Page 14 of Saviors

Her body was stiff as I held her tightly. Her familiar scent of lemon cleaner washed over me. Fuck, I hadn’t realized I’d miss that smell one day.

When I pulled back, I expected matching tears on her face, instead her brows were furrowed. “What are you doing here?”

I shook my head, unable to process her response. “What do you mean?”

This felt wrong. This wasn’t the moment I’d been picturing for months. Where was her relief? The crying?

“Well, I’m surprised to see you.” She straightened in her seat, forcing me to pull away and stand. “You just show up after months of not talking.”

“What?” My voice sounded like it was echoing in a cave. “Didn’t you notice I was missing?”

“Missing?” Her brows smoothed, but she pursed her lips. The judgment in her gaze was like a physical force threatening to knock me over. My body swayed again. “Your brothers said you wanted some space. That you went on vacation with Simon.”

My head jerked back. Why would they say that? Simon must have fed them a lie so they wouldn’t ask questions. But didn’t they think it was weird I’d never contacted them myself?

Did my family really not notice I was gone? I’d been harboring this story in my mind. These images of their devastation. Of my mother crying to reporters. My father speaking to the police. My brothers searching for me. It had all been a fantasy.

“That’s not what happened. I was—.”

“Violet?” My head whipped around at the sound of my father’s voice. He eyed Connor, Maverick, and Reid as he stepped into the living room. For a moment, I’d forgotten they were there. They seemed out of place in my family’s pristine, out dated house.

“Dad!” My feet carried me to him. I lifted my arms for the hug I expected. My chest ached for a warm embrace. Instead, he patted me on the shoulder, then moved around me.

“What are you doing here?” He echoed Mom’s question as he sat on the armchair next to her and picked up his newspaper.

“I’ve been gone for months and when I come back, the only thing you do is ask why?”

My skin felt clammy. My throat tight. I was hyperaware of the men across the room staring at me. It only made the anxiety spreading through my veins worse.

“What did you expect?” He glared at me over the top of his reading glasses, not even bothering to put down the paper. “You’re the one who left. Cut off contact because of a single argument with your mother.”

“I didn’t.” My voice started to rise. It felt like I was a child blamed for a crime I didn’t commit. Desperately trying to get them to see the truth, but only managing to make myself look more guilty. “I would never do that.”

“Who knows what you’d do?” My chest ached as I looked at my mother. “I never expected the daughter I raised, the one I clothed and fed and put a roof over her head, to speak to me like that.”

“But you—. But I…” I took a deep breath, swallowing any arguments. I had no desire to do this. Rehash a fight. So much had happened. It didn’t matter to me anymore. “I didn’t leave. I was—.”

“Violet, I don’t want to hear your excuses.” My mother brushed me aside, reaching for her book again as if to dismiss me. “It obviously didn’t work out with whatever guy you were dating and now you’re back.” Her gaze flicked across me dismissively, taking in the oversized men’s shirt and too tight leggings. “Go get cleaned up and then we will discuss how to move forward as a family. And whether I can forgive you.”

“I was kidnapped!” It seemed to me that the words echoed around the room. But my parents stayed almost unnaturally still. “By Simon. I was supposed to drop something off. I was going to break up with him, but he took me. He locked me up! He—.”

The stitches holding together my broken heart burst as she rolled her eyes, rejecting the story before I’d even spoken it. The pieces of the organ scattered to my feet; rolled around the floor towards her.

“He held me for months. Told me he’d kill Craig and Aaron if I tried to escape. He tor—.”

My mother put up her hand. I felt like she’d kicked my heart away. “You don’t need to invent stories.”

I swallowed past the rawness of my throat. Emotion pulled it tight as I stared at my parents. “Why would I make that up?”

“Because you feel guilty about our fight. For not calling in months. For dating the wrong man again. And being too proud to admit you made a mistake.”

My father grasped her hand as if she was the one who needed comfort. “You really hurt your mother. And these lies won’t fix that.”

I couldn’t breathe. It felt like my mother’s words had pierced my skin and sucked the air from my lungs. In the past few months, I imagined all the ways I could die. A gunshot. A knife to the gut. A rope snapping my neck.

Never had I expected the finishing blow from my parents.

A warm hand brushed my wrist. Instinctively, I reached towards the only comfort I felt. I turned my palm, but the touch was already disappearing. My gaze flicked to Reid, who’d moved to stand beside me. “She’s not lying.”

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