Page 54 of Stolen Love

“No. That’s not… I planned to keep you all. I wanted to love you all.”

“But?” Rebel’s voice is full of bitterness.

“I didn’t have a choice.” She glances from Rebel to Rogue, begging them to understand. “I left him. I went to stay with a friend. He had men take me from my bed in the middle of the night and deliver me back to him. He told me that he would kill me if I didn’t do what he’d ordered me to do.”

I pull in a quick breath. It’s loud compared to the utter silence of our group. I can’t comprehend what that must have been like for her. Not fully. To love someone and have them turn out to be a monster. To be pregnant and alone.

“I was scared. I went so far as to go to a clinic. He had someone follow me so he knew when I didn’t go through with it. But then he changed his mind. His father had convinced him that he should raise the child to take over the family business after him. That our baby would be the next heir. He demanded I hand over the baby or he would kill me and our child.”

She buries her face in her hands for a long moment. Her shoulders shake. When she looks at us again her eyes are wet. “It was the last thing I wanted to do. Handing over a sweet and innocent baby to a monster. And then I found out that there were three of you. I did everything I could to hide the fact that I was carrying triplets from him. It wasn’t easy. Carrying three of you… my belly was so big. I used support garments and baggy clothes to minimize it. And I kept my distance from your father.”

“Christ, Mom.” Rebel starts to pace.

“It helped that he wasn’t really interested in our child. He became obsessed with a new girl. He was travelling and partying with her. I started to have hope that I’d been completely forgotten.” Lost in the past, she grips Rogue’s hand tightly as she pales. “Then you came early… as triplets tend to…”

“He came for Ruin, didn’t he?” I ask softly.

“I didn’t think he would.” Tears slip down her weathered face. “He didn’t come to the hospital after the birth. He didn’t contact me at all. I was discharged from the hospital a few days after I delivered, but you boys were in the NICU for weeks. I visited you every day. Spent every hour I could holding all three of you close. I believed I’d gotten lucky. I’d escaped him and I had the three of you.”

Rebel drops into a crouch in front of her. There’s a storm of emotion in his expression. Pain, anger… compassion. He reaches out and puts his hand on her knee. “Go on.”

“I had a friend with a spare room, ready to let us stay with her. Someone I met after your father and I ended. Someone who had nothing to do with his world. I trusted her to help keep us safe. When you were finally strong enough to go home, she drove me to the hospital and accompanied me to the nursery. All we had to do was transport you to the car. I watched my friend carry you two out as I finalized the paperwork. Watched her buckle in your car seats and turn to wait for me. We were home safe.”

She covers her mouth as a moan slips from her lips. “That’s when your dad caught up to me. He took Ruin’s carrier from my hand and walked away without a word. I chased him into the parking garage. Begged him to give me back my baby.”

“He handed the baby off to the woman in his car while the two men with him held me back. Then he warned me to never try to contact his son. That he would kill me if I did. After that he got into his car and drove away.”

My heart breaks for her, and I find my hand itching to touch my belly. I couldn’t imagine going through what she has. Wanting my baby and having him stolen from me.

“His goons roughed me up and left me unconscious in the parking garage. I ended up back in the hospital with broken ribs. My friend must have realized what was happening, thankfully. She took you home with her and kept you safe. I came for you as soon as I was released.”

Rogue catches my gaze over her head. I can see he’s thinking the same thing I am. He would tear the world apart looking for that baby if it were ours.

“I grieved your brother,” she says. “For weeks, before I packed you and everything we owned into a couple of bags and hopped on a bus. Found a quiet suburb and settled far enough away from your father to not have to constantly look over my shoulder.”

“Christ, Mom.” Rogue’s emotions are clearly written on his face. “Why didn’t you report it to the police?”

“I did. Your father had influence. No one was going to help me. The cops didn’t believe me when I tried to report the kidnapping. Or the beating.” She sobs. “I was scared that if I tried to push it that he would find out about the two of you. And that he would take you too. I couldn’t deal with that. I made the choice to pretend you were twins. Not knowing if I would ever see Ruin again…”

“That why you misused your meds all those years?” Rebel asks. The anger, though still there, has diminished, replaced with hurt, but also understanding. “Why you started using when Riot was little?”

“It hurt so much.” She curls inward. “My heart was never whole. I couldn’t get over it… I couldn’t move on. Not until he showed up here. I was sitting right here and he walked up to me and called me Mom and I knew.”

“He calls himself Henry West now,” I say.

She smiles and takes my hand. Squeezes it. “Henry is what his dad called him. West is for her. The girl he came to L.A. to find.”

“Our dad or his adopted dad?” Rebel looks at me, probably because I’m the one who told him that West was adopted.

I nod. That’s what Dizzy told me. It could have been another lie.

“Ruin was only adopted on paper,” their mother says. “It was a part of removing any trace of me from his life. His adoptive father is your father.”

“And the girl.” Rogue glances at me. “That has to be Dizzy.”

“He’s so tall and handsome. Just like you two. But he’s been through more than you could ever imagine at the hands of that man. He wouldn’t speak of it, but I could feel it. The coldness in him. The pain. He had no one until the girl. And even then his father no doubt manipulated his interaction with her.” She appears haunted as she clutches at her stomach. “I was a shitty mother, and that was not okay, but at least you had each other. He’s not like you boys. I need you to promise me that you won’t approach your brother. He’ll come to you in his own time. When he’s ready for you to know who he is.”

“Too late for that,” Rogue says. “If he didn’t want us hunting him down, he shouldn’t have spied on us or come after Ivy.”

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