Chapter 228: Tainted Memories

RILEY The tears came then, hot and bitter and completely unstoppable. They'd been building since the moment I walked into Andy's cell, since she'd looked at me with that twisted motherly smile and asked if I wanted to know the truth about what had happened to Mama Sophia.   But she'd also been the only mother I'd ever known. She'd held me when I had nightmares, had taught me how to read, had sung to me when I was sick. She'd been cruel and manipulative and probably incapable of real love, but she'd been mine. And they'd killed her like she was nothing.   "They made me watch," I whispered to Lake's unconscious form. "Andy made me see all of it. Every moment, from beginning to end. She said I deserved to know the truth about the people who claim to love me."   I could still hear Mama Sophia's voice in my head, could still see the way her face had looked in those final moments. Not like a monster or a villain, but like a woman who was terrified and alone and calling for the one person she