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Sariah shakes herself, her eyes closing for a brief moment.
“It’s okay.” She heaves out a breath. “I don’t know that I ever dealt with it. Like you were, I was trapped. I couldn’t leave Declan’s home. I was unable to leave or escape. I knew at any moment I could be taken to the church and made to give those vows, and Jeremiah Wood scared me to death. He didn’t value me as a person. He just wanted to fuck me and use me. You’re lucky in many ways I wasn’t though. I didn’t have brothers to protect me. Luke and the others won’t allow you to suffer this fate. They will fight for your freedom.”
I believe that. My brothers have already gone over and above what I have any right to expect from them.
“I’m more grateful to them than I can ever say.”
“They know it, believe me.”
She moves to the mixing bowl and starts to dollop the mix into small cake tins.
“Your parents are evil.” That is an understatement. Charlotte is the spawn of Satan, I am sure. “What they’re trying to make you do is not right.”
“I know, but I also know Charlotte. She’s not going to stop until she gets her way with this. She thinks she owns us all.”
“Yeah,” Sariah agrees, “but she’s about to hit a point she probably didn’t expect to hit. She’s about to realise your brothers’ loyalty is to each other—not the family.”
My heart feels like it clenches. “What do you mean?”
“Your mother and father think your brothers are loyal to the Firm. They think that will protect them, but they’ve underestimated your brothers’ resolve to take care of each other and you. It’s going to come to a head. Your brothers will have no choice but to act.” She winces. “It’s going to get bloody.”
“It is?”
“There’s only one way to stop your parents, Aurelia. Your brothers will have to remove them from the Firm. They just haven’t come to that realisation yet, but they will. There’s no way to negotiate with people like them.”
I swallow the bile climbing up my throat. War.
She’s talking about war.
Between my brothers and my parents.
“I don’t want anyone hurt because of me.”
“It’s inevitable. There’s no other road to take. I’ve seen it coming for a while now, but the way they are acting towards you will force your brothers to act. They’ll have to in order to protect you.”
She wipes her hands on the dish towel. “I’m not trying to scare you. I just wanted you to know your parents are never getting hold of you.”
“I hope that’s true. I don’t want to marry a stranger.” Not when I feel the way I do about Ryan. He’s fast becoming the most important person in my life. “What are you making?” I ask, peering into the oven.
“Cupcakes, though your brother doesn’t like cakes, so Bailey takes them to the Untamed Sons clubhouse.”
The thought of bikers eating cakes make me giggle. “Really?”
“Yeah, they go down well, apparently.” Sariah smiles. “It’s good to see you laugh.”
“I’ve not had much to laugh about lately,” I say.
“No, but you will look back on this one day from the good life you’re living.”
I hope that’s the case, but I can’t envision being free.
I slip onto the stool at the counter. “Parents are annoying.”
“They are, though Declan isn’t my father.” She says it so off the cuff I almost don’t get the gravity of her words.
“What?”
She puts the spatula she’s holding on the counter. “My mother had an affair. I’ve been trying, with the help of Luke, to figure out who with. Things are going to come out into the public arena. I wanted you to know before that happened.”
