The Soil Beneath Us

I choked back a wave of nausea and hit 'Send,' watching the progress bar load the intimate photo. He replied instantly with heart emojis, thinking he had finally won my affection. He didn't know he was just the prey. I had spent twenty-seven years weaving this trap, degrading myself to get close to the monster who took my little brother, just to make him whisper one thing: where he hid the body. But I was the one in the dark. If my late father could speak from his grave, he wouldn't cheer for my vengeance. He would look at me with tear-filled eyes and say: "Stop looking, baby girl. You're searching the world for an answer I buried in the backyard with my own shovel decades ago."