Chapter 9
Aurora
Things got much better after I had my breakdown. That wasn’t something that sounded possible, but… Life was very strange and change could be around the least likely corners.
Alexis contacted the woman who ran our support group and she actually came and spent the weekend with me, answering the question I had asked Alexis about how to not make others feel bad.
Her answer was simple—I couldn’t control the feelings of others.
I had said the right thing with Creed and it wasn’t a competition.
They said it time and time again at the meetings that all of our traumas were valid and we were there to support each other and help, not compete. Not compare. None of it.
She was shocked that was part of why I’d not spoken up and agreed with Creed that it was time to start being a bit more selfish. There was a difference between being a selfish person and putting myself first.
She also acknowledged that it was hard given I was raised that ever considering myself was being selfish. She said that it would get better with work.
Alexis also connected me with the psychiatrist who specialized in traumas like we’d been through, and from the moment I met her, I felt that hope again.
She was a very old vampire who had seen too much pain and made it clear she knew she was put on this earth to help those of us who survived be rewired to thrive.
That sounded so nice.
Beyond nice even.
But things came to a head when I saw Ellie and Theresa in a new light.
Their lives had been hard, so I’d excused a lot of their spoiled behavior.
I’d wanted them to be a bit spoiled and have things I’d never had.
Theresa especially because even if I was saving her, she suffered… But nothing I did was ever good enough.
I understood it. I forgave it. I accepted it because of the positions I’d put them in, but after some of my first sessions, I realized how much I’d let go. I wasn’t allowed to open my mouth unless I was spoken to first, asked a direct question, or I would be slapped across the face and denied food.
And I never once complained.
Was that wrong? Yes. Undoubtedly, but… Ellie and Theresa had so much more and I didn’t think either of them had ever thanked me. For anything. Yes, I had to provide it as their parent, but I was seeing more.
It was like a curtain was pulled back when Kenneth tried to kill himself. They were upset, so upset. Theresa had never met him and now she couldn’t get her revenge. Ellie the same, and they both looked at me like they were disappointed that I wasn’t upset either.
So I didn’t hide that I was disgusted with both of them. Fair or not, that was how I felt.
“Wait, Aurora, what just happened in there?” Ha-joon asked as he chased after me. “I’m confused and they’re both upset.”
“I don’t control their feelings and clearly they don’t care about me,” I answered before thinking better of it and spinning around. “What did they expect from me? They’re disappointed that… What? I’m not upset?”
He frowned and rubbed the back of his neck. “I think that’s normal to—”
“I never agreed to marry that man!” I yelled, feeling good to finally get that out—get anything out. “I was given to him. He wasn’t my husband before the gods. No vows were exchanged. He was my rapist. My abuser for over a century. Yes, I want him dead. I want him dead painfully.”
“Yeah, okay, sorry, that makes more sense, but why are you—you were disgusted with them or—”
“Because they were upset how it affected them instead of his main victim,” Xavier of all people cut in.
“If Kenneth dies, Aurora is finally free instead of this joke dragging out their divorce which we all know is politics and police agencies trying to stick it to her thinking she knows information. Did either Ms. Reed consider that? Or only themselves?”
“Thank you,” I breathed, beyond relieved that someone understood.
“So yes, Ha-joon, I was disgusted that they were disappointed in me instead of giving me an ounce of consideration when all I have ever done is consider them.” I shook my head and looked away.
“What am I even doing? I should have left no matter what Ellie said.”
I was about to say that I wish I had except I had a flash of Creed’s face. No, meeting him was worth the extra drama.
Ha-joon tried to remind me of all the help he and Ellie had given me, but I walked away. Yes, they had, and I was grateful, but that didn’t detract from my feelings that they were wrong in this moment.
None of us could see each other clearly and would forever be a form of salt in each other’s wounds. That seemed obvious to me now.
Creed asked me what was wrong when he came by later and completely agreed with Xavier.
He said he even understood it in that moment, but the fact that Ellie nor Theresa had texted or called to apologize in the hours after was what upset him.
It took nothing to send a text saying they understood my feelings and were sorry they didn’t see it earlier.
And honestly, that was all I had needed. We all had different feelings and hurts on the situation and I was accepting of theirs.
They just weren’t accepting of mine.
So I was really glad I had listened to Alexis and was now working with her and some “shark” Creed had referred her to. Things moved much faster and that was why I ended up in front of the minister who was friends with my father.
He made a big show of greeting me in front of other people that I didn’t know and actually came closer to hug me. He chuckled awkwardly when I took a step back and asked him to remember himself, but I saw it there in his eyes.
The anger that a woman spoke back to him.
“I’ve known you since you were a child, Aurora,” he tried to brush it off.
“Well, I’m not a child, Minister, and we never spoke when I was a child.
Females weren’t allowed to in my family, so I believe this is the first time you’re hearing my actual voice,” I replied, Alexis having warned me that the best thing to do for myself and everyone involved was to put on my toughest armor and fight.
Fight harder than I ever had because it would mean the difference, not just for me, but all the trapped Graves women.
“I’m unsure why this meeting needed to take place when you have a conflict of interest, but in the interest of playing nice, I agreed to it,” I continued as I met his furious gaze.
“But let me be clear that if you thought this was going to be a quick chat and everything would go away after you told me how things would be, you are mistaken.”
I felt the shock in the room it was so strong. I ignored it and kept my focus on the man who thought himself a predator.
Maybe he was, but to save the younger women of my family, I’d… How did Creed say it? Make sure he fucking choked on me if he tried to eat me?
Something like that.
“No, of course not, but there are things that we don’t want everyone to learn by getting out, so I hoped we could handle this quietly,” he said easily, amusement dancing in his eyes.
“I could not agree with you more,” I replied firmly, realizing he was going to try and bring out the ammunition he knew from my father. “How is Marenia? Have you talked to her?” I smirked when he did a double take. “Or Sasha? Ethan too, yes?”
“Who are those people, Aurora?” the shark attorney asked, practically salivating for information.
Except he wasn’t a good person either.
“People I could forget or not,” I told the minister before glancing at the others at the meeting. “I assume someone is an aide to the president given how this meeting came about, yes? You’re here to make sure there isn’t a mess for your president given this man was his choice for his cabinet?”
“You are as wise as I was warned,” a man muttered as he stepped forward. “Dr. Reed made it clear that if this meeting happened and the minister was allowed to pressure you after she did the president a favor and warned him of this possible scandal… It’s not polite to repeat.”
“Yes, Ellie has a temper,” I chuckled. I met the minister’s irate gaze.
“Something I don’t have, but I have always had working ears and paid attention.
How much I paid attention depends on where you land on all of this, Minister.
I’m not here to start a war but to get abused family out of hell.
Whether that’s about my sister-in-law who my brother broke or his branded daughter or even to my trapped cousins. ”
“And clearly, you have the ammunition to make it happen which is a shock given what we were told about you,” a woman said. “That you weren’t much of a fighter and you had to be pushed into all of this.”
I met her gaze. “I didn’t want to poke the bear if you forgive the phrase.
Not for myself and not when I knew it could embarrass Ellie and Theresa given what my father would throw at me.
But when Alexis and others said I was the key to freeing more women—throw it all at me.
It’s nothing worse than I have already endured. For centuries even.”
“Now, that’s a bit of a statement and—” the minister tried to rally.
I rolled up my sleeve and showed him the brand.
“Every Graves female receives it because we’re property.
When we survive our first years and are worth acknowledging, recorded in a ledger like property.
How do you think that will show on camera?
Or that I was there when Father showed you the maps—my map specifically?
Do you think the media would like to learn that? ”
My shark attorney chuckled darkly like he knew blood was in the water, but Alexis looked at me like she’d never seen me before.
Yes, well, I’d actually done much more than this when I was the wife of a coven leader. I’d just had to remind myself that it was in me and have the right motivation.
Plus, the few weeks of therapy had really been helping. Plus, the talks with my support group.
“Your memory isn’t to be trusted when you were a child,” he bit out.