Page 77 of The Heir

I smoothly pull my hand back when I see him reach for it out of my peripheral. Picking up my glass, I take a sip, ignoring the hurt look in his eyes and proceed to give him a part of me that I hope fucks him up enough to grant me some humanity and understanding.

I clear my throat and stare into the fireplace across from me, letting my mind go back to a place that I have been determined to leave so far back in the past that it should be a blip in my memory at this point. I take a deep breath and then put my eyes to the mat in front of me.

Anywhere but at him.

"The first time I had sex, I fucked our landlord so he would forgive the two hundred dollars we needed to not be evicted," I say, blinking as the unwanted memories come flooding back.

King stays silent, but I can feel his intense stare boring into the side of my face. I refuse to look up.

"We'd moved nine times since I was four years old.Nine.Never had stability. I was a latchkey kid, and bullied half to death because of how I looked." I look over at him seeing him relaxed in his seat just staring at me. "Frizzy hair, weird freckles, knobby knees.Ugly."

I turn my gaze to the fireplace and shake my head seeing his head move as if to speak.

I don't need him to speak right now.

"I never knew a childhood. From the time I could remember we were always moving, I guess I know now that we were on the run."I take a deep breath and nibble my lip, remembering my sobbing as I searched for my clothes on the landlord's dirty bedroom floor to find my underwear. "I still remember the way he smelled." My nose scrunches. "Foul, like oil, cigarettes, andtoilet water."

King clears his throat making me turn my face towards him, but I can't quite meet his eyes.

"I went to the bathroom afterwards and felt something funny down there, and as I was searching, I felt something strange inside me. I pulled it out and see it was the fucking condom he used. He left itinside of me." I pause, fighting back a wave of nausea. I raise my eyes to him. "I went back out there and fucked him again for money to get a plan B pill because I did not want to get pregnant. I did not want to bring a baby in a world where all I knew was disappointment and suffering, and fucking endless goddamn packets oframen noodles."I sway, tilting my head as I breathe hard trying not to be sick. "But they were twenty-five cents a pack, you know." I peek up at him, knowing my eyes are red. They always are when I try not to cry. "Like the cheapest thing you can eat, even cheaper than a can of fucking soft cat food. I bet you don't know what that tastes like huh?" I huff out a dry laugh.

"No," Hendrix says slowly. "No I uh… I can't say I that I do. But I know what dry ramen with the seasoning packet tastes like."

My eyes meet his.

He reaches for his glass and a pensive look passes his face. "After we met at the deli, and you told me the story of how you used to eat them like that I went straight to the store and bought a pack." His eyes meet my surprised ones. "I had to know how that would feel. Needed to be close to you." He grimaces. "I can't blame you for not wanting to eat noodles. But go on, I'm sorry for interrupting your story. You were saying how desperately you were trying to get away from them."

His admission touches me, and my shoulders relax slightly. I nod.

"I triedeverythingI could think of to get away from those goddamn noodles, but every time I thought I had escaped them, I'd come home and there they would be. Like fucking roaches, or bedbugs," I spit out. "Just when you think you've eradicated the last one, four more show up then they multiply. Just like every freaking bill we had. If it wasn't one thing it was another and my poor,poormom. I don't recall her ever sleeping because she was always working for pennies. I didn't realize that's why we were always so broke. She worked under the table so that my father couldn't find us. She was always gone doing some job, and that's why I could get away with fucking the landlord. I didn't realize that he was raising the rent so that we could never get ahead. And I was just selling myself for nothing."

I blink, trying to will the memories into the sweet spot of my mind. The place where I can think about it but it can't touch me anymore. I waver there, teeter-tottering precociously.

"And everything wasso expensive,"I whisper, feeling my eyes well with tears. My fingers brush along my wedding ring, over a diamond so big that there's no way my sixteen year old self would have ever dreamed to have something like this to wear. "There were days we had to walk out of the grocery store after shopping for an hour just to have mom's debit card declined because an unexpected bill hit. So embarrassing." I shudder. "I think the worst time was when I had to hold Melody, who was sick with the flu, while my mom stood in the line at the cash register trying to buy ingredients for chicken noodle soup and Tylenol, trying every card she had, but they were all maxed out." I meet his eyes for a split second before looking away again as shame fills me. "I stole the medicine from the store that night for Mel. And when my mom found out she gave me the beating of a lifetime aboutbeing a thief. So, I figured the safer option would be to use my body instead."

"Isobel…"King's voice is so thick with tension that I look over at him and see his blue eyes dark, haunted.

"Don't you dare fucking pity me," I say, narrowing my eyes at him."I don't want it."

I look away hastily, sniffing and sitting up in my seat as the door to the kitchen opens with a slight bang. I hurriedly wipe my eyes and wrestle my face into a passive expression as Marianne brings out our food with another maid. King and I are both silent as they place our food down and disappear again.

Neither one of us touches it.

"So when I said I wantedsafe,I wanted boring, I meant I wanted no reminders of what my life was before. I'm not going to lie and tell you that I wasn't with Christopher-"

King's face turns to stone."Please do not say that man's name in our house-"

"For his money," I finish. "BecauseI was.And I will admit that to you with my head held high because I also thought he and I had something akin to love, and a partnership. I didn't feel used or betrayed until it was too late. I don't ever want to feel like I have to fuck someone to put a roof over my head. I don'teverwant to feel like I'm one paycheck away from being on the streets because for all intents and purposes Ilivedthat. But I worked my ass off to build something for myself. I pulled myself up by sheer fucking strength andwillpower,and made something out of myself to be proud of. You of all people know what that's like!"

"I do." King stares at me as the silence swells uncomfortably between us. I lean forward slightly.

"So, can you honestly sit here at this table across from me, and tell me that you'retaking it away from me?"My voice cracks, thick with tears as I implore him not to do this to me.

We stare at each other for what feels like endless minutes, that's really only seconds, as the fireplace crackles and lightning strikes the sky again, punctuating the magnitude of this awkward situation. But this time I don't jump.

His arms are folded and he's breathing deeply, rhythmically, as if he's meditating. But I know King's mannerisms by now, because this is what he does. He's a thorough man, and he turns over every loose stone until he finds what he wants and then closes his hand around it.

Like he did me.

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