Page 146 of Wicked Little Secret
He’s coming in.
I take several steps back as a precaution.
The glass door slides back into place. The enclosure suddenly feels a lot tighter.
“Ready to finish me off?” I ask, trying to sound braver than I feel.
Professor Adler remains where he is, his expression controlled. “I’m ready to make you understand how wrong you’ve been.”
“Save it. There’s nothing you can say to explain what I’ve discovered. Are you saying you weren’t obsessed with my mother? With Josalyn Webber?”
No answer.
He inhales a deep breath, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “Sit down.”
“I don’t take orders from you. Let’s start there. Unless you’re about to let me go and turn yourself in, I have no interest in anything you have to say.”
“You would if you were interested in the truth.”
“I know the truth! You’re Valentine. Did my mother catch you in the act? Or did you kill Josalyn because she wouldn’t love you?”
His temper returns in the glare that narrows his eyesfrom behind his glasses. He takes several steps toward me until he’s within reach, though his arms remain at his sides. “I’ve already told you, I would never hurt her.”
“But you did. You killed her. And now history’s about to repeat itself, right? I’m next?”
“I would never hurt you either, Miss Oliver. Punish you? Yes. But truly hurt a hair on that beautiful head of yours? Never.”
“LIAR!” I scream in his face. “You killed my mother!”
“I did not kill her…” he snarls through clenched teeth. “Stop talking about things you don’t understand.”
“You killed Josalyn and buried her somewhere in that forest! And if I ever get out of here, I’m going to the police. I’m going to tell them all about how Valentine’s been under their noses this entire time!”
Professor Adler cuts me off with a hand to my throat. My eyes widen as he wrenches me toward him ’til my body’s flush against his and he’s giving me a threatening squeeze. Peering into his face, madness stares back at me.
It’s in his bared teeth. His curled lip. The muscle ticking in his jaw.
His dark eyes unsettlingly stuck on me and my every move.
“I. Did. Not. Kill. Her.” Anger punctuates each word, his hold on restraint fading by the second. “I would have never harmed her. I protected her. I… Ilovedher.”
A disbelieving laugh bubbles out of me the same time tears spring to my eyes. “You expect me to believe that? You expect me to believe a word you say after everything I know, Professor?”
“It’s the truth?—”
“It’s a lie!”
“No… it’s not a lie. It’s the tru?—”
“A LIE!” I yell over him, despite how I’m subdued in his hold. “IT’S A LIE! YOU KILLED HER!”
“SILENCE!”
He slaps a hand over my mouth to shut me up, his other still cinched around my throat. His dark eyes bore into mine as he stares at me so intensely, yet another cool shiver trickles my spine. “You insist on doing things the hard way, Miss Oliver. It seems to be the only way you’ll learn. Very well. I’ll show you the monster you think I am.”
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NYSSA