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CHAPTER34
It’s like all hell has broken loose, everything happening at once. Mom is frozen in the doorway, screaming while James immediately puts himself back in his pants, babbling the entire time.
Mom is hardly listening, too busy reacting to what she walked in on. “What the fuck is this? What are you doing? Leni, what is this? James!”
“I can explain. I didn’t mean for this to happen!” James insists while the guys offer their own excuses behind him, frantically pulling their clothes on.
She knows. She’s seen it with her own eyes. She can’t tell me it didn’t happen because she’s seen it. I’ve never felt this ashamed in my life. My heart is breaking, and I haven’t stopped crying yet, but at least she knows and can’t pretend otherwise.
“She’s been doing this from the beginning!” James thrusts his arm toward me when all I’m trying to do is cover myself up with the blankets as best I can. “She’s been seducing me from the minute you brought her here! I’m so ashamed.”
My insides go cold. After all the things he’s done so far, how did I not see this coming? “That’s not true!” I scream over him. “Mom, that isn’t true at all!”
“She tried to get to Colt, but he turned her down, and she’s been using me to get back at him. From the very beginning, she did everything she could to turn me on and get me to look at her and not you, sweetheart.”
“Mom, he’s lying!” I’m still sobbing, but now it’s for a different reason. “Mom, they hurt me. They made me do this!”
“Please.” James shoots me a filthy, cold look. “Everybody in town knows you’ve been obsessed with this family, with my sons, for years. It’s disgusting. I’m only sorry I was weak enough not to call you on your pathetic little blackmail scheme.”
“What blackmail scheme?” I look at the guys, but they’re turned away from me.
“You’ve conveniently forgotten the recording you made the night of the rehearsal dinner?” He even has the nerve to glare at me. He’s that devoid of a conscience. “When you seduced Colt, recorded it, then threatened to take it to the police and say you were under the influence, and he raped you?”
I can’t breathe. There isn’t any air in the room. My mouth moves, but nothing comes out. He would stoop this low?
And not only him. Colt speaks as he pulls a shirt over his head. “He’s telling the truth.”
“What?”
He won’t look at me, the coward. “She said we had to do things to her, or else she’d go to the police.”
“Look at the tattoo on her ass,” Nix continues. “Alistair. She had our last name tattooed on her ass. That’s how obsessed she is.”
“None of this is true! Mom, they drugged me while you were gone. That’s when I got that—”
“Shut the hell up with your lies,” James warns. “I’m only glad your mother came back when she did. I’m sorry she had to see what a filthy degenerate she raised, but at least she’ll see what you’ve been doing to us all this time. You can’t stand to see us happy. You need to have your way, no matter who it hurts.”
She won’t look at me. Why won’t she look at me? I have to get through to her somehow. “Mom. You know that’s not what I’m like. I swear, I didn’t want any of this.”
“You certainly sounded like you wanted it when I walked in.”
That’s it. That’s the gut punch. I’ve lost. I never stood a chance.
She folds her arms over herself, and I can see she’s shaking. I guess she would be. She just walked in on her husband and stepsons using her daughter. While her daughter cried out and begged for more. Jesus, could this be any worse?
“I swear, I didn’t want any of this to happen. Please, believe me.”
“You know what? I’m through with you. I don’t want to hear another word out of your lying whore mouth. Get the fuck out of my house. Pack your things and go. I don’t care where you end up. I don’t care if I never see you again. In fact,” she adds, viciously ripping the comforter away from me, so I’m fully exposed again. “It would be better for you if I never do. Because if I set my eyes on you again, I will kill you. Do you understand? I will finally be rid of you, one way or another.”
I don’t know what to think. How to feel. All I know is I need to get out of here.
I run out of the bedroom without looking at any of them, fleeing for my own room and slamming the door. I tear the flimsy garment away from me and throw it on the floor, stepping on it on my way to the dresser, where I quickly pull on a hoodie and a pair of leggings. After that, I grab my backpack and jam in as much as I can. It’s the best I can do in a hurry, and I am definitely in a hurry.
My brain never stops turning the entire time. I hear them down the hall, still arguing, with James defending himself while his sons back him up. I would say I can’t believe it, but that’s not true. I wouldn’t put anything past them. It’s like they rehearsed the whole damn thing. Like they had their excuse already and waiting just in case we ever got found out. And, of course, she didn’t believe me. Why would she? She never has. From the beginning, she’s been sure I would ruin this relationship for her.
And the thing is, even now, after she’s rejected me and basically kicked me out of her life, I still want to warn her about who he is, how he is. I seriously doubt I’m the only person who brings this out in him. Eventually, those dark needs of his will have to be fulfilled. Either he does it with her or somebody else—either way, this isn’t going to be the last time a situation like this happens. Even though she’s hurt me more times than I can count, I really hope she’s not the one he decides to hurt.
Once I’m sure I have everything that matters, I put on my shoes and listen at the door to see what’s happening now. I don’t want to run out into the hall and come face-to-face with her. I don’t even want to know what James has told her since I left the room, but I imagine it’s much worse. God, how can he live with himself? And how can his sons live with themselves, for that matter? Lying the way they did. They know damn well how I ended up with this stupid tattoo, but they’re willing to pretend it was my idea, that I’m obsessed.
