CHAPTER 9

I would use the same five words to describe myself as I would describe someone who has little to no hope. It is not how I want to see myself, but it is what evidence can show. As my eyes passed over the photo of myself, I could feel hope leave my body.

It was my senior photo. I'm not sure how he obtained it because his father died before he had an opportunity to buy them. My brows furrowed in perplexity as I looked down at myself.

"What did he do to those girls?" I inquired. My eyes wouldn't let me glance up. They stayed fixated on a smiling photograph of me. A photograph in which the notion of my mother did not exist, and none of this had become a reality.

"Well, let's just say Alex doesn't exactly show affection to women," Angelo said. I wanted to smack him in the face because he made this look like a joke. Instead, I sought to figure together what this all meant.

"He slaughtered these ladies. Why?" I asked.

"Okay, now. No one suggested he killed them; he just didn't choose them," h