There Is No Devil Sinners Duet Book 2 By Sophie Lark-pdfread

“It’s alright,” I tell her. “You can ask.”
“What happened to your mother?”
Why is it still so hard to say the words out loud?
I hate that it hurts me. I hate that I care.
“She hung herself,” I say.
Mara winces. She takes my hand, squeezing it tight.
I look down at her hand, wondering why that feels so good. Why it comforts
me.
Maybe because no one knows better than Mara what it feels like to be young,
frightened, and deeply alone.
“I felt like an orphan. I had no warmth or connection from my father. Ruben
terrified me. He was already showing his aggression, as much as he could get
away with. He tripped me on the stairs. I broke my arm. He said it was an
accident, and I was too young for my father to believe anything else. Later,
he tried to drown me on the beach below the house. He kept pushing me
under the waves, over and over again, laughing like it was a joke. All I could
see was his teeth and the wild look in his eyes, and then he’d shove me under
again, before I could get any air.
“That time my father saw it. He hauled me out. It was the first time I saw him
truly angry at Ruben. Ruben was more careful after that. But I knew he hated
me. He was jealous when my father gave me attention. He sabotaged me any
chance he got.”
Mara rises from the couch to inspect the photograph once more. She brushes
the glass out of the frame, frowning at Ruben’s handsome face, clear and
uncovered.
“It was around that time I started to draw. I had always liked tinkering with
machinery, working with my hands. My father encouraged that because he
could see the use of it. He didn’t like me sketching. He didn’t care for the arts
at all. He only donated to them because he knew philanthropy was part of
empire-building.”