Page 260 of Mayhem and Minnie

“She probably has a lover too, so she doesn’t care. The children are grown up as well. I believe the eldest is about to get married too?”

“Your world sounds insane.”

“It is.” She laughs. “You know, I used to be in the demon-hunting branch of our military under my brother. Even though we often traveled to other worlds to vanquish demons, we were never allowed to linger or interact with the native population. So to me, everything in Aperion was completely normal until I learned that it can be different.”

“In 1945?”

She nods tightly, her lips pressed together.

Her eyes find mine, and she’s probably wondering if I’m going to break my word and bring Lucien up again.

But I won’t. I have no desire to mar this precious moment between us with the memory of that fucker. Let him rot in hell.

I clear my throat.

“You asked me when I became like this,” I start uncertainly.

If we’re going to lay the cards on the table, I might as well come clean with everything too, no matter how shameful the past might be.

She raises her brows in surprise.

I look away and inhale deeply.

“I don’t know if I told you much about my father.”

“You never said anything about him.”

I give her a tight smile.

“He was not a good man. He was an addict with a temper. When he was sober, he would only beat my mother lightly—and by that I mean that he would make sure the bruises could be hidden under her clothes. When he was drunk or high, he didn’t care about that anymore. He beat and beat and beat her, and sometimes he raped her too.”

Minnie gasps.

“And sometimes he beat us, too. Julien took the brunt of it until he went to boarding school when he was twelve. After that, I was next.”

“Marlowe…”

“She had ten, twelve miscarriages? I lost count. She’d get pregnant after he raped her, but then she’d miscarry when he beat her to a pulp. My earliest memory is of coming out of my room and finding my mother in a pool of blood, barely able to move.”

“Did she try to leave him?”

“She did. A few times. But my mother’s family was perhaps worse in that their only response to her cries for help was to bear it. They told her to fucking bear it, otherwise it would look bad on the family name.”

“What?” Minnie’s eyes widen.

“I remember at least two distinct occasions in which we ended up at the police station. But because my father had money and influence, the police never investigated.”

“What about Giles? Didn’t you say he’s been with the family for years?”

“He started working for the family a couple of years after that. But he was only a driver. He was twenty-three, fresh out of college, and looking for a summer gig before applying for big boy jobs.” I smile as I remember the way Giles had told the story.

“Twenty-three?” Minnie frowns. “And your mother was…”

“Thirty.”

“She’s older than him? Wow! I wouldn’t have thought so.”

“She’s actually the reason why Giles never went on to apply for his big boy job. I think he must have fallen for her around that time. But he didn’t know about the abuse, or how bad it was, until later on.”

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