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“Where’s dad?” She asked him, and he crouched down beside me.

As though he was gathering his thoughts, he looked at me… then Samantha… and finally back at Nirah.

“Oh wait.” Nirah… giggled? “He’s always been bad at hide and seek.” A smile spread across her face. Hide and seek? “Do you smell that?” Her spine straightened as she sniffed once before looking around and Nereus and I shared a quick glance of confusion. Nirah leaned in toward Nereus. “I think mom’s burning the cookies again.” She chuckled. “Wait!” She gasped. “I need to show her my new princess dress!” she beamed and when I glanced over at Nereus, his face softened.

“The yellow one?” Nereus’ tone held hesitation.

With an ear to ear smile she nodded. “Uh huh.”

“With glitter?” He asked, motioning his hand in front of his chest and she was practically beaming as she nodded in confirmation.

He took her hands in his and pulled her up to her feet. I stood too, and Samantha stepped beside me.

Nirah’s smile wavered as she looked up at Nereus when he spoke. “Mom and dad aren’t here.”

She slightly tilted her head to the side. “Where are they?”

He licked his lips, then ran his thumb over the back of her fingers. “They’re busy right now, but they wanted you to go with Antonio.”

She frowned and looked over at me before stepping closer to Nereus. “Stranger danger, Nereus,” she whispered. “Don’t you remember what dad said?”

“He’s not a stranger. He’s… dads friend.”

Nirah eyed me. “Are you sure?” she asked Nereus who nodded.

“Yeah.” He reassured her. “Why don’t you go with Samantha for now, and I’ll catch up, okay?”

She sighed, dropping her shoulders. “Okay.”

Samantha rushed over and placed a light arm around her. “Let’s go.” She smiled down at Nirah before leading her out of the room.

“Do you know why I’m in this weird place?” Nirah whispered as she looked around.

The two of them exited the living room and all eyes were on Nereus as we approached him.

“What the fuck was that?” I grabbed him by his shirt, lifting him off the ground.

“She thinks—” he started, trying to pull my hands from him. “She’s confused. Whatever they did must’ve fucked her up because she thinks it’s the day my mother was taken from us.”

A beat passed and I let go of him. He straightened out his shirt and continued.

“She wasn’t feeling well that day and stayed home from school. When I got home my mom was baking cookies to make her feel better. My dad had been playing hide and seek with her in the meantime.” He looked down then ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “We were in Nirah’s room when we heard the commotion downstairs. Some guys grabbed our mom, and my dad told us to hide and he’d find us.”

My pulse drummed in my neck.

“Hours later we eventually went downstairs and I found the kitchen empty with smoke coming from the oven. Nirah found our dad in the bathtub… laying in his own blood.”

I ran my hand over my mouth, shifting my eyes to Ren’s dead body. What the fuck did they do to her…?

My fists clenched at my sides. I should’ve spared his life and tortured him to death for whatever he put her through.

“I don’t know what they did to her, but it fucked with her head.” Nereus glanced in the direction she left in.

“Boss…” Kiril grabbed my attention. “You need to see this.”

I followed him through the house and he led me down a staircase. We entered a cold room with a huge circular tub of water in the centre of the room. A dead body floated in the middle of the tub with cords attached to it.

“I think they were fucking with her head,” Kiril announced, drawing my attention to the part of the room filled with screens and what looked like test results.