Page 36 of Obsessions of the Heart

In unison, Rion and I twisted our heads in his direction, glaring at him with the fire of a thousand suns. He shielded himself from us. “No! Not together. You know that when your anger teams up, it's invincible!”

A small exhale, then a smile crossed my face. He pointed at me immediately. “Got ya! You know you can’t be mad at me forever, Rin. My boyish charm is your weakness.” While he was right, I didn’t want to admit it so I punched him in the arm, just like I would when we were nine.

He whined like it hurt, but with the defined hard muscles that met my fist, there was no way it did. I smirked at Rion, who returned it with a small smile, and I knew we were done being frustrated with each other.

I didn’t know what it was about with these boys, but I was comfortable with them in a way I couldn’t be with others. I had only been with them for one year of my childhood, but that was all it took. As soon as I saw Ravi, I knew I was going to drop anything and go with him. These boys were once my everything, and I needed answers.

Just like Pandora's box, everything I’d felt when they left flew out of that tightly latched box deep inside me. My hands clenched together, picking at my nails, and my throat felt raw. Unwanted tears gathered in my eyes, so I looked down, not wanting them to see me break down. The only word I could get out of my mouth was “Why?”

I heard the creaks and shifting of fabric, but I still couldn't look at them, unable to make sense of all the feelings and thoughts rushing around my brain. There was a dark vortex inside of me, throwing out one horrible thing after another. I took a shaky inhale to try to calm my body and mind, but it wasn't enough. The pain was just too much.

A set of fingers dug into my shoulders, turning me all the way around and forcing me to look up. Familiar fire-filled eyes looked down at me, Roux's fingers tightened to the point of being painful before he croaked, “We had no choice. Do you hear me? We. Had. No. Fucking. Choice.”

Drops of water hit my hand as tears carved their way down my face. I stared at him, the angry brother that would always push me away, always make me feel unwanted. This man was begging me to believe him, to see his sincerity and take a chance.

The only one who could make me truly believe those words would be Roux.

“He’s right, you know,” Ravi’s soft voice called out from right behind me, but my eyes were glued to Roux, still feeding off him.

Rion whispered, “We tried to send you a gift when you turned eighteen, but it was sent back to us. We didn't know where you were.”

“I didn’t know that,” I whispered back, lowering my eyes to Roux’s chest when they watered over again, turning his defined chest into a hazy, undefined tan wall. After they left, I thought they didn't care about me. I’d thought that I was just some girl they once knew, but if they sent a present at eighteen, that meant they had at least thought of me once in the past eleven years.

I did mean something to them.

That thought broke the dam welding up my heart, and instead of the occasional drops, it was a free-flowing waterfall. Roux’s grip became less forceful, more like he was just holding me up now, and I appreciated it. “I ran away after I turned eighteen. Miss Vaughn wanted me to stay for one more year. She thought she could get another year's worth of checks since she’d found me as a baby and could claim she miscalculated my age, but I knew I had to get out, get away.” Swiping at my tears became useless because they were just replaced with new ones. Once I got started, I just kept going.

“I’d done enough under-the-table jobs to purchase a beat-up, old Honda Accord and drive a few towns over where no one knew me as Layrin, the cursed child.” I spat that last part out, still pissed that was my lot in life. “Then the rest… It was just survival, living one day at a time to get to the next.” I shrugged, puffing out a laugh that held no humor. “It's not a big deal. That's just life, right?”

Yanking myself out of Roux’s grip, I closed my eyes and settled back onto the couch. The vortex of feelings inside of me began to calm, knowing the worst of it had already come out.

“Rin?” Ravi’s sweet soft voice said as the couch dipped right next to me. “What do you mean by the cursed child?”

Blowing out a heavy sigh, I answered without opening my eyes. “You know how they felt about me. It just got worse when I went into high school.”

“Just because she found you on Halloween, that's hardly a reason for the whole town to call you a cursed child.” Rion’s condescending tone came out loud and clear.

Clenching my teeth, I sat up and opened my eyes. “You would be right if that was all it was.”

The boys looked at each other, doing that triplet talking thing inside their heads. I snarled before I interrupted their silence. “When you make a friend and bad things happen to them, people get wary.” Raising my hand, I ticked off the situations. “When the boy who was your first kiss gets his face bashed in, people talk.” Rolling my eyes, I kept going. “And don't get me started on the fact that the guy I had… relations with disappeared. Later, he showed up with his dick cut off, so traumatized he couldn't talk about it.”

I huffed again and lowered my hand, not too sad about this one. “Then my high school bully ended up getting hit by a bus. She lost a toe and broke both of her legs. So, yeah, I ended up being Layrin, the cursed girl. Hide your boys and girls from the girl who would ensure bad things happened to you or your family. Don’t invite the cursed girl to join, or else you will all get hexed. Make sure she stays hidden from society, so people don’t associate us with you.”

My fists clenched as I thought back to everything I had gone through. It was insanely hard to get a job when people didn't want to see you, so I had to work in the back or in the alley. All of it was done under the table since beggars couldn’t be choosers, and that meant they could pay me whatever measly amount they wanted. I worked harder than anyone else my age even while making less than minimum wage, but it was fine because as soon as I left that shitty old town, I was free of it. No one called me Layrin the cursed, again.

“So, I got out and went a few towns over, making sure no one knew who I was. I worked odd jobs until Mel hired me at the diner.” And I met Vivian. My first adult friend. Her smile popped into my head, and my throat closed up. If I hadn't already dried up from crying earlier, the waterworks would’ve burst again.

“Enough about me.” I waved them off, trying to draw the attention away from me before I looked up, afraid to see the pity most people gave me when they heard just a bit of my story. My eyes widened at the sight of them. Rion’s fingers were digging into his biceps, Ravi’s chest rose and fell at an accelerated pace, and Roux’s nostrils were flared. All three of their faces had darkened, looking like they wanted to go to war.

“I could have every one of their bank accounts drained in—” I put my finger against Rion’s lips to silence him and gave him a true smile. His lips smashed into a thin line as I reached for Ravi and Roux’s fisted hands, keeping my eyes on Rion’s the whole time. “While it's sweet that you want to defend me, I just want to let it go. I never really talk about my past because I want it behind me, not affecting my future. The past is in the past.”

I squeezed their fists and nodded to Rion before I let go. “So, what about the three of you? All I remember is that rich guy coming to get you, then away you went. Miss Vaughn later said he was your uncle. What have you guys been up to? What have your lives been like? Why did you even go to the orphanage when you had a living relative?”

Each of them had the same hesitation, the same far-off look that said they had seen some shit. What could they have been through to earn that look? Did the prep school kids make fun of them or something? Before I had a moment to ask, Rion beat me to it.

“When our uncle found us, he explained that he hadn’t known about us. At the time, the Ambros family consisted of our father, our uncle, and our grandma. Our family runs a large firm out of Manhattan, New York.”

Ravi spoke up next. “One night, our parents were coming back from a trip, but they got into a plane crash and died.”

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