Page 43 of Possession

“Mom, can you help me with this math homework?” Kieran’s hair was messy, as if he’d been pulling at it. He had been lucky enough to miss the fight, stuck in his room doing homework.

“Sure, honey.” My mom gave me a smile before she left to help my brother.

I looked at my dad again and something inside me snapped. When Liam told him he’d quit school, he didn’t even care. It wasn’t until Liam called him a fucking waste that he threw the first punch. He hit my brother in the jaw. Paige had cried out, and Liam attacked Pop in a fit of fists and screams. It took both me and my mom to separate the two of them. It was when everything had calmed down I’d remembered Paige. She was huddled in the corner of the kitchen, terror in her eyes.

I’d finally found the one thing worth living for and, in one heated flash of an impulse, she could be gone.

The sun hadn’t risen yet and I’d only slept for about three hours. My night, after I dozed off, was plagued by dreams of my childhood. I hadn’t thought about that day in such a long time. I harbored a shitload of guilt when it came to Liam, and I knew he was going to flip when he woke up to find Paige was here. I’m guessing I was even worried in my sleep. His temper could get out of hand, and if he did anything, said anything to hurt Paige, it was going to be one hell of a morning.

Paige was still out cold as I rearranged the covers around her. She rambled a few incoherent words and pulled the comforter up to her chin. I shut the door as easy as I could and the click hardly echoed in the hall. The light was on in the kitchen, and the smell of coffee got stronger as I made my way down the hallway in the same clothes I’d had on yesterday.

Liam was leaning against the counter with just a pair of sweats on staring at the coffee maker.

“You’re up early.” I kept my voice down in hopes I wouldn’t wake Paige.

“I haven’t been to bed yet.” Liam looked at me with bloodshot eyes.

I laughed. “Good night?”

He scrubbed his face with is palm. “Fuck, no.”

“What happened?”

He stared at me.

“Liam?” My brows knotted. “What happened?”

“Kelly called me.” His jaw pulsed.

Kelly was Liam’s ex-girlfriend. They’d been together since he was nineteen, but after Pop died, and he bought the shop, things changed. She’d left him about three years ago. Moved to California. Liam was going to ask her to marry him, but he’d said she wanted to be a model and that marrying him would have stifled her dreams to finally leave this town. I sometimes think, if he wasn’t strapped to our family financially, he might’ve gone with her.

“She did? What did she say?”

“I don’t know, I was with Tana, she’s sleeping, by the way. Keep your voice down.”

“You didn’t answer?”

“We were fucking, Declan, hell no I didn’t answer.” He ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

“Well, shit.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Why are you wearing the same clothes as yesterday?”

“Paige came over to look at some of my finished work, it got late so she… she stayed over.” I kept my eyes on his.

“She’s in my apartment? Right now?” The challenge in his voice was a bull stuck in its pen.

I didn’t back down. “Our apartment.”

His jaw set in a stubborn line and he shook his head. “You’re just asking for it, aren’t you? That chick is married, do I need to remind you again thatsheleft you, she –”

“Lower your damn voice.” I exhaled an aggravated breath. “She’s getting a divorce, and the asshole she was married to… she’s had it bad, Liam, worse than I originally thought. We’re trying to work it out.”

“Until she decides to run again.” He laughed without humor, turned, and grabbed the pot of coffee, pouring the brown liquid into his mug. He sighed as he put the pot back on the burner and dropped his head.

“She’s not running. He controlled her, her parents basically sold her to him for a shiny spot in the front goddamn pew of their church. They took her shame for what we’d done and used it against her. They told her she was a sinner, that she was damned, that she wouldn’t be able to have the forgiveness of God unless she married him and saved herself through the church.” I spoke in a rough, hurried whisper. “You can’t judge her, you don’t know shit.”

He raised his head, but braced himself on the edge of the counter, his back still facing me. The muscles in his shoulders stretched with tension, but he was calm when he said, “You’re my life, Declan, this family, Kieran, Mom, you’re all I have, and I’m not just going to sit by and watch her fucking break you again.”

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