Page 82 of Their Dark Rose

“You’ve been a brave girl. A brave girl that evolved into a brave woman,” Mason assures me. “We’ll apologize to you day and night for the pain we caused.”

“What we won’t do is apologize for keeping you safe.” Falk’s dark eyebrows knit together, his determination fierce and sharp. “We protected you from the world. Saved you from us. We had to take extra precautions when it came to you, and it hurt sometimes. I know. But I’m not the least bit sorry for how our lives turned out. We’re all here now. Together. The way it should be.”

“No regrets here.” Two voices echo Falk’s statement.

“None here, too.” A soft smile creeps up on my lips. “So, finish your story. What more have you done to protect me?”

“We’ve wanted your mom gone. Never to return.” Weary his words might make me run, Mason firms his hold on my hips. “It wasn’t our place to decide for you, and yet we had. She and your dad had been neglecting you for years. We couldn’t remove you from their home before she ran off, as much as we wanted to.”

“Cutting them from your life was the one twisted upside to losing our parents.” Finn slips a hand to cover my thighs in a possessive gesture. “You became ours. You were finally safe with us, little rose. And once we had you, we were never letting go.”

I want to thank them. I want to kiss them. Crawl under their skin. Get on my knees and show them my gratitude for their love and care.

For now, I settle for accepting their touch and listening to them without interrupting.

“We had Mallie’s house under surveillance.” Falk’s confession is bare of remorse. “In case your mother returned. Which she had at one point.”

My eyes gape. I’m neither happy nor sad. I’m curious.

“She had? Did she come here first?”

The crinkling in the corners of Falk’s eyes tells me everything I need to know.

“No, she hadn’t. Nor had she asked your aunt to see you,” he elaborates. “Our detective saw them arguing in the street outside Mallie’s house by the harbor. Your mom begged Mallie to loan her money since her credit cards were all declined after we cut her off. Mallie said she had none and told Lee the smartest thing to do for the both of them would be to fight us in court and get her husband’s company back.”

“Your mom answered she was done with your dad,” Finn continues. “Our detective said she was so high and mumbled something about money without the drama.”

“Then your aunt carried your mom inside the house.” Falk’s anger reverberates in the room. “No one’s seen her leave, and our detective stayed there for two days.”

“When was that?” I ask.

I’m mentally calculating how long Mallie has been planning this. How long she’s been conspiring to take what’s mine and not caring if it ruins me.

“A year after we took you in.” Mason’s index finger on the dark strip on my panties is meant as a comfort. There’s nothing sexual about it. Just claiming me.

“Princess, we paid our detective to investigate what happened to your mother. Hired another three to dig into the disappearance of your mom.” Falk runs his fingers under one of my breasts. “We did it for you. As much as we didn’t want her in your life, you deserved to know what happened to her. To have closure. But when they broke into Mallie’s house, Lee wasn’t there either. Brent, our lead detective, is an ex-cop so he had every inch searched when Mallie and Thorn were out. There was no sign of blood or hair or anything. Your mom vanished into thin air.”

“Someone made her vanish,“ Finn huffs. “Unfortunately, without proof, there was no use going to the police and having the press drag your family’s name through the mud. Again.”

“We just kept her far from you.” Mason pulls me closer. “She knows we’ll do worse than whatever she did to your mom if she ever comes near you.”

I sit there, letting everything sink in.

My aunt killed my mom.

My mother is dead.

She’s gone and isn’t coming back.

She might not have been the best mother. She might’ve neglected me, left me crying and alone as a baby. But she had her moments. Sometimes she hugged me, I remember she had. She even laughed around me in rare moments of what I realize now was clarity. Tickled me. Tucked me in and read to me on a rare occasion.

And now…

Now…

She’s dead.

A lump forms in my throat. My lungs clog.

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