Page 14 of The Silence of Monsters

“I want you to get married, but not just to anyone who wandered in off the street. You need to marry someone appropriate. Someone with status. There are an endless number of women who can benefit our family and make you a happy home. I will never agree if you tie yourself to someone unworthy of the Halliday name.” She would never miss an opportunity to put someone in their place. It was unreal that she was more than willing to put me in the same position as she had been with my father. They never hid the fact that their marriage was based on business, not love. My father was practically a big game trophy my mother worked night and day to bring down. She sniffed and coldly continued, “I won’t share my home with some stray you dragged through my door. You should know how it ends when people from different walks of life try to combine their lives. Nothing but tragedy awaits if you continue to be stubborn about this.” My mother sniffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

She was fairly tall and carried herself with a sense of entitlement that was unmistakable. People often referred to the Hallidays as American royalty. Colette fully embraced that illusion. She truly believed she was a queen, and everyone outside of the Hallidays were her subjects to rule.

I grunted as Channing pinched the skin on my side and whispered, “I told you so.”

“I’m not letting you handpick a bride for me. I’m not marrying someone with the sole purpose of helping Halliday Inc. I’ve let you design my entire future without complaint up to this point. I have to draw the line somewhere. I’ve known Channing longer, and I trust her more than any of the random women you’ve coerced me into meeting for these last couple of months. Winnie loves her, which is the most important reason I asked her to marry me.”

“I forbid it.” My mother narrowed her eyes, and it felt like she was trying to burn holes through my body so she could glare at Channing. “No Harvey will ever be welcome in my home.”

I was getting really annoyed at the repetition and the way she was treating anything I said as irrelevant. Arguing with my mother was always like this. She firmly believed that only her ideas held value and weight.

“Fine. If you forbid it, I’m taking Winnie and Channing back to the city. You can stay in this huge house all alone. Just you and the ghosts Winnie swears are in the walls. I don’t need your permission to make choices about my private life, Mother.”

“How dare you threaten to take my granddaughter away from me!” Her voice rose to a shriek. I shook my head and lifted a hand to rub my ringing ear.

“It isn’t a threat. Channing and I are married. If she’s not welcome here, then I’ll take her somewhere she is. Where I go, Winnie goes. Don’t forget, I’m her guardian, not you.” I sighed and gave my mother a pointed look. “You’re making this much harder than it has to be. You had to know I would never passively let you arrange a business marriage for me. I told you that if I agreed to follow in Dad’s footsteps the way you wanted, I was done sacrificing my own wants and needs for the good of this family. You have no one to blame for this current situation besides yourself. You should’ve listened to me when I told you to stop bringing women home for me. When it affected Winnie and you still ignored me, you left me no choice but to find a work-around.”

My mom huffed and puffed in outrage like an angry exotic bird. “What good can come from this selfish trick? Don’t you remember what it was like when we lost your brother? Her sister killed him, Winchester. The only plausible reason you could have for marrying her is to torture me. You’ve always hated me for wanting more for you than a life as a struggling musician. You resent me for pushing you to be something better.” I couldn’t refute her claims. I had a boatload of harbored resentment that she forced me to walk a path I had no interest in traveling. Who wouldn’t hate having all their choices and freedom stripped away under the guise of family duty? I despised this woman for snatching happiness in any form away from her children. It often seemed that my only role was to suffer alongside her. “Are you certain she isn’t here to finish the job her sister started? What if she wants to murder all of us in our sleep? You’re so worried about Winnie. What will you do if she harms her?”

I opened my mouth to tell the older woman she was being ridiculous, but Channing stepped around me and met my mother glare for glare.

“If you hadn’t pushed my sister to the breaking point, no one would’ve been hurt to begin with. She was fine until she moved into this house and had to deal with you every single day. You’re a wicked woman, Colette Halliday.” She pointed a finger in my mother’s direction and snapped, “The only reason I agreed to help Chester is because I knew it would make you miserable. I can’t wait for you to feel a fraction of the torture you inflicted on my sister. I don’t care about money, or your company, or this fucking cursed manor. I’m here to enjoy watching you suffer every single time you see my face.”

“You…” My mother took a step forward, and so did Channing. I caught the redhead’s collar and hauled her back to my side.

She flashed me a fiery look but stilled when I gave the back of her neck a small squeeze.

“We’re going around in circles. I am married to Channing. I can’t marry another woman, nor do I want to. If you force Channing out of my life for the duration of our marriage, she gets half my shares in Halliday Inc. That applies to anything that happens to you while we’re married, as well. If you hurt yourself, as you constantly threaten to do, I inherit all your shares.. I’ll make sure Winnie and Channing split them equally.” I had to maneuver so she couldn’t use self-harm to influence my decisions or hold my emotions hostage. “We can stay here, and you can continue to watch Winnie grow up and appreciate the great gift Archie left us, or I can take the girls and you can rot in this house on your own. I’m sick and tired of the manipulation. I shouldn’t have to worry about protecting myself from my own mother.” I dragged a hand down my tired face. “I wish you would stop and look at how we ended up here. If we had just behaved like some version of a normal family, we could’ve avoided this nonsense.” I had let go of that dream a long time ago. There was no normalcy when a family was bonded by ambition and greed.

There was a long, tense moment where my mother tried to figure out what to say that would get me to yield. I’d reached a point where I refused to surrender to her control when it came to my personal life. I was sick of feeling like her puppet. I should’ve cut the strings much sooner.

“Fine. Do what you want. It’s obvious you don’t care about how I feel.” My mother sniffed and tilted her chin defiantly. “I will not make that woman feel like she belongs here. I’m not lifting a finger for her. I’ll instruct my staff to do the same. She’s on her own.” I nodded as Channing scoffed in amusement. If she’d come from the same means my mother was used to, her threats might’ve felt intimidating and insulting. Channing had been on her own for so long, she had no concept of what it was like to be waited on hand and foot. It was impossible for her to miss something she’d never had. My mother suddenly smirked and gave me a look that sent a chill down my back. “If you are so determined to have a Harvey in my home, you can share your space with her. I don’t want her wandering around where she isn’t welcome. Since you were so willing to marry her, you won’t mind having her in your wing of the house exclusively, will you, Winchester?”

Channing and I exchanged a look. My space in the manor was more like a separate apartment than a typical bedroom. It was the remodeled quarters of the former staff. There was plenty of room for two people, but we shouldn’t have to live on top of one another when we lived in a house that was closer to a castle than a single-family home.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell my mother she was going too far. But Channing was faster than me and far more eager to push my mom’s buttons.

She turned to face me, her hand reaching for the loosened knot of my tie. The look in her eyes was vicious and taunting. I’d never seen an expression like that before. The more I was around her, the more it became strikingly obvious that my impression of her as someone who was bland and ordinary was totally off base. Channing did a solid job of hiding that she was extraordinary.

Our height difference was enough that Channing had to pull me down to her level and lift on her toes to reach her goal. I shouldn’t have been surprised when her lips met mine. Regardless, my breath caught when the softness of her mouth brushed across mine.

This time, she tasted like candy. The kiss was sweet, and I was a man who appreciated dessert. Indulging in something simply because it tasted good and made me happy was one of the few guilty pleasures I allowed myself. I was startled that kissing Channing Harvey gave me the same rush.

She was braver and more thorough than I’d been when she kissed me. There was no hesitation or fear in her movements. She was a great kisser. Or, maybe I didn’t have enough data to compare, because I’d spent most of my life handling the Halliday’s affairs and not experiencing all that life had to offer. Either way, kissing Channing had moved toward the top of my list of small gratifications that had nothing to do with business accomplishments.

I let out an involuntary gasp, and as soon as my lips parted, I felt the tip of her tongue sneak into the opening. It flicked across my own, and her teeth nipped at my bottom lip. My breath caught in my lungs as my hands unconsciously moved to hold her waist and pull her closer. My mind wandered to silk sheets and entwined bodies. I could picture Channing’s pale skin underneath my hands while she writhed in pleasure. I would never consider myself a man with an overtly carnal side, but the longer the kiss went on, I wondered if I knew myself as well as I thought I did. I was uncomfortably warm, and my heart was pounding in an erratic rhythm I’d never experienced before. I forgot I was kissing a woman my mother hated right in front of her. It slipped my mind that Channing considered us enemies. All I could focus on was the fact that I suddenly felt more human than I had in a long while.

It wasn’t until the teeth she was using to tease me bit down hard enough on my lip that I came to my senses. I looked over the top of Channing’s head in my mother’s direction and noticed that she was absolutely seething.

Channing turned to face her with a victorious smirk. “I’m happy to share a room with Chester. It’ll give us plenty of time alone. Who knows how close we’ll get when we live in a small space together?”

“You are a worthless piece of trash. All Harveys are.” My mother hurled another piece of antique dishware in my direction. I managed to catch this one before it smashed into Channing or the wall. “Take your hands off my son. I’ll never let you corrupt him the way your filthy sister ruined my youngest.”

This was probably the most unhinged I’d seen my mother since Archie’s death. Before I could interject, Channing marched directly in front of her and told her in an icy voice, “Your opinion of me is irrelevant, because you aren’t a woman I respect. I couldn’t care less what you have to say about me or my sister, but if I hear you whisper one derogatory word about either of us to Winnie, I won’t let it go. You have no right to poison that child’s mind with your hatred. I won’t stand by and let you taint the few fond memories from her childhood with your disgusting prejudice.” She took a shuddering breath and glared at the distinguished older woman. “I have nothing to lose the way Willow did. I’m not afraid of you, Colette.”

My mother lifted her hand as if she were going to smack Channing across the face. I moved to intercept the action, but Channing didn’t need me to protect her.

She simply caught my mother’s hand and twisted her wrist at a very sharp angle. My mom let out an undignified howl of distress and turned her panicked eyes in my direction. I shrugged carelessly. She brought this upon herself.

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