Page 36 of Loving the Liar

Her empty eyes are on mine when I drop my hands to hold hers.

“Mom—”

“I’m not a young woman they can have fun with for hours on end anymore, Ella.”

My stomach churns. This is disgusting. Those men are monsters.

“I am worth nothing to them,” she whispers. Almost like she’s ashamed. “My body is worth nothing.”

But it doesn’t mean they didn’t use her anyway.

“Why did you go?” I don’t realize tears are running down my face until my raw voice wakes the feelings in my body. “Mom, why?”

Her fingers tighten around mine. “I had to try to protect you and your brother, didn’t I? It’s the least I could do.”

I shake my head, refusing her selfless act. One that made no difference.

“Luke didn’t get in,” she says. “And I didn’t help.”

Her unspoken words are louder than the ones she pronounced. Her imploration is silent, yet unmistakable.

It’s my turn.

But like the coward I am, I find excuses. My mother just let someone—or some people—assault her, and I still try to back out of this.

“The initiations are tomorrow. I-I don’t have an invite.”

Pulling her hand away, she stands up so quickly I fall on my ass. She doesn’t help me up. She walks around me and down the two stairs of our porch.

And in a cold, distinct voice, she says, “Then get one.”

Chapter Nine

Chris

KILL MY X - Chri$tian Gate$

There’s a buzzing in my ears. That’s usually what happens when Megan talks to me, but this evening, I’m zoning her out because I’m still processing what I saw in that office.

A red mark on the left side of her chin. Like someone gripped her too harshly. Someone who wasn’t me.

“Chris…”

Ella’s pale skin reddens so beautifully. Bruises are gorgeous against her porcelain perfection.

But only if I’m the one who inflicts them.

“Chris!”

My eye twitches when her voice gets through to me, my grip tightening on the steering wheel of my car.

“The light,” Megan huffs. “It’s green.”

I press the accelerator, still unable to get the image of Reeves’s hands on Ella’s body out of my mind.

I take a deep breath through my nose, making sure I’m calm when I speak.

“Do you think it’s true?”

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