Page 48 of Caged Heart
Mars took on a lot more than I ever knew, making me sick to my stomach. My heart wrenched out of my body when Senator Wylie grabbed him like that. I knew then that my father secured his position for more years by sacrificing Mars. Senator Wylie was a pervert, and his thoughts were sickening because I'd been offered up to him once. Just once, and the things he wanted me to do, perform and act out were enough that I buried them so deep in my mind that I would never recover them again.
He was a son of a bitch that needed to be put down like a dog. Although the Wick was against killing their own, they made us and created killers out of us whether we liked it or not.
They killed our innocence, our ability to look at the world right, and our right to our earned freedom. The Wolfgangs weren't the only fucked up family. The other families, such as the Garcias, were just as fucked. They experimented on their children and tried to make them these killing machines. It didn't always go right. It made some of them crazy as fuck and others into serial killers. Some kids of the crazies and the serial killers survived that trauma. Not all were affected, but one of them was… the son of the serial killer. His mind and body were split into two.
The shit we see, and experience isn't easy. It's not normal, and there's nothing anyone can do about it except choose to stop it from spreading down the line.
I've never thought about having children before, but now, I don't know, it's a possibility, and if ever I became a father, I would never do this to my child. I couldn't become like Kronos, and I wouldn't, and I refused to.
"Ares…" Carmen's voice called out, but I only felt her hand on my thigh.
I had become hyper-aware of her these days, much more than I was before.
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?" She asked.
I nodded because I didn't trust myself to speak.
I'd harbored so many secrets that I never wanted them to come out. It was embarrassing, and if she knew everything we had to do as part of the Wolfgang family, she would be disgusted by me. I knew Carmen wouldn't leave, but she would be distant, and I was too ashamed to let her see that side of me.
For her to see me as less than anything but her man.
"I know you wanted to talk before…" she paused. "Everything, but we didn't get the chance to. I'll tell you now, so you don't get upset that I avoided it."
"Okay."
Deep down inside, I knew she was only telling me as a distraction for wherever I kept going and withdrawing.
"Sarge came by when I was waiting for Monica, and he asked me for more money because mom needed surgery for her kidney or something. I don't know. But I told him I didn't have any money saved up. I've been meaning to go to the diner and drop my resume off since they were hiring, but I hadn't had the chance, and he didn't believe me. He said he knew about me living with the prime minister's son and that I was friends with the two, so he knew I was good for the money.
I didn't like where this was headed, so I held on tight to the wheel.
"I told him that I just moved in with you and that I hadn't saved a dime because they took all my money, to begin with, for whatever the hell they had to pump out of mom's stomach, and he dragged me to a quiet corner and punched me in the stomach."
I swerved and then righted myself as I shook with anger. White, hot rage took over my body, and I didn't see correctly, but I stayed quiet, practically mute, so she could further tell me.
"He left a bruise, Carmi. Tell him," Monica said from the backseat. "He hurt her, Wolf, like he had his hand around the throat when I found them, and he was…." Monica stopped talking and looked away.
"He was what?" I asked, my voice just above a whisper.
Monica shook her head and looked out the window, but I caught the tears in her eyes.
"He. Was. What!" I roared out in the car, and both girls jumped. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I was losing it. "Sorry, I'm sorry," I whispered.
After a pregnant pause, Monica spoke up because Carmen couldn't. She wouldn't.
"He had his hand up her skirt and panties, but Carmen wasn't moving. She wasn't all there. She, she,"
"I blacked out." She sniffled, and her body shook with each breath. I slowed down, but Carmen shook her head. "Ke-keep driving, please. Please."
No words formed on my tongue. There couldn't be any words because Sarge was now my focus. He was a dead man. Much like my father, Senator Wylie, and those other men who dared to touch us when we didn't ask for it. Ever.
"I'm going to fucking kill him." My words were final, even if Carmen begged me not to do it.
"Babe, please, let's just, let's focus on Mars first. That's what he'd want, right?"
The sudden urge to chuckle took over, so I released it and calmed down. "Mars will help me do it once he finds out about Sarge. Mars would have never been friends with you all if he didn't care. We don't fuck around with sickos who think it's okay to touch who they do not need to touch. Don't change my mind, Goldilocks. That shit will be dealt with. That I can promise. Nobody touches my girl and gets away with it. Do you understand?"
