He sighed. “Perhaps, but I still felt terrible about it. All I wanted was to help Adrian, to make his life better. But because of his scars, Winters wouldn’t allow him to go away to school with Luke and me. He made him stay behind, so I wasn’t there to watch over him, and my mother, who should have, didn’t either. While we were gone, Winters... He hurt Adrian. Hurt him the way that you were hurt.”
She caught her breath. She’d always feared that something like that had happened to Adrian. He seemed to understand the children he rescued a little too much, and she’d always thought that was what made him so passionate about being Prometheus. But it was something else altogether to have it confirmed.
“He beat him, too. Tortured him in every possible way. He and Roger both. Luke and I didn’t know, not until we came home for a school break and he finally told us. And then Winters turned his abuse on Luke as well. But not me. Never me.”
She leaned into him, finally understanding what his guilt was about. “You feel guilty that you weren’t hurt the way they were.” How tragic that he’d somehow wanted to be a part of their suffering.
“I didn’t understand why they left me alone. It didn’t seem fair. I still don’t know why they left me alone.” His voice caught, but he somehow forced himself to go on. “We came up with the idea of Prometheus. We planned to make a masked avenger, someone who could scare them into stopping. We were so excited about the idea. It was a way to feel powerful, to feel like there was something we could actually do to save ourselves.”
Tears filled her eyes at the thought of the three Strathmore brothers, abused and neglected, banding together to find a way to survive.
“I was supposed to design the costume, and I was so proud to have a part in it, to have my artistic talents put to such a use. I made the cape and went up to the battlements to try it out, loving the way the wind swirled it about me. Then Winters came out onto the roof. He mocked me, thinking I was Adrian. I was so furious with myself for getting caught, for ruining everything.”
“You couldn’t have known he’d come up there,” she tried to soothe him. “It wasn’t your fault.”
He took another sip of whisky, his eyes still troubled. “He threw me over his shoulder, dangled me over the side, threatened to drop me.” He gave a bitter laugh. “I realize now he probably wouldn’t have done it. He only meant to scare me. But I was terrified. I thrust off his back with all my might, landing on the roof, but the force of it propelled him over the edge.”
“Oh, Morgan,” she whispered.
“But he still had hold of my cape. For a moment, our eyes met, but it was choking me, pulling me toward the edge. Maybe I could have saved him, but instead, I unfastened it...”
She threw her arms around him, hugging him as tightly as she could. “It was you or him, just like you told me earlier tonight. You did what you had to do to survive, and I am so glad you did, Morgan. Do you hear me? Surviving is not something you need to feel guilty about.”
He buried his face against her neck, his big body trembling against her. As she held him, realizing they’d both worried that they weren’t good enough, that their past made them somehow unworthy of being loved, a sense of peace came over her.
“I love you, Morgan. And nothing you’ve told me tonight can change that.” Saying the words made her realize that he hadn’t been lying when he’d said them. If she could love him even after knowing all his secrets, she finally believed he could love her after learning hers.
At last, he lifted his head and met her gaze, his blue eyes filled with both anguish and hope. “I love you, too, Fiona.”
She stood up and held out her hand. “Will you share my bed tonight? Will you hold me while I sleep? We’ll figure the rest of it out in the morning, but for tonight, I just need you by my side.”
He nodded and took her hand. “There’s nothing I’d like more.”
Chapter Nineteen
Morgan woke up slowly, blinking against a shaft of sunlight that slanted across the big bed from a window to his right. For a moment, he was disoriented... the windows in his bedroom were to the left of the bed... but then, he caught sight of a tendril of brilliant auburn hair weaving its way across his bare chest and he remembered.
