Little Liar (The Web of Silence Duet, #2)

by Leigh Rivers

When I turn eight, I don’t get any birthday cards or a cake like the other kids in the orphanage—I sit under the bed with a drawing of my spider and imagine a crowd of people singing happy birthday to me, and we blow out candles that I draw. I close my eyes and make a wish. I wish someone would choose me.

Without thinking, because I want her to like me too, I lift my hands and sign, Please don’t be afraid of me.

Seeing his POV makes me tear up. He just wanys to be uderstood.

“And you. You’re on a strike, little man. Two more, and your ass is going to another new home. You’re Malachi Vize now, and the Vizes don’t step out of line, so get used to it.”

Lol fuck you too

She won’t be taken from me. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll be good. I’ll do as I’m told. I’ll be the kid they obviously needed to complete their family. Olivia. My new little sister. I couldn’t protect my mom or Rex, but I think I could protect her. I will protect her. Because she’s mine.

I’m imagining him in a body bag. Bloodied. Ripped to shreds. Diced and minced and pulverized. No longer in existence. No one will ever be good enough for Olivia.

“Mom has been preparing me for this since I was a kid. She was even excited when I got my period because it gives the arrangement a better value.”

That makes me sick.

Those voices are calling me a little liar while a devil chuckles on my shoulder. I’m a sneaky prick, and I don’t care.

Olivia. I want to chase you. I want to catch you. I want to fuck you until you scream so loud, you lose your voice just like I have.

Because I can’t talk? Because I can’t tell you how fucking breathtaking you are every second of every day? Because I can’t breathe without being near you? Someone like me… I’m different—I can’t be normal for you. I can’t defend you without using my fists or my bat, and I can’t touch you at the same time as telling you that you’re everything to me. I can’t whisper sweet nothings into your mouth, and I can’t fucking marry you because not only am I your brother, but I’m defective.

Anxiety has been eating away at me—the kind that wakes you through the night as if you’ve been strangled. The kind where you can’t find your appetite. The kind that makes you think you’re losing your mind.

It’s not the one I used on Olivia.

HAHAHA

The woman who raised us.

BRO WHAT

But what you are to me is something more than any words can explain. If someone found a way to remove you from existence, I would burn the world before making sure my soul found yours in the afterlife.

I’m one man. But I’ll fight. For you, I’d do anything.

I see Olivia grinning at me and holding up seven fingers in her princess dress. The image distorts, and I’m being pushed on a swing. “Will we go for some ice cream?” I hear as the world darkens around me. “You’re such a good kid, Malachi,” the darkness says, echoing and falling into the distance as my mind goes silent.

“Maybe I should be the one to put another heir in her. You could pretend the child is yours,” Igor offers,

Sicko.

Adryx smirks. “I get to kill my father.”

Lets fucking go!!

“Please save me,” she says shakily, loud enough for only me to hear.

I love you now. I loved you yesterday. When we were kids. When we were teens. When you had me thrown in jail and when I found you again. I’ll love you tomorrow. Next month. Next year. When you’re mothering my child. And when we’re old and gray, I’ll love you even more, because I’ll have had a fucking lifetime to fall more and more in love with you. Is that enough for you, Olivia? Do you need more from me?