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If it does, Ronan will hurt her somehow just to send a message. I know it.
A deep sadness for the mother I always wished for and the reality of the mother I have, crashes into me. It beats against my heart like the brutal waves against the shore that pulverize the rocks into smooth sand.
She’s such a screw up. Not just in the things she’s done recently. I mean right from the start. Since my very existence. She’s such a screw up to have gotten involved and had a baby with a man like Ronan Reyes.
Warm sunlight soothes along my arms. Together, we trail down the smooth concrete steps, the wind I watched inside caressing my skin, drawing out the quiet tears that I hadn’t wanted to escape. They fall freely now. I’ve lost control over myself as they streak down my cheeks in tacky trails.
I feel his gaze against my heated face. Our steps slow, and then they stop altogether.
Warmth envelopes me as Knox draws me into his hard chest. I can’t meet his gaze, not when he looks at me with that calculated look, like he is tallying something in his head. I expect a smart remark or words of caution but instead his big arms surround me. He should feel so good. He surrounds me with his strength. His affection which I’ve never even felt like this before.
And yet, I barely feel it.
My arms hang at my sides, my face nestled into his neck. The steady beating of his heart quiets my mind, slows the tears, even as a small sob tumbles from my lips.
With a force that surprises me, I push against the solid muscle of his chest, shoving away from him. Knox’s jaw ticks, but he says nothing. Just watches me as I watch him like I don’t even know who he is.
I used to. I used to think I knew him completely.
He’s a fucking stranger. A fake.
Just like his father.
A large step toward the car carries me away from him, I muster enough energy to spit a few words his direction. “I don’t need my big brother to protect me, Knox.”
Fallen leaves crunch under my boots. No sound to confirm he is following me, though he will shortly. The black SUV pulls closer, the window rolling down as our father waves us to him. His phone already pressing to his ear as he talks rapidly.
Survive. You will survive this, Violet. All I need to do is make it to the end of this trial. That’s it. Once the trial is done all this will be over.
It’ll all be over then.
Twenty-Four
Knox
I find the door to my father’s office closed.
Surprise, fucking surprise. It’s been closed since the day I moved in.
But a closed door has never stopped me before. Even if my feelings go numb and my limbs are tingling the closer I get to reaching for that brass handle.
I hate interacting with him. Speaking with him. Making extended eye contact with him.
It’s all for Violet, I remind myself. The image of her carefree smile that she wore so often over the summer plays in my mind. She hasn’t smiled in so long.
His voice is already booming on the other side. Without a doubt, I know that even though he’s at home, he’s still very much at work in that obnoxious attorney's suit. It would be weird of Ronan Reyes to not look the part at every odd hour of the day.
At night he wears a silk button up top and long silk pants. It’s like a suit but for the bed, I swear. Monsters can look like all sorts of things. This particular monster just happens to look an awful lot like a filthy rich mob boss with an affinity for scaring his children.
And anyone else who might cross him.
An easy twist of the knob and I let myself in. The look on his face, the hard curve of his angular eyebrows as they furrow and the sharp line of his tense jaw, tells me enough. He isn’t happy to see me.
Trust me, I feel the same fucking way, Dad.
“Yes,” he says into the phone. “Yes, I agree. Okay. You know what, listen, I just had a bit of a burden suddenly appear in my office that I must take care of. I’ll talk to you shortly.”
A burden. Violet’s “pretty girl” and I’m a “burden”...Not that I’m comparing myself to my sis– yeah, I’m not fucking calling her that.
