I spent some time in front of the mirror giving myself a pep talk, not terribly concerned with having left Warin alone with my relatives. He could handle himself in a group of small-minded humans just fine—especially when they were all fawning all over him due to his obvious wealth.
“Olivia?” My mother’s voice sounded from the other side of the bathroom door, followed by a rap of her knuckles. “Open up.”
I grimaced at my own reflection. “Just a minute, Mom.”
She rapped her knuckles against the door again, and I allowed myself a deep breath before I unlocked it. “Hey, sorry, I’ll get out of yo—“
“What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed, grabbing onto my arm when I tried to walk past her.
“What do you mean?” I asked as calmly as I could, even as my heart sped up to overdrive, my knees feeling oddly weak as adrenaline kicked in.
“How dare you speak to me like that in front of the family! I’ve never been more humiliated! If you think you’ll endear yourself to that man by mouthing off to your own mother, you’re in for a nasty surprise. He’ll dump you the second he realizes what a trashy piece of shit you are.” The contempt in my mother’s eyes cut through my chest, making me tremble as I struggled to keep calm and breathe evenly.
“Is this about cleaning the stupid table?” I managed.
“It’s about you and your big mouth, as it always is, Olivia! God, I don’t understand what went wrong with you! I’ve given you everything—everyone has! You’ve had everything served to you on a silver platter, and what do you do? Throw it in my face the second you’re asked for the tiniest favor!” She shook my shoulder, eyes wide with fury. “You ungrateful, spoiled cun—“
I gust of wind cut her short. An extremely pissed-looking Warin was inches from her face, and the hand she’d been holding onto me with was uselessly raised in the air, the vampire’s fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist.
“Be. Quiet,” he hissed, and when he spoke I saw the length of his fangs gleaming menacingly.
My mother trembled in his grasp, eyes bulging with fear—but she was completely silent.
“If you ever speak to Liv like that again, you’ll regret it. If you ever touch her, you’ll regret it. If you ever mention another ill word about her to anyone in this family, you’ll regret it. Have I made myself clear?” he asked, and though his voice was low, the deadly quality to it gave me goosebumps.
My mother nodded violently, though.
“You’ll never be able to tell anyone, in any way, what I’ve told you tonight—or even that you fear me. But you will remember my words. And you will live the rest of your miserable life knowing that just one mistake will bring you pain like nothing you’ve ever experienced.” Warin released his hold on her wrist and, after one final stare through narrowed eyes, turned to me. “Come, Liv. It’s time to leave.”
23
Neither one of us uttered a word on the drive back to the hotel. Warin was quietly seething by my side, knuckles tight around the steering-wheel. And I… I was too stunned to say anything, or even wipe away the steady streams of tears rolling down my cheeks.
At the hotel, Warin walked me to my room, a hand resting on the small of my back as a gentle but constant reminder that he’d kept his promise—he’d stuck by my side through a night I hadn’t known how to get through.
And he’d stood up for me, like no one ever had. Not even me, truth be told. I’d never had the strength to. There’d always been that small voice at the back of mind telling me that I deserved what my family said to me. What they did.
It wasn’t until tonight, until Warin had showed me that I truly wasn’t alone, that I realized that voice had been my mother’s all along.
Once inside my suite, Warin walked over to the side of my bed and sat down, face still drawn with anger.
I sucked in a shuddering breath and wiped at my eyes, calm finally closing in around me now that there was a closed door between me and the rest of the world. “You don’t have to stay. I’m okay, and Aleric must be expecting you.”
“He can wait. Come here, little one. Please.”
I bit my lip, hesitating. On one hand, I wanted nothing more than to be with him right now… because I knew no one else would ever take away the pain. But on the other hand, I knew if I sat on that bed, I’d not be able to hide my brokenness anymore. And there’d be no coming back from that.
“Liv,” he said, so softly I knew if I closed my eyes his words would feel like a caress. “Tell me.”
And so I sat on the bed, letting him intertwine his slender fingers with mine.
And I told him everything.
I told him about my dad leaving my mom to never get in touch again when I had just turned three, about how she’s always resented me for looking so much like him, reminding her of how he'd mistreated her. I told him about how that meant I'd grown up feeling ugly and unlovable. I told him about the man she met when I was four—my sister's dad, Bruce—about how he was so outgoing, successful, and well-loved by the entire family, especially my mom.
And while carefully avoiding Warin’s gaze, I told him how I, when I was seven, had confessed to my Mom that Bruce was touching me.
Warin’s thumb, which had been gently stroking over mine again and again while I talked, stopped. But I didn’t. I couldn’t.
So I kept talking. About how my mother had called me a liar, a sick and twisted liar trying to ruin a good man’s reputation.
How she’d stayed with him.
And how he’d kept sneaking into my bedroom until the day he died several months later.
“He only touched,” I whispered. “He never hurt me, or raped me. He’d tell me once I became a woman, that he’d be my first, but he… died long before I did. I think my mom blamed me for his death. I don’t… I don’t really remember what happened, but I was with him when he died. Anyway, because he died in my bedroom and the paramedics asked me why he was there… it became known in the neighborhood that he was a kiddy fiddler. My family never forgave me for ruining his reputation.”
I wasn't aware of the fresh tears until Warin wiped them from my cheek with his free hand before wrapping his hand around my cheeks to lift my gaze to his. Soft sapphire eyes sought and held mine.
“He did hurt you, Liv. Do not ever minimize what he put you through. I know the damage he did to you. There is no excuse, no extenuating circumstances. He hurt you, and you survived it because you are strong beyond words. Not because what he did wasn’t painful.”
I shook my head, biting my quivering bottom lip. It hadn't been invasive or painful, and sometimes it had been… The shame from those times was the worst of it all. “It wasn’t… You don’t understand—”
"No, Liv. I understand.” The softness of his gaze didn't change, but the intensity did. "I know the hurt you went through. All of it. The physical pain is the easiest damage to recover from.”