Page 92 of Making Choices

Rather than respond, he stalks past me.

I chase him.

Venom owes Cherub an explanation.

Fucked if I don’t owe them both an explanation…

Reaching him, I grab his shoulder to slow his pace. Raw honesty surges to the tip of my tongue, and as my fingertips bite into his muscle, I say, “Zeke… just listen—”

My confession is aborted before it begins when Venom’s control snaps. He sweeps my legs out from under me, knocking me to the ground. Straddling my waist, he rains down punches. My nose breaks. Blood runs down the back of my throat, choking me. When he pulls his fist back to hit me again, one of his heavy rings rips out my eyebrow ring.

I’m unable to breathe through the blood. Brain frozen in shock at the ferocity of his attack, I manage to curl my arms over my face as Venom purges his rage on me. The regret I feel at letting him leave my house a week ago dies. Any guilt that tortured me for keeping my love for Cherub a secret evaporates. My resolve to explain things to him vanishes.

Fuck Venom.

He doesn’t deserve her.

He doesn’t warrant my understanding either.

The truth is that he left her. He literally told me that she needed me, not him. The only mistake I made was to keep giving him the benefit of doubt. I trusted him. Attributed my motives to him when it’s always been clear his love for her skews toward selfishness.

I’d burn for her just the way she is.

He’d set her on fire if he thought it’d fix her.

“She doesn’t need me!” Venom screams. “She can’t. Not when I’m the reason she lost the baby. Not when it’s my fault she got hurt. Not when it will happen again if Brutus gets his way. I’m fuckin’ useless. No good for her. Never have been. So, don’t come after me, bullshittin’ through your teeth about how she needs me. Lily’s better off now—”

The excuses he shouts as he pummels me do nothing to soften my anger toward him.

He made his bed.

I hope it consists of stained material, dilapidated springs, and rusty nails.

Someone pulls Venom off me. I roll onto my side and spit out some of the blood that’s choking me. Pushing up onto my knees, I brace my hands on the dirt and vomit up blood until I can breathe properly again. Cub helps me back to my feet. Holding my busted nose with one hand, I use the other to flip Venom the bird as he speeds out of the parking lot.

He ignores me, just like he ignores our fathers efforts to get him to stop and talk.

Once he’s out of sight, Duke pulls Hades to the side to speak to him. My brother and Cub head back to get Toker, wheelchair bound and left for dust back at the mausoleum. Alone with Sander, while my father bears down on me with a face like a thundercloud, I brace for another lecture.

“He can get fucked.” I stiffen with surprise in the wake of Sander’s pronouncement. “I see him near her, I’ll put a bullet in his head. There’s no excuse for treatin’ us like we’re the enemy… if he wants to become a one-man wreckin’ ball, he’s welcome to his self-inflicted misery. But he won’t be takin’ my sister down with him.”

“Is that you givin’ me your blessing?”

He doesn’t even pause to consider my muffled question. “As long as you give her time to heal and the space she needs to work out who she is without him, I’m on board.” Sander holds up a hand to halt my reply. “It’s her choice, though. I get one inklin’ that you’re tryin’ to manipulate her, and you’ll have a matchin’ hole in your head.”

“Big threats from the la de da basketball superstar,” I joke to lighten the mood.

“Nah,” Sander retorts, shaking his head. “It’s not a threat. I’ve let her down too many times… never again. I’ll blow up the entire club to protect her if it comes to it.”

“Good to know.”

My father reaches us, and Sander shoots me a sympathetic grimace before he makes himself scarce. The look on Dad’s face is enough to send a shiver down my spine. He’s a man on a mission.

A mission to tell me what he thinks about my recent behaviour.

“Have at it,” I tell my father.

“So… this is you fightin’ fair?”

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