The way he spoke sent a chill down my spine, and it wasn’t even me he was directing it at—I watched my mother swallow hard as her eyes grew wide. Cain knelt down so he was at eye level with her.

“Your theory about there being two killers was correct. I thought you might like to know that and wanted to congratulate you on your persistence. I happen to have a twin with peculiar tastes, but we’ve worked together since children to perfect out teamwork. It’s too bad all that information will be destroyed soon. All your hard work going up in smoke…figuratively speaking of course. Right now, as we speak, your computers are sadly experiencing difficulties as a virus makes its way through your system and destroys all your precious files.”

“This can’t be real.”

“I’d like to thank you for your daughter. She is….” Cain looked up at me, and my heart warmed. “She is exceptional, even if you don’t see it, and I’m going to enjoy spending the rest of my life with her.”

“No, this can’t be happening,” my mother said.

“Sunshine, what would you like me to do?” I looked at my mother, who was now sweating so much that her face had a sheen to it. Then she looked at Peter, who was trying hard to play the part of possum, but I remembered every shitty, abusive thing he’d ever said or done, including when he attacked me in his car. Walking forward, I looked down at my mother and then knelt beside Cain so I could stare into her eyes.

“Maybe you should’ve loved me over your image or ambition just a little bit more. Maybe I wouldn’t have fallen in love with a man that’s going to happily kill you and display you for all of your agent friends to find.”

“Kirby, don’t you dare do this. I’m still your mother,” she said, and her tone was begging, but all I saw was her condescending face spilling her lies.

“You’re callus, mother—callus, cold and self-serving. I’m not sure how I ended up being birthed by you, and I’m happy that Dad was in my life, even if you think he was a bad influence. He accepted me, he loved me, and he was around. Do you know I don’t have one birthday picture with you, and you weren’t at my high school graduation or cheer championships? I want you to think about all those mistakes you’ve made while all you concerned yourself with was getting to the top.