Page 75 of Who We Are

“Sex can push you to become an addict.” She presses her lips together.

My heart hammers fast against my ribs. I’m scared to ask because I might not be able to handle what I unleash, but I need to know. “What happened to you?”

“My parents,” she mumbles.

I snort. “Why is it that the people who are supposed to protect you are the ones who fuck you up the most?”

“There were times I wondered if I had done something wrong. It took me years to understand that it wasn’t me but them. They…”

She takes a deep breath and lets everything out. I’m frozen, listening to Thea, incapable of making a sound. I’m dumbfounded about the crazy amount of information she dumped in my lap.

Child star.

Drunk.

Addict.

I hold her hand while she speaks, clearly lost in her past.

“I never wanted to act. But some guy discovered me. It was the strange tone of blue, close to lilac eyes. The long, curly dark hair. From that moment on, I became my parents’ gold mine.

“Modeling was the name of the game. If I posed for the cameras, I received a prize. For each time I got a job, I received something special. At eight, I landed a show, Sophie Knows It All. I hated acting, but I loved that for a day, I had a family that pretended to care about me.”

She tips her head, and those watery eyes stab my heart, but not one tear makes it through the barrier.

How did she become this strong?

“At home, they only cared about how much I brought in after each job. A steady paycheck that financed my parents’ lifestyle, including their drugs. When I became a teenager, Dad decided I could do more than just act and model. I was pretty, and a lot of powerful men desired me.

“To numb the pain, I did what my mother did, escaped from reality. First, it was only alcohol, then ecstasy, and by the age of sixteen, I didn’t give a shit about what I drank or snorted. As long as the pain of what my life had become disappeared for those moments.

“Since then, I’m anxious when in public because I’m scared that someone will recognize me. My father likes to sell both my stories and me to the paparazzi. At least it’s different from when I was a kid and he sold my body.

“My first guy was a producer, which granted me a role in a movie. After that, I drank heavier every time I had to… do it. In my mind, sex and alcohol go together. I no longer drink—or have sex.”

I close my eyes to process everything she says and slowly absorb the last sentences. Bile rises in my throat.

That’s rape, prostitution of a minor… her father should be in jail.

I hold in those words, not wanting to open a can of worms. She already looks like her world is falling apart. I drag my fingers up and down her arm.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, “that no one cared for you. That you had to be alone for so long.”

That’s the best I come up with as I work through everything I heard inside my head while calming myself before I pay Mason Bradley to locate her father. Once I find him, I can shoot him. One bullet for each tear she shed. Lord, I have no fucking idea what’s going to happen.

Her family is more fucked up than mine.

“Yes, my background isn’t uplifting or beautiful,” she says, staring at our interlaced fingers. “But I dream that someday I’ll have a bright future, but maybe it’s just that, a dream.”

It can be a reality, a beautiful one, and from this moment forward, it’s my mission to make it happen. She’ll have what she was denied while growing up, a family, love, and a safe place.

ChapterForty-Eight

Thea

Tristan staresat me thoughtfully but remains silent.

We have unloaded years of family pain. Our parents and the way we were raised. I hurt for the boy that received a beating each time he didn’t do therightthing. I kiss every place he mentioned was hit by his father after finding out that kissing a boy was as beautiful as kissing a girl.

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