Page 78 of Beyond Rosy Irish Twilight

I wanted to tell him more but decided instead to show him. As I walked over, I removed the bracelets I wore around my wrists. He gently took my hand and ran his thumb over the raised scars.

“You fought hard.”

I nodded as tears filled my eyes once again. Fuck, I was tired of crying. “I was covered in blood, but it didn’t stop there. The guard wanted to rape me, and he tried, but I kicked him in the balls. He was so pissed at me,” I whispered. “I knew something bad was coming, but I wasn’t expecting…”

“What?”

29

ASHER

On the outside, I was calm and collected. Inside, I was ready to explode. I knew this was difficult for her to talk about, but hearing what her father did to her was tearing me apart. I hated the fucker and was so grateful to him at the same time. Because of his proposal, I got Jade out of that situation. I didn’t even want to think about what had happened since her time in that cell, but she wasn’t through telling me yet.

“Jade,” I said forcefully, biting back as much anger as possible. “What happened?”

When she didn’t immediately answer, I grabbed her hand and pulled her into me. She flopped against my chest with an oomph, but didn’t argue as I rearranged her against my body. I needed to hold her, to reassure myself that she was okay, even though all this was in the past.

“Tell me,” I said hoarsely.

“He took off his belt and whipped me,” she said softly. “I lost count of the strokes and eventually passed out. When I woke up, my father was in the cell yelling at the man who had done it. I think the other guard went for my father after it continued longer than he was comfortable with.”

I let my head fall back to rest against the headboard. I figured it was something like that, but to hear her tell it was an entirely different thing.

“What happened to him?” If he wasn’t already dead, I was going to hunt him down and kill him.

“My father took care of him. He had the other guard uncuff me and take me to my room. When my father walked in, he looked at me and said he hoped I’d learned my lesson. After that, a nurse was brought in to take care of me. I couldn’t lay on my back for weeks.”

“What about your mother?”

She sat up and adjusted herself beside me. “My mother is sick. For years, she’s been deteriorating and the doctors don’t know why. Whatever she has, they can’t treat it.”

“How is that possible?”

She shook her head. “I’ve talked to them all. They’ve treated her for everything from Lupus to meningitis. Whatever it is, it’s slowly killing her. I don’t even know if she knows when I’m talking to her anymore.”

We sat there in silence for a long time. I didn’t know what to say to her. I wished I had some comforting words for her, but there was nothing I could say to make it better. The fact was, her father was a monster, and he needed to be taken down.

“What are we going to do?” she whispered as she snuggled into my side.

I squeezed her to me and took a deep breath. “We’re going to take your father down and make sure he pays for what he did to you…What was his name?”

She sat up and looked at me. “Henry?”

I shook my head. “The guy who—”

“Does it matter? It’s over.”

“For you,” I snapped, “not for me.”

She clenched her jaw angrily at me. “It’s not over for me. I relive it in my dreams. I see it every time I look at myself in the mirror, or when I pick out clothes. It will never be over for me!”

I really stepped in it that time. “Fuck, that’s not what I meant. You’ve been living with this for years. I just found out. I need to know his name. I need to find out who he was and make sure that…”

“That what? He’s dead,” she said, staring at me incredulously.

“I just need to know. Tell me, please.”

She pursed her lips, and I could tell she wasn’t really interested in saying, but she didn’t hold back. “Marcus.”

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