Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
VIOLET
He was putting it all out there, and for the first time in a long time, I wanted to do the same.
Except I didn’t know how anymore.
Yes, you do, my heart whispered. You’re just scared.
Maybe I was, but I had every reason to be.
I had been a closed book for so long that even finding the first page felt like an impossible task. The pain inflicted by my father was still here. I could feel it pressing against the inside of my ribs.
“I’d like a clean slate with you, Violet,” Lykos added.
I swallowed, my fingers curling in my lap. I hadn’t talked about my father’s cruelty in years. Not since before my sister disappeared. She was usually the only one to witness it and protest against it. Well, she and our mother, but my mom was mostly numb to it.
Lykos watched me, unaware of the silent waging war within me.
“I…” My voice cracked, and I let out a quiet, humorless breath. “I don’t usually talk about personal things. Which is ironic for a therapist, I know.”
His expression softened, eyes still laser-focused on me. “Maybe it’s your defense mechanism. I don’t understand the human psyche as well as you, but it can’t be good to hold it all in. Don’t you think?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t have to force it,” he said gently. “Just… say wherever hurts the least.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “It all hurts.”
I felt the heaviness of all my choices and losses tighten in my chest, but still, Lykos waited. He didn’t rush me. He just remained sitting, watching me and waiting.
And somehow, that made it easier.
“I always felt that my father hated me. He’d shower Lily with love, but all I got was the cold shoulder.
It was okay though, because I had my sister, and sometimes, I had my mom too.
” The words felt foreign on my tongue, like I was speaking a language I’d forgotten.
I hesitated, then forced myself to keep going.
“But then Lily was taken… died…” It was so hard to think of her as dead when I never saw her body.
A part of me still hoped she’d resurface, alive, and I’d hug her until everything went back to the way it was.
“That was when his hate came out in full force. In the orders he gave to the staff to withhold my dinner or to ignore me outright. Even my mom ignored me. I knew they were hurting, and I made a mistake going to that dance, but I was hurting too. And I blamed myself even more than they did.”
Lykos tilted his head slightly. “You were just a kid. What does a sixteen-year-old know? It wasn’t fair or right for your parents to lay blame at your feet.”
“I blamed myself,” I said, bitterness lacing my words. “But I needed them too, and they cast me aside. I mourned the loss of my sister, but all I got were threats…”
I trailed off and looked away, suddenly wanting to crawl out of my sin.
“Threats?” Lykos asked, urging me on. “What did they threaten you with?”
I swallowed, my throat tightening. I didn’t know how to explain it without making it sound like it was a petty excuse to defend my choices. Lykos asked again, keeping his tone even. “Threatening with what, Violet?”
“He said he’d extinguish my line. Murder any children I ever had,” I rasped, words leaving my lips slowly. “They weren’t empty threats. He’d always followed through with his threats when I was young, so I knew…”
My fingernails dug into the palms of my hands, the bite anchoring me as I recalled the time my father beat me black and blue a few weeks after Lily’s kidnapping.
The rattle of the iron door. And then… bang.
Father’s fist against my cheek had me seeing stars. Literally. His knee to my abdomen sent excruciating pain through me.
“I’ll kill your children before they’re even born,” he vowed, his voice cold as ice.
My body was a canvas of bruises. My mind was a broken record of “whys.” My soul was stamped with guilt.
Each time he beat me, darkness came alive all around me, threatening to swallow me. Every word he uttered in that soundproof room hurt me. Over and over again.
I begged him to stop. I screamed but his palm against my mouth made it impossible for my pleas to be heard.
It wasn’t until my mom found us that the beating had stopped.
I swore it broke her just a bit more, but this time I couldn’t comfort her.
I was too far gone myself.
I’d hidden my pain deep inside my soul, taking years to heal myself. But my father’s threats remained, and deep down in my very bones, I knew he’d hurt my child. I couldn’t risk that, not without funds to protect her and myself.
“Why didn’t you tell me that your father threatened you when you came to my penthouse all those years ago?” Lykos repeated his earlier question.
“Because my problems weren’t yours. All I needed to do was protect Aria,” I whispered my admission, “and you were my only option. Rest of it doesn’t concern you.”
His threats to me didn’t matter. I could take them. I could survive them. But Aria… she needed to be protected at all costs.
“He threatened our child and the mother of my child. All of it was my problem and my concern.” Lykos’s gaze sharpened, and his voice was cold as a whip. My breath hitched. “Violet, is he still a threat to Aria?”
I let out a shaky breath and shook my head. “He doesn’t know about her. He believes I had an abortion.”
“You wanted to keep her,” he stated softly. “Didn’t you?”
I locked eyes with him, recalling my hurtful words to him the night I dropped Aria into his arms. It was the only way I knew how to do it without risking backing out.
“Yes,” I admitted. “But I was broke, my parents withheld all funds from me for years. If my grandfather had left me his fortune earlier…” I pushed my hand through my hair.
“Anyhow, it’s pointless to debate on what-if scenarios.
Things turned out the way they did. The main thing was that she was safe and protected. ”
“Why not make him pay when you got your fortune?”
“I wanted to, but it would hurt my mother too, and that I couldn’t do.”
“I should have helped you,” he said. “You were in pain, surviving the abuse from your parents, and I did nothing.”
I blinked, my vision blurring. “You didn’t know. And anyway, you had your own demons to fight.”
“No matter. It’s high time you and I made ourselves, Aria, and Dimitros a priority.” His voice was steady. “Starting now, that’s what we’ll do.”
“I’d like that,” I breathed.
And like the clouds had parted to reveal a clear sky, the future no longer felt so bleak. There were possibilities I was almost afraid to name.
I imagined a life where I wasn’t alone. A life where I could stand beside Aria not as a stranger passing through, but as her mother.
I wanted to learn all there was to know about her and her brother, from the big things to the small, inconsequential things.
I wanted to be a part of it all, and whatever needed to be done, I would earn a place in their lives.
And then there was Lykos.
I didn’t know where things would lead with him—whether there was even a future for us—but I was willing to take a chance.
We didn’t have answers. We didn’t have a plan. But I wouldn’t have to figure it out alone.