Page 164 of Unholy Masks

“You won, Yara Kent.”

“Of course I did.” I stared down at her. “I have too much to lose in this game. You had nothing to lose.”

“I lost you,” she breathed. “How did you know it was me?”

She looked sad now. Tired. But I didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy for her. Not after everything she had put me through. Not after all the lives she had taken.

“The paintings. I finally saw it. I finally recognized what had been there all along.”

“Did you recognize Tany’s eyes? Robert’s desperation when you murdered him?” Her voice was barely a whisper. “It was our life, Yara.”

“No,” I hissed. “This is my life. You…” I swallowed hard. “You were never a part of it. You made sure of that.”

I wrapped the garrote around her throat. My fingers shook, but I didn’t stop.

“If you had found me, if you had just said Tany’s name…” My grip tightened. “We could have been friends. I would have given you a place in my life.” I shook my head. “But there’s no use talking about that now, is there?”

“No,” she said.

Anger burned through me, hot and suffocating. I could barely breathe around it.

“You killed Kat.” I pulled the garrote tighter until she was gasping for breath. I let go. She looked at me with tearful eyes.

“Kill me.”

“Oh, I will, but you won’t get to die too soon. After everything you did…” I closed my eyes, my fingers pulling the garrote tighter.

I pitied Patty. She was only a little girl, struggling to survive. But this woman was not Patty. This was Trish. This was the same woman who killed everyone I loved, who hurt everyone I cherished.

“You took my Kat from me.” I wiped the tears. “Why?”

“Because Katelyn tried to change you,” Trish said, looking at me with an unapologetic smile, even as tears slid down her cheeks. I hated that smile.

“Do not smile.” I pulled her up by the garrote before slamming her head down, hard against the floor. Blood coated the wooden floor.

“Katelyn only loved the parts of you she believed were right. The good parts. The parts of you that were easy to digest.” She laughed. It was loud. Irreverent. “I loved your ugly parts.”

“If she loved only my good parts,” I bit out, “then you loved only my ugly side.”

Perhaps she was right.

Kat had wanted me to be good. But I didn’t think her love was any less because of it.

“Maybe that’s why both of us are wrong for you,” Trish said with a smile. It was real this time.

“Maybe that’s why I fell for Ryden.”

Because he loves both the good and ugly sides of me.

He had seen something in me that even I hadn’t. He knew I could be more. More than my darkness. More than my scars. More than the ugliness. But he also accepted the demons I carried.

She scoffed, but there was no real disgust in it.

“I know you’d never love me… if he’s alive. You could never love anyone if he’s alive.”

“And so you wanted to take him out? Do you truly think I would let you live if you had hurt Ryden? Hurt Irene?”

She shook her head. Her eyes gleamed in… was that victory?