Page 72 of Seduction

Oh god.

My heart hurts so much at the pain and fear that flashed through Matty’s eyes when I ran to him. I don’t know what I was thinking.

I know he has problems with touch on a good day, and whatever they did to him in that building destroyed him.

I swear to fuck, whenever I get my hands on Daniels, I’m going to make him suffer. I know Dimitri is ultimately behind this, but he’s untouchable at the moment, and my anger towards him already runs deep.

“Haliee, sweetheart. It’s okay,” Torren whispers to me, and I swallow.

“It’s not,” I declare, and see Mathias wince as we make our way into the house. Shit. “I mean, it’s not okay that he’s suffering,” I clarify, keeping my eyes on Matty as I see his shoulders droop a little like he’s glad to hear I’m not mad at him.

“I want to talk to Haliee. Alone,” Matty says, making everyone freeze up.

“I don’t—” Creed begins to say, but Matty cuts him off.

“I won’t fucking hurt her! Leave!” he bellows out, and I instantly want to cry.

I can see the pain etched on his face. He’s fighting an inner battle in his mind, and I want more than anything to make that better for him.

“I’m okay,” I tell everyone, moving to Matty’s side slowly so I don’t scare him. “I trust him not to hurt me.” I look right into Matty’s pained eyes when I say that, and I see them glisten.

“Call us if you need anything. Either of you,” Ollie says before letting us walk to Matty’s room.

By the time we get there, he seems scared or nervous. Probably both, and I wish I knew why.

I just want him to know that even though we haven’t really been intimate in any way like I have the rest of the guys, that I still love him.

“Can—can you sit on the bed beside me?” he asks, not looking at me.

“Of course.” I move to sit on the far end of the bed and wait for him to choose where to sit.

“I need to tell you my story, Haliee,” he whispers, his voice cracking, and my heart seizes.

“It’s okay. I won’t think differently of you if that’s what you’re worried about,” I whisper back, following the tone he’s setting for this.

As he sits down a couple feet from me, he anxiously twists his hands together.

“What happened back there… the way I was restrained. It—it brought up a lot of bad memories.” His voice is pained as he tries to force the words out, but I stay silent.

I want him to know he can tell me anything, and trust that I will always be someone he can lean on.

“My parents,” he says, trying to find the words. “They weren’t good people. They should never have had kids, but…my life was different from all the guys downstairs,” he explains, finally lifting his eyes to me, searching for something.

“You don’t have to tell me if you’re not ready, Matty. I understand,” I tell him. He searches my face, swallowing hard before dropping his eyes back to his hands.

“I’ve never told the guys about everything. They know about the abuse, but they don’t know the half of it.” He struggles to find the words. “My entire life, they would beat on me if I didn’t react the way they figured I should, but it’s more than that.”

God, my heart aches for him just from hearing the pain in his voice.

I know Corden and Ollie’s stories, and I know that Lukas is the only one to come from a good home, but there’s something still so painful in Matty’s voice that wasn’t there with them. Like he’s still trapped in the past as he thinks about the memories.

Like he can’t escape them.

“They took great pleasure in beating on someone smaller than them. Making me do things they didn’t want to do, knowing I would fail.” He takes another shattering breath. “They set me up to fail so that they’d have an excuse to hit me.”

“Oh, Matty,” I whisper, my heart in my throat as I listen. I want to help him, but I don’t know how right now.

“They enjoyed taking it out on someone smaller than them. When I got old enough to fight back, or run, they would drug me before beating on me and locking me in a dark, cold room in the basement. I would wake up chained to the wall.” He stutters, heaving a breath as I hear the tears in his voice.

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