Page 82 of Harmless Scandals

She held up her hand. “No. I got to hear all about your precious feelings, now you are going to know what my life was like. I had my first job when I was five. I remember thinking it was just for play. Then it became a job. When my father walked out, my mother had been desperate. She realized I could make money and she didn't have to do a damned thing, so she started pushing me. When I understood that if I didn't get a job, we would lose our apartment or maybe we just would go without eating for a day or two, I started having panic attacks. My mother got me a prescription for valium. I was eight.”

Jesus.

“It got worse, you know. I was never a daughter, but a commodity. I worked, she lived the good life. I know now, looking back at it, if I hadn't made it in the legitimate industry, I would have probably ended up in porn when I turned eighteen. Well, I hope she would have waited until I turned eighteen. Either way, she wanted a certain lifestyle and she wanted me to provide it.”

“Serenity,” Adam breathed her name out.

“Don't you pity me.”

“I don't pity you.”

He glanced at Mick, who said nothing. His face was expressionless.

“Either way, the end of the whole entire deal came the morning I woke up in the hospital. See, at sixteen, I felt washed up. My show was being canceled. They hadn't told my mother, and I didn't want to tell her. I didn't want it to be another disappointment that she could hold over my head. So, after work, I went home and swallowed half a bottle of that valium she had supplied.”

“You...”

“They said I was dead for a few seconds. Truth is, if Nicola hadn't shown up to check on me, I would have died. And I wanted to be dead. See, I didn't want to think about what I would have to do next. What horrible thing I would be forced to do and live with later. I wanted it to go away. I was sixteen years old and I felt as if I had failed at life.

So, that morning, my mother showed up in the hospital.”

“Wait, didn't you live with your mother?”

“We had an apartment she never slept at, so basically, I lived by myself.”

His life had sucked. His mother had been a crack whore who had liked to beat on him, but she had never turned him out to make money. And that is what Serenity’s mother did to her. She hadn’t turned her into a whore, but she had used her own daughter to provide her a living, which was just as bad in his opinion.

“She wasn't happy with me. She said that if the tabloids found out about my mistake--that's what she called it--that I would be ruined. She berated me, called me a failure. That was before Nicola walked into the room. She read my mother the riot act and kicked her out.”

“Nice story,” Mick said, in his asshole voice. Adam hated the voice and knew what it meant. Mick was in a dark place.

“Not particularly, but it tells you something. I do not ever want that bitch to find me. I don't want to be a household name. I want to be who I am right now. And the woman I am right now has one message for you.”

“What?”

“If you loved me like you said, you would have never thought I would have done this to someone I loved. To two someone's I loved. So, please, by all means, go fuck yourself.”

With that, she turned on her heel and headed out the door. He wanted to go after her, but Adam knew there was one person who needed him more right now, and that was Mick.

“What the hell was that about, Mick?”

“What?”

“What? Jesus, you really are an idiot. And this is so typical of you. You get all excited about something, and when everything doesn't go particularly perfect, you decide to blow it the fuck up.”

“I’m not the one with the secret past.”

“Secret past? What the hell? We’re a freaking soap opera now.”

He opened his mouth, but Adam had heard enough. “You do realize that you could have checked her out at any time before and during the relationship? With our connections, you could have easily found out everything about her. Hell, we probably could have googled her name and found her. After that guy said Daughter Knows Best on the beach, did either of us investigate? No. We didn’t.”

“I didn’t want to.”

“Nope, you sure didn’t. You wanted her to be perfect, and in your eyes, for a while, she was. Now though, you think she did something, that she somehow brought this on herself.”

“You make it sound like she’s a victim.”

“No, she’s a survivor. She accomplished it the only way a sixteen-year-old could. And she has thrived.”

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