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Mom flinched like I’d slapped her.
“Of course, I wanted you,” she said, her voice cracking. “We did. Daddy did want you…I can’t have kids. I always wanted to have them, and Daddy wanted an heir. Maybe he didn’t want you as much as I did or…”
“Or?” Milo asked into the quiet and she jerked, turning to face him as if she’d forgotten he was there. “Or what?”
I studied Mom as she went almost mute. The tears were still streaming down her face, which was unusual enough to keep me riveted. Whatever she wasn’t saying, she was terrified to say it. That happened to me when a truth was too close, too right there, and hanging on me.
Then it was easier to say nothing. If I didn’t admit it aloud, it wasn’t true, right?
“Or it wasn’t Daddy who had to approve.”
The way her shoulders dropped and her eyes closed again answered my question.
“Uncle Fuckbucket was the one who wanted me.” I was going to throw up. Pivoting, I headed for the door.
“Baby—Emersyn…” Mom had followed, but Milo cut her off. “Bradley controlled the money. He controlled the business…he controls your father—sometimes. Yes, he had to approve. I just—always thought it was because you would be the heir. He’d shown no interest in ever marrying after…”
“After?” Milo prompted again. “Stop editing yourself. Keeping secrets already hurt her. The truth is just showing us the teeth that have been digging into her.”
I twisted to look back at Mom, who stared at Milo with such haunting misery.
“After I rejected him and chose his brother…” That seemed too easy, and then her weary gaze sought mine. “Two days after our wedding, he sent your father away and spent the next week raping me every single day.”
Ice slammed through me.
“I got pregnant, but I lost that baby, and the…damage was considerable. He accused me of choosing to get rid of his child. So if I ever wanted another…I had to get his approval, and your father…”
“What about him?”
“He didn’t know,” she said, tears streaming. “He couldn’t have known.”
Only she didn’t believe that. It was like someone cut her strings and she just sat abruptly.
“You don’t know that for sure,” Milo said, an ounce of kindness creeping into his cold voice. “And you aren’t positive he didn’t know what that son of a bitch was doing to Ivy…”
The horror on her face said it all. Yeah, I needed to go. I couldn’t—
Leaving her room, I was down the hall and trying to get into the suite when the door opened.
“Hey,” Kellan said as he pulled it wide. “What’s wrong?”
I didn't have the words. When he tugged me to him, I just buried my face against his shirt. Deep breaths drenched me in his scent, even as the tears I was holding at bay burned in my eyes.
“I got you,” he whispered, his voice soothing as he picked me up.
“What happened?” Vaughn asked.
“I don’t know,” Kellan whispered. “Whatever it is, we got you.”
Then another hand was on my back. Rome. He pressed a kiss to the back of my head and bracketed me. Then Jasper and Vaughn were right there too.
The dam broke and the tears spilled over.
“Damn right, we got you,” Jasper promised, and Rome echoed the sentiment with a gentle touch.
“We’re here.”
CHAPTER15
