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With that, I walked out of the room and didn’t look back.
***
Liner
I looked over at my good friend and let all the displeasure I felt show on my face.
“I think this is the first time I’ve ever wanted to beat the shit out of you,” I admitted. “I thought you were better than this, Rome.”
Rome looked up at me and glared.
“What exactly did you want me to say?” he challenged. “I found out that I could possibly have a kid. One I had absolutely no clue about. From that woman’s bitch sister.” He punched his finger in the direction of where Theo had just disappeared. “That after all this time…”
“Do you know the meaning of a sociopath?” I asked. “Let me enlighten you. It’s a noun. A person with a personality disorder with extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior. A lack of goddamn conscience.”
Rome looked down at his hands.
“She gets a high out of seeing other people fuckin’ pissed. Scared. Hell, even happy—in Theo’s case. You want to know what happened every time Theo was happy?”
Rome stiffened.
Izzy looked sick to her stomach as if she could guess what was coming.
“Tara relished in taking that happy away,” I said. “Do you want to know something else?”
Rome shook his head.
“Well, I’m telling you anyway.” I took a seat on the arm of the couch. “The first time that Theo had sex, it was with me. Five years after her baby was born.”
Rome’s head jerked up.
“You know what that means, don’t you?” I asked. “That she was artificially inseminated. She wasn’t lying about that part.”
Izzy drew in a breath, thinking that what she was about to hear wasn’t good.
She was right.
It wasn’t good.
Not at all.
But I was telling it to them anyway because apparently, they needed to know what was done to Theo. Then, maybe they would see that they weren’t the only victims in this tragic story.
“She woke up one day groggy and confused. Six weeks later, she realized that something wasn’t right with her body. She suffered through severe vomiting. Hyperemesis Gravidarum. I had to look it up. That lasted for six months of her pregnancy. She was really sick. The only thing she could manage to do in all of that time was eat small amounts of crackers and go to the bathroom. She lost forty-eight pounds.”
Rome made a sound in his throat. “She’s already tiny.” He shook his head. “I was with that woman for fucking years. How did I not know she had a twin? What the hell is wrong with me?”
“No, I agree. She didn’t really have it to lose. She didn’t even get to hold her baby before she was taken away from her.” I paused. “Hell, even during all the commotion of Tara switching the blame to her sister for hurting her own baby, she managed to switch hospital bracelets. Who the hell thinks of that when there’s so much chaos going around you? Tara is a master manipulator. She was always ten steps ahead of you. She’s been ten steps ahead of us all. Even Theo, who knew her better than anyone.”
Rome’s shoulders rounded even more, and he buried his face into his hands.
“Tara, her father Thurgood, and Andy Threadgill used Linnie as a pawn to get Theo to do what they wanted.” I paused. “But honestly, they had no reason for the most part. Tyson raised Linnie. He tried to disappear with her, but eventually he was found. That was when he started bringing Linnie to see Theo. The rest of the family thought it was funny, so they allowed it. Thirty minutes of visitation, three times a week? Seems like the best kind of torture, doesn’t it?”
Rome looked kind of green.
“She was…she…”
“Yeah,” I said. “She was forced to live in that hell hole, to allow them to think that she was the one who tried to smother her baby, after they knocked her out and then knocked her up. Oh, but that was only after receiving years and years of abuse from the rest of her family. Not allowed to complete her education because it wouldn’t do to have her at school where she could tell others that she was being abused. Apparently, they let her go for awhile until the bruising and scars became too hard to hide.” I paused. “Do you know her first memory is of Tara torturing her? You had to deal with Tara for four years…and you seemed to have gotten the tame side. Theo’s been dealing with her for twenty-eight…and she’s had not just Tara, but Andy and her father as well.”
Rome’s head dropped to his hands and he shifted it back and forth, looking like he was regretting coming over here.
“She looks just like me,” he whispered. “Hoax showed me a picture and I just…snapped. I’m sorry.”
