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Chapter 19
Addie
Mother and Father stared down their noses at me. I hated when they wore that particular expression: so haughty, so imperious. I wanted to yell at them, to tell them that they weren’t better than me, no matter how much they believed otherwise.
As usual, the words got stuck in my throat.
Nikolai sat at the table beside me, absently doodling on a piece of paper. His familiar headphones were around his neck, but his eyes were entirely focused on his piece. The world could’ve fallen into shambles around him, and he wouldn’t have noticed.
He wouldn’t have cared.
D.O.D opened his mouth, and I waited impatiently for him to berate me. It wasn’t uncommon for him to point out my flaws and failures. I could never be good enough in his eyes.
Did I even want to be?
Instead, the scowl softened on his face transforming into something that resembled a smile.
A smile? I had never seen my father smile before in his life. He had three expressions: a frown, a sneer, and a grimace as if he had eaten something disgusting. Never a smile.
At least, never directed at me.
“Addie,” he said softly, reaching across the table to place his calloused hands on mine. I couldn’t remember the last time my father had touched me, but I definitely knew these hands didn’t belong to him. He had never worked a day in his life. “Your mother and I would like to say how proud we are of you.”
Tears sprang to my mother’s large eyes as she watched me. Smiling shakily through the tears, she nodded.
“We love you so much, darling.”
I resisted the urge to flinch and pull away. I had never heard those words leave my parents’ mouths before. Love. Proud. Those were a foreign language to me.
“Are you feeling okay?” I asked, finally gaining the nerve to release my hand from my father’s grip.
Their smiles were brilliant. It made them look younger, almost. Happier. Beautiful. They were the faces I would’ve seen if life hadn’t chipped away at their innocence. It occurred to me that this was what my parents would’ve been like if we had stayed in our tiny, suburban home, away from the damning influences that had destroyed us all. Monsters weren’t made. They were created.
“Mom. Dad.” I didn’t know what to say to them. Words failed me at that moment. Despite knowing that this wouldn’t last, I wanted to cherish the precious moments I was given.
They smiled at me, and then directed that smile at my brother affectionately. Nik didn’t look up from his painting, but his ears tinted red at their undivided attention. He, too, had only ever wanted to be loved by them.
The feeling of love was intense, intermingling with the wistfulness. I had never realized what I had been missing. Love and acceptance, being the main ones.
The images in front of me blurred. It was as if I was looking into a funhouse mirror, their faces distorted and hazy. I glanced from them to Nik, alarmed, but my little brother’s face was surprisingly tranquil as he watched me. By the time I looked back at my parents, they were gone, replaced with a familiar group of individuals.
The boys stared back at me, eyes bright with love.
“Princess, why do you have tears in your eyes?” Ronan asked. His green hair was tousled, and his unicorn tattoo was visible over the neckline of his shirt.
“These are happy tears,” I said, choked.
Fallon tilted his head at me.
“Why are you happy?”
“Because I’m loved.”
Calax smiled warmly. “Yes you are, Baby.”
“You have always been loved, Sweetheart,” Asher added. “You just haven’t realized it.”
“You’re loved even more now, Kitten.”
