Hansel 4 by Ella James

me.”
    His eyes widen. I watch his throat move as he swallows.
    “I told my sister Lana who you were, and she told Mom. The next day, she was at my house. Offering to turn herself in. Offering whatever you might want. She seems to feel like shit. Which she should. So, cool. Fuck her.”
    Another look at him reveals he’s slipped into his poker face. I decide to say a little more, just to clarify things, so in a while, when we part, I can feel like we got everything talked out.
    “My mother told me what happened. How they told you they were going to adopt you, and then they decided that they couldn’t, so they found someone to take you. Synthia, she told them. But my mom and I have sussed it out. It was Mother.” I exhale slowly, and take a slow, deep breath, because it hurts to face these facts. “My parents made you her first victim.”
    He nods slowly. His fingers, around the steering wheel, tighten.
    “You didn’t tell me,” I say.
    He pulls into the right lane, exiting the interstate, but he doesn’t speak or look at me.
    “Why did you keep that part from me?” I ask softly.
    “Simpler,” he says after a beat.
    “To omit that Mother knew about me already, probably because she met my parents? You didn’t tell her about me, Luke. She probably knew.” I huff another breath out, working not to lose my shit. “It’s not your fault I was taken! Mother knew we lived in Boulder. It probably came up in the transaction. My parents…God, they practically sold you into slavery.”
    “Don’t say that shit,” he growls.
    “Why not?”
    He lets his breath out. His eyes stay on the road ahead of us. “I don’t like to think of it that way.”
    “It is that way.”
    “Damnit, Leah. I fucking know it is.” He rubs a scar-striped hand over his eyes as we turn into a residential area. “I don’t like to think of it that way. It’s…bothering.”
    “Of course it is,” I snap. “You should be bothered. If you weren’t, I’d think that you were dead inside. A robot.”
    He exhales slowly. “Well I’m not. A robot.” I watch his cheeks color a little. He rolls his lips together, clearly killing time before he says more. “I had the house demolished,” he says softly.
    “What?”
    “They started yesterday.” His eyes slide sideways, finding mine. “I hope you’re not too angry.”
    “Angry? Why would I be—”
    “Because,” he says. “You didn’t get to see your room.”
    I bark a laugh. “Fuck that. I couldn’t be happier to see it go. That’s freakin’ great, Luke. Best thing I’ve heard today.”
    “I’m glad you’re not upset.”
    “No—not at all.” I look around us, at the sprawling houses on narrow, one-way streets. “Where are we going?”
    “Have you ever heard of Observatory Park?”
    He slows the car as we start to pass a grassy field, framed by four streets. Near the north edge of the field, there’s a little building with a domed top.
    “An old observatory,” he says. He parks along the curb, and I look down at my hands, feeling confused.
    “Why did you bring me here?”
    “This isn’t where we’re going. Just a stop.”
    I look up at him. “I’m totally confused.”
    He looks out the window. Silence twines between us. Then he clears his throat.
    “You know…I could have killed her sooner. Any time almost, if I had…wanted to. But near the end, things changed. She started…talking shit about you, Leah.” His wide, stark eyes move over mine, then boomerang back to the driver’s side window.
    “Talking shit?” My heart stutters.
    “She knew about the hole in the wall. She knew I liked to hold your hand, and she was crazy. She was jealous of you. She started talking about you too much. It made me nervous.”
    “So you killed her? That seems like a stretch.” There’s obviously more to that story, but whether he’ll want to confide in me is anybody’s guess.
    I watch him shift his shoulders, as if the memories are aching inside him, and he can’t