“I’m not listening to it.” I could hear the endless assault of hateful words being lashed out at Noelle, and I had to make them stop. She was mine to protect now and no one would hurt her ever again.
Before I could grab the phone, Noelle hung up pressing the bright red end key. My world ended and started with his woman. Without thought I cradled her to my chest, only pulling back so that I could press my lips to her throat and whispered a sorry just loud enough that she could hear it. Her mother was hurting her and therefore she was hurting me.
“Don’t be. It’s not you that said those words. It’s not you that does nothing but lash out in hate. It’s not you that’s constantly trying to hurt me.” The pain she was feeling flooded me, sweeping through my body in waves. I wanted to take her in my arms, wrap her in bubble wrap, and hide her from the rest of the world.
“Still I’m sorry. I’ll be the one to say sorry for her, because she will never see a fault in the things she did. I would still hate her, even if she didn’t fuck up my childhood. Simply because she has hurt you and keeps hurting you.” I couldn’t hide the honesty or the way I was feeling. The truth was, Noelle had it way worse than I ever did growing up. My father might have been absent from my life, but I still had my mother who loved and cared for me. I didn’t have someone like Viviana constantly hating me for the person I was, wanting to change every single thing about me, because I didn’t live up to her expectations.
“Sometimes home has a heartbeat, Royal. You’re my heart. My everything. My all. I love you to the ends of the Earth and back again.” The air around me shifted as she expelled the words. She hadn’t said it yet, even though I knew how she felt about me. I held her to my chest, reminding myself of why I hated her in the beginning. She wasn’t better than me. She was the same as me. We were just two lost souls trying to find one another.
So I said the words that told her I all along.
“I already know.” Then I sealed it with a kiss.
Noelle was my princess.
My love.
My existence.
Chapter Thirty-Two
-Noelle
You know that feeling you get when you fall off of a bike for the first time after just getting your training wheels taken off? The way your hands ache as they skid across the rough ground, or maybe the scrapes and never ending bumps and bruises that come with learning to ride that bike?
When I pictured my mom, I pictured that bike. Some of us were good at riding, some of us enjoyed riding, and others just hated it. I was one of those people that hated it, and my mom was the bike, always breaking down, and always causing me to crash into shit. She was the reason for all the scrapes and bruises I had, and for every minuscule amount of pain I’ve endured.
Still the bruises healed. The scraps turned into scabs and then eventually disappeared, leaving no sign of them ever being there in the first place. I could feel it the minute I cut my mom off from my life that all of that pain was going away. The hurt from her words lessened. It wasn’t me that was at fault for all the hateful things she did. No, she did most of those things before I was ever even born. It was instilled in her to be as she was, and nothing not even her own daughter being born would or could change that.
“It’s not like I meant to come out here uninvited, Olivia.” Mark’s voice shattered my internal thoughts. The reason he failed to answer his phone was apparently because he was on a plane on his way out here to check on me.
“You know I’m not comfortable with any of this,” Olivia said, clearly aggravated with Mark being here. I understood that irritation. She still loved Mark, and having him here would only agitate those feelings more. It was like rubbing salt over an open wound. It hurt.
“Her mother said some pretty hurtful things about her. I got most of it on recording, but I wanted to let Noelle know before her mother contacted her about anything.”
Contacted me?
“Contacted me? I just called her a few hours ago. All she did was yell at me and tell me how worthless I was. How she only was with you for your money and tried to get you to believe that I was yours when I wasn’t.” Even bringing up the conversation in my mind was like hearing her say the words all over again.
Mark looked sad, as if he wasn’t sure what to say. “I’ve got enough evidence that I can finally divorce her, so I won’t have you listen to the recording. Just know that I offered her a lump sum of cash to leave you and Royal alone. She let me know she was accepting it when I got off the plane.”
Olivia walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my small frame. I should have been more hurt than I was, or maybe I was just used to it by now. Used to the pain because it was a constant in my life.
“This is your home now,” Olivia and Royal both said at the same time. I hugged Olivia back, putting as much effort and love into that hug as I could.