Chapter 37 Everett
EVERETT
The new Mrs. Alder, Aurora, is in love with a monster.
She loves the man who broke her. The one who’s been rough, careless.
Despite the pain. The horrors. The goddamn loneliness.
Aurora finds the strength within herself to keep living. With me.
She loves me so much that she lets me run a brush through her damp hair, undoing the knots.
And I love her back, unable to stop looking at her small body swallowed up in my T-shirt. More than in love, I’m fucking crazy about her.
I can’t stop touching her. Can’t stop combing her hair, even though the strands are already smooth. Even though her eyelids are heavy, her eyelashes flutter in her attempts to wake up from the deep sleep she’s fallen into.
There’s no running away from this conversation.
I wish we could. I wish I could shield her from it.
“Lotus, your mom was left on our doorstep when she was a baby.” I place the brush on the bedside table, then turn Aurora onto her side.
Her blue gaze locks on mine, encouraging me to go on.
“A newborn, according to our family doctor. Couldn’t have been older than one month old, he said.”
“Like…” Her breath catches. Cheeks pale. “Like me. My nanny told me that when I started asking questions.”
“Yes, like you.” I cup her jaw possessively, struggling not to crush her with the weight of my love. “Only difference is, I’m confident that Lotus never meant to leave you there.”
“You are?” Hope blazes in her eyes. As tired as she is, it’s there.
“We’ll get to that part. After you’ve learned more about her.” Steeling myself against the festering wound in my chest, I go on. “She would’ve wanted you to know that life can be good. She would’ve shielded you from Winston. She wouldn’t have given you to these monsters.”
“O-okay.” Her chin wobbles, her body pressing closer to mine. She clutches my T-shirt so hard that it crumples. “Tell me. Tell me everything.”
“According to my parents, we got along from the very first day. I was three, but they said I was excited about being her older brother.” I pick the photo album off the table, placing it in her lap.
My mother compiled this album, adding two pages of photos for each year. The best ones. The happiest ones.
“That one’s from her first months here.” I point at the picture I’m talking about. I flip the pages. “This is her first birthday. Dad chose the date for her. This was taken on my fourth birthday; Lotus was adamant about smashing the cake. And kicking it.”
“Oh my God.” Aurora’s laugh is watery. Her fingertips brush over the photos while I kiss tears off her face. “Would you look at that? You were laughing. You have so many photos like these. Laughing.”
“I used to laugh, yes.” A sigh. “That was life at home. We had fun. We were happy. She was a smart kid too, highly observant. At six, she asked my parents if she was really theirs like I was.”
“Six?” Surprise chokes Aurora, and she clears her throat. “That young?”
“Yes. We had the talk that evening. Our parents explained everything. They couldn’t emphasize enough how she was one of us. Just because the parents who brought her into this world weren’t them, didn’t mean she wasn’t their daughter.”
“Lucky.” The corner of Aurora’s lips lifts. The smile never reaches her eyes.
“I’ll make up for the years no one made you feel like you belonged.” The photos will wait for another day. I set the album aside, hugging her. “For every year you weren’t as loved as you should’ve been, I’ll make it right. I swear it.”
“By torturing me?” Her breath tickles my throat.
“Aurora.” I stroke her hair. Then tug at it, marveling at her parted lips and tiny gasp. “Don’t you ever lie to me.”
“Lie? About what?”
“Pretending that you hate it.” She wriggles when I bite down on her earlobe. “Pretending you’re not wet for it. That counts as lying.”
“You’re the worst.”
“Not when it comes to you.” We’re eye to eye now, both breathing hard. Both wanting the other so much it hurts. “You’ll get the best of me. Always. In the form of pain and pleasure. Humiliation and adoration. You’ll have all of that. You’ll love all of that.”
“Can’t fucking wait.” Her grin spreads, wicked and real this time, before I claim her lips with a kiss.
Just one, vicious, bruising kiss that leaves the taste of her blood on my tongue.
But that’s all I give her.
I blink the lust away, releasing my grip on her hair.
My dick is no less hard. It’ll have to wait.
She’ll fall asleep if I fuck her again. I need her to be fully present when she learns about her history. About what’s going to happen tomorrow.
“Lotus had her doubts about our love, never truly feeling like a part of the family, no matter what.” An old ache and dozens of regrets almost crush me under their weight.
But then I look at Aurora, see the hope within her, and focus on her.
On what truly matters. “She had her inner struggles. But the three of us were constantly there to reassure her. We never grew tired of her, nothing like that. We were her family, and families stick together.”
“What happened when she was pregnant with me, then?” Her question is laden with pain. With fear of what the answer might be.
“This is the part where I struggle. I don’t have the whole story.” My fingers run paths along her back, down her arms.
I tell her about the night I found Lotus bleeding and crying her eyes out. I tell her about Lotus running away from home.
About the searches and the millions of dollars we offered in exchange for the slightest clue.
Anything to bring her back to us.
Then I get to the part that turns my wound into a gash. I feel as if I’m bleeding all over the room. Over the floors, the ceilings. Over Aurora and me.
Everything is bright fucking red.
“Twelve years later, we found her skeleton in the woods. On the outskirts of Boston.” I bite my inner cheek, stifling a feral groan.
Aurora hasn’t stopped crying the whole time.
I won’t put her under any more stress by acting like an animal.
“The coroner determined that she was around sixteen when she died. Less than a year after she ran away. And…”
Deep breath. Calm down. For her.
“And?” Her tears are like crystals on her eyelashes before they run down her cheeks.
“And that she gave birth before she died.” I gulp on air. My throat feels raw. “There was no sign of the baby or their skeleton. None. We—I thought you were dead.”
Christ, the anguish. It bangs from within my head. It cuts through my bones. Through my soul.
My jaw works. My pulse races.
Heart jackhammering in my chest.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Her palm scalds my jawline.
My skin burns. The flames of guilt are licking my insides.
“You couldn’t have known, Everett. Only a sick person would do something like that.
Rape someone, steal their child, and kill them.
I’ve never met your parents, and you could never take a close look at me.
You couldn’t have known. You can’t take the blame for this. You can’t. It was all Winston.”
“My parents would’ve had it figured out,” I grind out. “My mother would’ve seen the similarities that I’ve missed. That has to be why he locked you in that house. Why he waited for them to die of heartache to bring you to the meetings.”
“Yes, it had to be it.” Aurora drags my hand to her heart, flattening hers on top of mine. “See? It wasn’t your fault.”
The room grows silent. Our souls reach for one another, finding solace. If only for a moment.
“It was,” I finally say, my voice hoarse.
“I was too consumed with revenge to stop and look at you. When you turned nineteen, I was attracted to you. I saw how beautiful you were, regardless. How grown-up. I didn’t look closer.
It had taken me forever to see it, even after you moved in here.
I’m sorry, Aurora. I’m sorry I’d been lost inside myself for the past day and a half.
For crumbling under the pain. For letting you down. I’m so sorry.”
“Shut up,” she hisses the command I’ve thrown her way so many times. Stumped, and frankly, in awe of her, I snap my mouth shut. “The past is dead. My mother is dead. But him… Winston is alive. A free man. What are we going to do about that?”
My heart warms with how much I adore her. “That’s another thing I needed to talk to you about.”
When the story about our meeting from yesterday comes out of me, a low growl reverberates in Aurora’s throat.
“Motherfucker.” Her punch to my chest hardly registers. “I bet he plans to cremate me once I’m dead. He wants to bury the evidence before you get too attached to me. Before you figure out I’m your—I’m your—”
“My step-niece.” I kiss away her scowl. Can’t help myself. “And before I get attached? That ship has sailed. I am attached. In love. I’m yours.”
“We’re taking him down, right?” Both her hands are on my face. She pulls me to her, and I let her, pressing my forehead to hers. “Promise me that we’re going to ruin him and Molly. Please.”
“We will. I have a meeting scheduled with two police detectives first thing in the morning tomorrow. They’ll be here. I would’ve called them here as soon as Winston left, except I needed the last evidence to build an airtight case.”
“The DNA test.”
“Yes. And another thing. Ever since you told me about the abuse, I’ve been building your case, Aurora.
I’m getting justice for you. Everything you suffered in that house, them and their staff, they’re going down for it too.
” I kiss her as fresh tears roll down her cheeks.
I lick them away. Fuck, I love her. “Now that it’s settled, we’ll end this. And we’ll move on with our lives.”
She nods, then her face turns into a statue. Aurora is looking at me, but she’s staring through me.
“What’s wrong?” I massage the frown lines between her eyebrows.
“Nothing.” She blinks into focus. There’s still something missing from her gaze. Something’s lost. “I’m just tired.”
I don’t buy that for a second.
Gripping her chin, I dig my fingers into her until she yelps. “What’s. Wrong?”
We go back and forth like that for long seconds. I keep asking what’s wrong. She keeps telling me it’s nothing.
Enough is enough.
“Aurora.” I emphasize the word by sliding my hand around her throat, giving it a squeeze. “You better start talking. The alternative will be far more painful. Talk to me.”
“I can’t believe I’m his biological daughter.” Her cool facade breaks. Aurora’s face crumples.
Her sudden, loud sobs threaten to destroy what’s left of my sanity. They’re part screams, her visceral pain out in the open now that she’s had time to soak in the reality of her situation.
“Everett, please. Please.” Each sob that rips out of her is more guttural than the one before. “I don’t want to be his daughter. This rapist. This fucker. I want to kill him. Please, let me kill him. Please, Everett. If you love me, you’d let me kill him. Please. Please, please, please.”
She’s entitled to this. The meltdown. The pleas. The heart-wrenching sobs.
But I said it once, and I’ll say it again—I won’t let Winston win. I won’t let him steal her from me too.
“Listen to me.” After she begs me for what seems like an eternity, I choke her harder than before. “I would love nothing more than to crush his windpipe with my bare hands. To rip his organs out of his body, one by one, while he remains conscious. For you.”
“But?”
“The small risk of getting caught, of being torn apart from you…After I’ve found you…No. It isn’t worth it. We’re doing it this way. He’ll never see the light of day again, you have my word.”
Another stretch of silence, then, “How can you stand to look at me?”
“I love you.” I’m as honest as I’ve ever been.
“It’s got nothing to do with how you were conceived.
With who your parents are or what blood runs through your veins.
I’d burn the world down for you. I’d tear down governments and spend every dime on my name to ensure you have a good life.
A happy life. With me. You’re mine, the fucking end. Are we clear?”
Her nod is so fucking sad. “I love you, too, husband.”
She throws her arms around my neck, resting her head on my shoulder. Clings to me like I’m the only steady thing left in her world.
She definitely is mine, which is why I hug her back. Hard.
“Can you—will you tell me more about Mom now? My grandparents?”
Nothing I’d love more.
Aurora listens while I hold her. She listens while I pull the covers over us.
While I curl my body behind hers, with my arms wrapped around her.
She listens until her breath grows heavier and her eyes close.
Then I get out of bed and wake up my contacts in the police department and the partners who run my family’s law firm.
You can never be too careful. Too prepared.
For Aurora, I have to be ready.