a lot lately.

Like, a lot.

The fact Ash had agreed to come to my place for dinner was a miracle in itself, considering what happened last Saturday. Fucking that waitress was a huge mistake, and I swore something like that would never happen again.

I was done with hookups.

But what if you fuck up again?

The voice in the back of my head nagged me as I stirred the sauce for our dinner. Grinding my jaw, I tried blocking those thoughts away. What I needed to do right now was to focus on the food, to make sure everything turned out tasty and that nothing would get burned.

Burned.

Shit. I’d completely forgotten about the lasagna cooking in the oven. I was supposed to take it out five minutes ago, but caught up in my screwed head, I forgot. Opening the oven, I grabbed the metal pan to pull it out.

“Fuck,” I hissed, quickly withdrawing my hand. I’d forgotten to use a towel—what a rookie mistake—and now I’d fucking burned myself. “Shit, shit, shit.” I held my hand close to my lips, trying to blow air on it to cool it down.

“What’s wrong?” Ash popped into the kitchen, worry written on his face.

“Got a small burn,” I yelped as he quickly reached to grab my hand.

“Shit, that looks bad. Do you have any Vaseline or burn ointment?”

“Yeah,” I wheezed. “In the bathroom cabinet.”