A Hatred Most Pure novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: First Wrong

I took off the coat and let it fall on the stone floor.

My hands were still tied, and I held them out to him.

He cut the cord with a knife from his belt and tossed the knife on the table.

"Say it," he said.

"The first thing I did was take your shoes."

My voice sounded flat and steady in the quiet room.

"You were seven. They were the only pair you had. I threw them off the end of the pier into the harbor and told you to go and get them."

"And did I?"

"No. You walked home barefoot over the frozen road." I made myself keep looking at him. "You left blood on the stones, and I watched you from the fish-house window."

He stood very still.

Then he crossed the floor in three strides and took hold of the front of my shirt.

"Is that all?"

"That's the first."

"There are more."

"There are more," I said. "I could stand here and say them until morning."

"Not tonight."

His other hand came up under my jaw and tilted my head back, the bare hand, the hot one.

His eyes went down to my mouth and stayed there so long I thought he would do it.

Then he turned my face aside with his thumb.

"No," he said, to himself more than me. "Not that. I don't do that with you."

"Fine," I said.

I was angry, and I was twisting my hands in his coat, and I didn't know which of those two things was the reason my knees had gone weak.

"If you want me to pay it, then take it."

His whole body went tight.

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