Page 57 of Hers To Keep

Shameless, brave, or plain fucking stupid - not sure which of those three words best describes what I’ve just fucking done.

Wesley lowers the blade rushing over to Maxwell still tied to the chair, harshly slicing through the rope that binds his hands together behind his back. He stalks angrily back over to me, grabbing my hand and laying the knife in my palm, forcing my hand closed over it, the blade skillfully pricking the sensitive skin.

“A reminder of what I’m capable of, since you seem to keep forgetting.” He drops my hand and stands up straighter, attempting to show his dominance over Ace as he steps around me. However, for the first time, Ace doesn’t cower down. “You and I will talk, there is much we need to discuss.”

“Leave us!” I yell, looking back at Wesley, surprising everyone, even myself, with my newfound boldness. “This is now a family matter and seeing as you are not,” I say, while he grins approvingly, motioning for Ace to follow him out. I quickly reach out to grabAce’s arm as he turns to follow his uncle. “He stays,” I add firmly, and his grin hardens.

“I’m not saying anything in front of him,” my mother scoffs, sitting cross-legged and looking awfully bored.

I glare at her, rolling my eyes and raising a brow tauntingly. “Anything you tell me I’m going to tell him anyway, so it doesn’t really matter what you want.” Surprisingly, Wesley nods, walking out the door, and slamming it shut as he exits. Well, that was easier than expected. One point in my favor.

As I turn back to face my mother and newfound father, the words I was ready to spew at both of them are now jammed deep in my throat. So much for being bold. I swallow dryly, as Ace’s hand comes up to grasp mine sensing my unease. Our fingers intertwined with one another, my heartbeat slowly steadying, and he smiles softly at me assuring me he’s by my side.

“I was in love once,” Lilith says, watching our interaction closely, her eyes fixated on Ace’s hand in mine. To our right, Maxwell stands lowering his head, knowing exactly what she’s going to say next. “He was everything I could have ever dreamt of. Smart, handsome, from a great family. But there was only one problem,” she pauses, uncrossing her legs. “He wasn’t mine.”

“Lilith, stop,” Maxwell groans, running his hands desperately through his light brown hair.

She ignores him, standing and walking over to us, her heels loudly tapping against the marble floor beneath them. “So I had to do something because I wasn’t willing to let him go. There was no way I was going to lose him.”

“Don’t,” Maxwell adds this time louder, turning to face my mother who is now at his side, and grabbing her by the elbow. For the first time, other than disgust toward her crosses his face. “If you do this, you will lose whatever last bit of affection she may feel toward her mother. There will be no going back. Are you really capable of doing that to your only daughter?” he asks, but I already know the answer to that.

My mother scoffs, pulling out of his grasp. “She feels nothing for me, Maxwell. I made sure of that long before she found out about you. This next revelation will only solidify her hatred toward me.” She’s right, but I don’t bother answering her as she continues, divulging the horrid details of her tainted love story. “We drugged him, Wesley and I. Slipped some Devil’s Kiss into his drink one night, enough to inebriate him but not enough for him to black out completely. I still needed to keep him lucid, after all, we were to conceive a child.” She turns toward him, but he steps back as she moves forward. Stopping in her tracks, she spins to me, a small nervous chuckle escaping her. “Then I made sure Gianna would come home to see her beloved Maxwell in my arms and at my mercy. It broke her pathetic little heart.”

I’m disgusted by her nonchalance. The way she talks so easily about manipulating someone and hurting another. “Yet Maxwell still didn’t want you, did he?” I ask, my question clearly irritating her further.

“I’m afraid not. He found out what we’d done and then when Gianna––”

“Stop!” Maxwell shouts, interrupting her. “I left when I found out what they’d done. I left,” he repeats once again, trying to convince himself, not me, that’s what happened. “Gianna wanted nothing to do with me anymore. She never believed me when I told her what really happened, so I left. After all, without her, I wanted nothing of this world.” His obvious admiration for Gianna reminds me of my feelings for Ace.

What would my life be if he weren’t part of it?Completely unbearable.

Lilith scowls at him rolling her eyes and now I know for a fact there’s something they’re not telling me, something he stopped her from sharing, but I’m tired of their lies and just want to get as far away from their toxicity as possible.

My body is quaking violently, the rage I feel for her and all her lies eating me up from the inside. “How did you become this vileperson, mother? How could you have faked being so distraught over Chaz if you never loved him? You betrayed him, you got him killed!”

“Don’t forget who pulled the trigger, my dear daughter,” she sneers, as Ace stiffens behind me. Oh trust me, mother, I haven’t forgotten. “Besides, you mean to tell me you honestly think I was like that because I missed him?” she asks, laughing hysterically at my insinuation. “You really think, day in and day out, I was getting drunk and would beat the shit out of his brat of a daughter because I missed him? He left me with two little monsters when I already had one of my own! I was pissed, fucking livid because he went and got himself arrested, and I had to sit around and play babysitter to his two ungrateful brats.”

I shake my head, refusing to believe it was all an act. “But when he came back, you two––”

She continues interrupting me. “Did I enjoy having meaningless sex with him? Of course I did. The only thing that bastard knew how to do was fuck, but do you honestly not remember anything? Every day we fought. I couldn’t stand the sight of him, so I’d leave days at a time.”

“Of course I remember, I lived through that fucking torturous nightmare. You’d come here, I know that now, but why put up with him if you already had all of this?” I ask, lifting my hands into the air.

“He was a necessary pawn, and then he wasn’t. So I sold him out to save myself,” her cunning green eyes watch me as she struts closer. “You best remember how disposable people can be in this world. Instead of damning me, you should be thankful. You’re welcome, for not sending his children packing the moment he got arrested.” Her look of vile contentment irks me, and I want to slap the shit out of the fucking bitch. But I don’t.

Instead, now it’s me who laughs uncontrollably. “You want me to thank you for beating us and treating us like shit. You must be clearly psychotic if you think I’d ever thank you for anything.”

“Let me give you the motherly advice you so desperately crave––”

“I want nothing from you. You were right before; I feel nothing for you. You are dead to me, just like you have been the past four years.” Tears threaten to spill, but I won’t let them spill for her.

“Well, I’m going to give it to you anyway, girl to girl.” She moves toward me stopping right before me, standing about four inches taller than me in her heels, her head tilted slightly as she scowls down at me. Her fingers reach out, gently tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, but I know to her it means nothing. “Stop while you’re ahead. Don’t dig yourself deeper into this mess you’re already drowning in. Stay out of it, stop looking for answers where you will not find them. You want an explanation for all of this, you won’t ever get a straightforward answer. My advice to you however, is to get out of here. This place is toxic, it sucks the life out of you and the worst part is it makes you feel it’s exactly what you want.” At that moment, she looks somewhat solemnly at me, and I almost feel sorry for the young girl that was sucked into this place years ago.

But unlike me, she let it consume her, and her greed and envy turned her into this vile creature. “Unlike you, he won’t let me leave and you know that…”

“Wesley’s impulsive, I’ll give you that. A little obsessive, but he’ll get over it. It’s too late for me, and I know you don’t think I care for you, and I probably don’t or never did for that matter. You were a constant reminder of what I’d lost, but this place, the things it does to you, the way it chews you up and spits you back out over and over. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy.”

I shake my head sorrowfully. “You don’t understand, he’ll never let me live in peace.”

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