Chapter 19
19
BIRDIE
M y head is pounding. When I woke up this morning, it was a little alarming to find Alaric and Violet both in bed naked next to me. My mind immediately panicked, replaying everything I could remember from last night.
The fight with Violet in the library. Taking two bottles of wine into the bathroom. Alaric climbing in with me, followed shortly by Violet.
Everything after that is hazy.
If we’d had a threesome…I’d remember it, right?
God, I hope so. That’s something I’d want to remember.
And now, a threesome is all I can think about. Having both of them at my fingertips. Feeling just how rough and hard Alaric likes it. Watching them touch each other.
I’m dreaming if I think either of them will lighten up enough to let that happen. They’re both so angry all the time. I was the one paraded around at an auction completely naked.
But I’m the only one who seems to realize that if we stopped fighting over who I should stay with, the three of us could have a lot of fun together.
Sitting at the dining room table alone, I push around my breakfast with my fork. I’m not in the mood to eat much right now, and it’s not about my wine hangover. I can’t help but feel like something is going on that I’m missing. Normally, Violet is honest with me, but she has been avoiding me all morning.
“Are you finished, miss?” One of Alaric’s housekeepers steps into the dining room. I think her name is Alexis.
“Yes, thank you,” I reply with a smile. “I can take it to the sink, though,” I say as I pick it up.
“Let me, miss,” she says, taking the plate from my hand.
My lips press into a tight smile. “My stepmom always made me do everything,” I explain.
She nods. “Well, Mr. Stone gave us strict instructions to take good care of you.”
“That was sweet of him,” I reply.
She chuckles a little before turning toward the kitchen. I get the feeling that hearing me call Alaric sweet is what made her laugh.
Just as I move to leave the dining room in search of Violet, she steps into view.
“Hey,” I say softly. “I was just coming to find you.”
It only takes a split second for me to tell that Violet is tense about something.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Can we…talk?” she mumbles.
I freeze, the blood draining from my face. My first instinct is that she’s about to tell me that she’s leaving. Whether she thinks it would be best for me or she’s decided she no longer loves me, I can’t stand the thought.
“Of…course,” I stammer. “Let’s go sit down.”
Leading her into the living room, I take a seat on one end of the large leather sofa, and to my relief, she sits next to me. I don’t want her putting space between us.
I reach for her hands and interlock them with mine. “What’s going on?”
Every feature on her face is tense. But she stares into my eyes and takes a deep breath.
“Alaric and I…had sex.”
My lips part, and I stare at her, waiting for the rest. “I know…” I mumble.
“Last night,” she adds.
Oh.
Oh…
I don’t move. I just keep my eyes on her face, letting this news hit me. My mind is reeling with questions. When? Where? Why?
What does this mean?
Is this rising anger inside me because I’m really angry or because I feel like I should be angry?
When I don’t move for a moment, she continues.
“It just happened. I initiated it, and I don’t know why. I feel terrible about it, and you have every right to hate me for it. In fact, you really should yell and scream at me. I’m the worst?—”
“Stop,” I say, pulling a hand from her grasp and holding it up. “Where was I?”
“You were sleeping,” she answers.
Of course, I drank too much and passed out, leaving those two to do whatever they wanted.
“Alaric woke me up from a nightmare, and it just…happened.”
My eyes dash back to her face. “Wait…you had sex in Alaric’s bed? While I was sleeping?”
She looks down in shame. “Yes.”
I don’t respond. I know I should, but I have no idea what to say. Normally, when I don’t know how to feel about something, I ask Violet for her advice, but I can’t do that now.
“Say something, Birdie,” she whispers pleadingly.
“Did you do it to get back at me? For sleeping with him.”
She flinches. “What? No! Of course not.”
A crease forms between my brows as I stare at her. “Were you trying to make him want you more than me?”
She shakes her head. “Birdie, no. That’s ridiculous.”
“Then why did you do it?” I ask in desperation.
As she stares at me, her mouth opens, but Violet hesitates before speaking. She struggles for a second before finally answering. “Because I wanted to.”
“You wanted to?” I question. “Do you still have feelings for him?”
She shrugs. “Yes, I must.”
“Do you still…love me?” I hate the way I sound even asking that question. I sound pathetic and needy, but Violet just admitted that she has feelings for someone else, and I need some validation, even when I know exactly what she’s going to say.
She scoots closer, squeezing my hands in hers. “Yes, Birdie. Of course, I still love you. I will always love you.”
Her tone is genuine, and I believe every single word. With a sigh of relief, I throw myself into her arms, needing to feel her comforting embrace.
“Aren’t you mad at me?” she whispers, hesitant to put her arms around me.
“I don’t know,” I reply with a shrug, still resting my face against her shoulder. Pulling away, I stare into her eyes. “I’m a little mad you didn’t wake me up. I’m a little mad you didn’t tell me you still had feelings for Alaric, especially when I had to have sex with him. And to be honest, I’m feeling a little left out. But really…”
I gaze downward, gathering the courage to express what I’m dying to say.
With a hefty sigh, I continue, “I’m relieved. Because what I really want is?—”
“Ma’am, you can’t just barge in!” one of the housekeepers yells from the entryway, and Violet and I both flinch at the same time.
“I told you I’m here to see my daughter, and I have every right to see her.”
The sound of my stepmom’s voice sends a cold chill down my spine.
“What is she doing here?” I whisper, holding tight to Violet. We both stand at the same time, and Violet shoves me behind her back as Clarissa marches into the room with Luna at her side.
“There you are!” she barks at us.
“What are you doing here?” Violet asks in shock.
“Where is it, you thieving little bitch?” Clarissa yells, pointing at Violet.
“Where is what?” she replies.
“The emerald! I know you took it. I knew you were a slut and a murderer, but I never took you for a thief.”
Rage boils inside me, and I push Violet aside to step closer to my stepmom. “Don’t you talk to her like that!”
My stepmom actually looks surprised for a moment. With her brows up in shock, she lets a crooked grin pull at her lips. “Well, look at who finally grew a backbone.”
“What the fuck is going on in here?” Alaric bellows as he rushes into the room. He takes one look at Clarissa before muttering, “Get the fuck out of my house.”
“Not until I get what’s mine,” she replies.
“No, you leave now ,” he growls in return.
“You don’t scare me, Alaric,” my stepmom says in a cold, cruel tone.
Hate boils in my bloodstream. Just seeing her here, in this place where I felt so safe and at ease, makes the hatred burn even hotter. I take another step closer to her.
“You need to leave,” I say.
“Or what, Birdie? You always were weak. Like a little mouse. So easy to step on whenever I felt like it.”
My fists clench with anger.
She steps toward me, and I can’t help but fall back an inch. “You always were so stupid, too. So gullible. Did you really think these two were going to save you? You clearly don’t know what they’re capable of.”
“Shut up,” I mutter.
“If I get you the emerald, will you leave?” Violet cries out desperately.
Clarissa’s gaze lifts to her daughter. “So you did take it.”
“Yes, I took it,” Violet barks in response. “If I give it to you, will you leave?”
Her mother ignores her request. She looks instead at Alaric. “Is that what she offered to pay you with? Last time, she paid you with pussy, but not this time? What’s wrong? All dried up?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Alaric asks with a shake of his head.
My mind is reeling, trying to keep up with what’s happening around me. “Last time?” I whisper.
When Clarissa looks at me, she lets an evil laugh slip through her lips. “Sweet, stupid Birdie. I thought Violet loved you so much, but she didn’t bother to tell you the important things, did she?”
I glance back at Violet. Her eyes are on my face, round and full of regret. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.
My brow furrows in confusion. “What is going on?”
Clarissa laughs again. “I love being the one to break this news to you, Birdie. But having your father killed wasn’t free, you know?”
The blood drains from my face. I turn back to my stepmom with tears in my eyes. My skin goes cold, and my legs tremble with weakness. Suddenly, it feels like I’m alone, a single lamb alone in a room full of lions. They’re all staring at me.
“What?” I breathe.
“The love of your life paid a hit man to kill your father, but instead of paying him money, she fucked him. Quite a few times to pay off that debt, I assume. How many times was it?” she asks, looking up at Alaric and Violet.
“Get out,” Alaric barks at her.
“Not without my emerald.”
I feel like I might throw up. Violet runs from the room in a mad sprint while the walls start to close in on me. I’m swaying on my feet as I stare unfocused at the window, letting my stepmother’s words wash over me.
Violet had my father killed.
Alaric killed my father.
That’s why she started sleeping with him back then.
Then why…did she need the emerald?
I feel Alaric’s presence behind me. His strong, safe hands rub at my back as I let a tear slip over my cheek onto the rug at my feet. Slowly, I turn toward him and face the apologetic expression on his face.
“You know he deserved it,” he whispers softly. “She said he hit you once, and she almost killed him herself.”
While staring at his face, I replay the day my father died. I remember the relief that washed over me. And I distinctly remember the last day he laid his hands on me, slapping me hard across the face after I made a harsh remark to him.
Violet had him murdered for that.
She slept with a man she barely knew multiple times to keep me safe.
And she stole a family heirloom from her mother to pay Alaric to help because she didn’t want to sleep with him again…for me.
In return, she had to endure watching me sleep with him.
My heart shatters in my chest as a sob escapes my lips.
When I hear her running footsteps approach the room, I turn toward her, watching her rush into the room with a frantic expression.
“Here,” she says, thrusting the satchel toward her mother. “Now leave.”
“No!” I shout. Before I know what I’m doing, I lunge forward and grab the satchel from Violet before she can hand it to Clarissa.
My stepmother gasps. “You little bitch,” she sneers at me. “That is mine.”
“No!” I shout at her. “You don’t deserve this. You got two million dollars from Alaric for me. You have manipulated me. Tortured me. Abused me. For years, I endured you, and now I will be keeping this.”
When she lurches forward to grab it back from me, I rear my hand back and hit her hard across the face. She stumbles, and Luna is there to hold her mother up.
I take another menacing step toward the both of them. “Everything Violet has ever done has been out of love. Everything you have ever done has been out of hate. I don’t care that she had my father killed, and I don’t care that she slept with Alaric to do it. These two people actually care about me, but you don’t understand that, do you? Because no one has ever cared about you that much.”
She’s holding her cheek in her hand and staring at me in shock. “You little?—”
Out of nowhere, a hand wraps around Clarissa’s throat. She stares in shock at Alaric, who is snarling at her with anger. “Call her one more name, and you’ll be leaving my house with your head separated from your body.”
“You’re all fucking crazy,” Luna shrieks, her face contorted in fear.
“Get your mother and get the fuck out,” Violet spits at her sister.
Luna snatches Clarissa’s arm and tugs her toward the door. Alaric finally lets her go, and she takes a gulping breath, the color returning to her face.
I stand between Violet and Alaric, watching my stepmother rushing angrily toward the door with Luna by her side.
“Clarissa,” Alaric barks at her. She stops and glances back with terror in her eyes. “Your husband made a lot of enemies, and I know every single one. Come near me, Birdie, or Violet again, and I’ll make sure they all get their revenge. In fact, I’ll carry it out for them for free. Understand?”
With a tremble, she nods. But as she turns to leave, he stops her again.
“In fact,” he snaps, taking a step toward her. “You will give Birdie and Violet everything they are owed. Every fucking dime of their inheritances on top of the two million you got from me at the auction.”
“But—” She tries to argue but he takes another menacing step.
“You’re lucky I don’t bury you and your daughter right now. Why don’t you thank me for my mercy?” he says. His voice takes on a chilling, darker tone that makes my blood run warm and aroused.
“Alaric,” she gasps. “You know I appreciate?—”
“On your knees,” I add, staring down my nose at her. “Both of you.”
Their eyes widen as they glance back and forth between me and Alaric, who slowly reaches for the gun strapped to his back.
Shakily, my stepmother lowers to her knees. I find sick satisfaction in the fear in her eyes, the tremble of her hands, and the whimper in her voice. After everything she’s put me through, I deserve this.
“Th-thank you,” she stutters with her hands up in surrender. “You’ll never see us again.”
He takes a step closer, nudging her chin with the barrel of his gun. She winces. “Good,” he mumbles. “Now get the fuck out of our house.”
As I watch her disappear, my palm stinging from hitting her and a gemstone hanging in my other hand, I feel truly free for the first time. Not just free from her but free from the quiet, scared girl I felt I had to be.
I won’t let her or anyone manipulate me again. I won’t let anyone tell me how to feel. And I won’t be someone else’s burden anymore.
I am free.