Page 17 of Our Shattered Pieces
“I did something shameful, Lorcan,” I whispered, horrified that I was having this conversation with my brother, but knowing I had to. It would destroy him to find out from someone else. “I…I did something shameful, only, I think something’s wrong with me because…sometimes, I don’t feel all that shameful about it.”
He didn’t comment right away, but eventually he said, “Molly Doll, I can see how extremely hard this is for you, but…but I can’t help you if I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ethan and I didn’t grow apart,” I said, admitting my lie. “That’s not the reason I broke things off with him.”
I could see the tension in his shoulders pulling his back straight. “Then whydidyou break up with him?”
Omitting as many details as I could, I told my brother everything. I told him that Ethan had begun planting fantasies in my head and how we had played one out. I told him how we’d already been in bed when Sawyer and Calvin had joined us, and I hadn’t been repulsed. Then I told him how I had overheard Ethan’s plan to basically prostitute me out to make ends meet.
While I could only bring myself to tell him the basics, Lorcan had gotten the picture loud and clear. And when he jumped up from the couch and started pacing, threatening to kill Ethan, I believed him. Lorcan’s temper was one of the reasons I hadn’t wanted to tell him in the first place.
“Fucking kill him,” he snarled. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
I stood up, not really knowing what to do or say, but I needed to say something. “But…but I’m the one who agreed to…oh, God…”
Lorcan stopped pacing, and planting his hands on my shoulders, he shook me a little. “Molly, listen to me.” Looking my brother in the eye, after what I’ve just told him, was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. “He manipulated you-”
Tears started falling. “But I liked it, Lorcan,” I cried. “I was-”
“Molly, forget that,” he said. “Just…forget that and listen to me for a second.” All I could do was nod. “Couples do all kinds of things to…for pleasure, or whatever. That’s not the issue here. That sonofabitch didn’t ask if you wanted to experiment while watching a movie, or eating dinner, or taking a fucking walk at the park.” His grey eyes were storms, and I hated that I was the one who put that look in them. “He had those assholes on standby and asked you while you were emotionally and sexually vulnerable. He made sure you’d be in the middle of a sexual high when he asked you for your consent. Don’t tell me that motherfucker didn’t manipulate you and the situation to his advantage.”
“But what about…about…”
“Molly, as much as it fucking kills me that you’re humiliating yourself to tell me something I never wanted or needed to know about you, I’m telling you there is nothing wrong with you.”
“I’m a pervert, Lorcan,” I cried out. “Of course, something is wrong with me. Who…how can I like something…oh, God…”
“Molly, a pervert is someone who dismisses consent. Someone who peeks into windows, rapes, molests, violates, and all sorts of other attacks on someone’s choices.” His face softened a bit. “What you enjoy is your business, and yours alone, as long as it’s consensual, Molly.”
I stuck my face in his chest, and he held me as I cried. “It doesn’t feel that way, Lorcan,” I told him brokenly. “I feel…dirty.”
“I’m going to fucking kill them all, Molly,” was his only response to that. “Fucking kill them all.”
That night, after I cried myself to sleep and Lorcan tucked me into bed, he had hunted down the three men who lived in my nightmares. And the only reason I knew this was because, the next day, I noticed his knuckles had been beaten all to hell.
Nothing about it was said over breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Nothing was said about it the next day either. Or the next.
Nothing was said until Lorcan was on his way back to the airport to go home. And his suggestion of some counseling sounded like just what I might need.
Chapter 12
Grayson~
One month left.
One month left of school, and the next phase of my life begins, and it’s supposed to begin in California, but I found myself questioning if it was possible to create a life where I might run into that asshole again.
I doubted it.
Of course, I could live anywhere in California that I wanted to, but the plan had always been to go back home. To teach in the town where I grew up and shape the minds of the children of the parents I once went to school with. To coach where felt comfortable.
To lead a fucking normal life because I wanted to be normal.
I really, really wanted to be normal.
“Ugh, I always hate when girls do that,” Katy huffed.
Coming back to the present, I looked over at where she was typing away on her phone. We were both sprawled out on her bed, where we’d just finished redressing. “What?”
