To make the biological daughter he’d only just found feel at home, my father personally carved my Core from my body. Then my fiancé beat me thirty times with a belt.
They told me if I called off the engagement, it would all be over.
Later, they staged an elaborate charade to make me believe our family was destroyed, all to force me to break.
That night, my grandmother, my mother, my two sisters-in-law, and my five-year-old niece all died.
Before they pushed open the chapel doors, the last thing they said was, “It’s only one night. How bad can it be?”
The doors opened.
My grandmother sat peacefully on the pew, her chest still. My mother and both my sisters-in-law were gone. My niece lay in my arms, her small body already cold.
I was wearing a wedding dress, with blood still crusted at the corner of my mouth.
By the time the sun rose, every woman in the Romano family was dead.
Make Them Regret It Chapter 24 The day before I left the Romano family, Isabella sent word that she wanted to see me one last time. By then, she was already in the Alaska mining district. The transport plane was stopping in New York for half an hour. I went. She was painfully thin, and
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 23 When my grandmother took the poison, she wasn’t thinking about her legacy. When my mother closed her eyes, she believed her husband and sons were already dead. Before my sisters-in-law died, all they felt was terror. If there had been a way to live, who would have chosen to
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 22 “She kept her hand on her stomach,” I said. “Even at the very end, she never let go.” My second brother collapsed, pressing his face to the cold floor, and didn’t move again. My older brother hadn’t spoken a word. He was clutching something in his hand, his knuckles
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 21 That night, my father and my two brothers came to the vigil room. Five new photographs had been placed there. My father knelt at the front. In just a few days, his hair had turned completely white, and his back was bent with age. “Blythe,” he said, “I’ve confessed
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 20 I reached up and unclasped my half of the pendant from my neck. A flicker of hope lit Colton’s eyes. “Colton,” I said, “you stood in that doorway and watched them cut my Core out of me, and all you said was, ‘Endure it.’” “When you beat me on
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 19 Colton stepped out of the car in a tailored black suit and walked straight toward me. He had lost weight. His eyes were shot with blood. “Blythe,” he said, “I’ve come to take you home.” “I know I’m late. But our engagement still stands. You never signed the papers.”
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 18 After dark, the crying started. At first, it was just sobbing. Then came the pounding on the door. Then screams. “Let me out! I know I was wrong! Sister, I know I was wrong!” “It’s too cold… it’s so dark…” “Dad! Dad, come save me! You promised you’d protect
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 17 The private chapel. That evening, Isabella was carried inside. No heat. No lights. When the door shut, I stood outside and listened as one of the guards spoke. They were the same two guards from that night. They had been punished with a life sentence, confined to the chapel
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 16 The doctor said there was only one way: a high-risk fusion surgery. It was the most aggressive method possible to implant the Core back into my body. The chance of success was less than fifty percent, and it would cost me years of my life. “Think carefully,” the doctor
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Make Them Regret It Chapter 15 “Blythe, no!” My father rushed up the steps and stood between me and Isabella. “The Core has been inside her for a month. It’s already fused with her body. If you take it out now, she’ll die.” I looked at him. “When you took mine, no one asked if
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