I knelt down in front of her.
“I approved you being here, Alice,” I whispered, keeping my voice low. “It’s what my father would have wanted.”
She looked up at me, her eyes red and puffy. I nodded slowly.
“They loved you, Alice. More than anything in the world. And honestly? that’s why mother hated me so much. Why she abused me. Because I wasn’t you.”
Alice looked down, a wave of terrible guilt across her face.
I reached out and gently raised her chin with my thumb. “Don’t you dare bear a cross that is not yours to carry. You have too many of your own sins to pretend like you’re a good person. Say goodbye to them. And after this, you will never get out. You will pay for everything you put me through.”
She nodded quickly, tears spilling onto her cheeks. I released her and moved away,
