Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
“You’re okay. I have you. You’re safe. I’m not going to let anyone harm you.”
He rocked her gently back and forth and she buried her face into his chest, breathing in deeply.
“What happened, baby? You had a nightmare?”
She nodded. She wasn’t sure that she was ready to talk about it.
Lily wasn’t sure if she’d ever be ready to talk about it.
He stood with her in his arms and sat on the end of the bed. Maybe she should try and get off his lap but it was just so comfortable here.
“Will you tell me what it was about? It must have been pretty scary for you to scream and hide under the bed.”
It had been absolutely terrifying. Because it hadn’t really been a dream, had it?
“I don’t think it was a dream so much as a memory.”
“A memory?” he asked. “What happened in this memory?
“I . . . I don’t know that I really want to talk about it,” she said. “It wasn’t very nice.”
That was putting it mildly.
“Sometimes, those are the things we most need to talk about. To get them out of our head, to give them to someone else, so they’re not so scary. You tell me, and then that takes some of the burden off you.”
“And gives it to you?” she asked.
What if it wasn’t real, though? What if she had dreamed it up? How would she know the difference?
You know, deep down, you know that this was what happened. And you need to stop disillusioning yourself. You need to start facing reality.
“I can take it,” he replied. “I’ve got big shoulders and that’s what I’m here for. Tell me.”
That was what he was here for? She wasn’t sure she agreed. And if they were going to do this relationship, then he would have to lean on her too.
Wait.
What?
What was she thinking? Did she really just think about them being in a relationship?
Because that wasn’t happening. They weren’t in a relationship, and they weren’t going to be.
She really was falling under his spell, wasn’t she? She had to guard herself against his potency.
“Tell me, Mo bhreáthracht. I’m not going to give up until you do. And trust me, you will definitely feel better once you do.”
Should she tell him about it?
It might help to get it out and off her brain. It was still there, swirling around in her head. So she relayed how her mother called her into her study to tell her that she was going to date Rick. How she’d be marrying him.
“And she really thought you were just going to do what she wanted?”
“She really did. But they had a backup plan in case I refused. Which I did. She had him . . . she had him . . .”
“She had him what, baby?” he asked gently.
“Tell Clem that we’d been sleeping together.”
Oh, God. She felt sick. Her stomach was tied up in a knot, and it just hurt so bad.
“What the fuck?” he asked. “They lied to Clem about that?”
“Yeah, I still told her that I wasn’t going to do it. I tried to walk out of there, but she, well, she . . . I don’t know what she did. Then the dream ended.”
“Fuck, baby. I am so sorry. They’re both going to pay for what they did to you.”
“And to Clem. But how? I mean, I guess they are kind of paying now. You said that my mother is in trouble with the police for trying to scare Clem into selling her land. And she has no money. For someone like my mother . . . that would be worse than dying. Being broke and arrested.”
“It’s still not enough. She needs to live a life of utter misery. And so does Rick.”
Lily couldn’t help but agree. Rick deserved something more. They both did. But she wasn’t sure what she could do to them.
“I don’t understand why she was so insistent that I marry him. She said that I was a better choice for someone on their way to the White House. She really wanted that. But was it worth all of this?”
“I guess she thought that would make her more powerful,” he said.
“She told me my father was meant to make a run for the White House but then he grew ill and couldn’t. I guess she was living that through me. But I still don’t understand it.”
“It’s because you’re not an evil bitch,” he told her.
“Why do you suppose Rick agreed to it? He never seemed to care about me, and he just jumped from Clem to me. Why didn’t he want someone he could love?”
“I doubt that Rick is capable of love,” he told her. “And there was obviously some deal made.”
“Mother is broke and so is Rick’s family, so it can’t have been about money?”
“But remember, neither of them seemed to know about the other’s financial woes. They kept it quiet. Your mother probably thought that marrying you off to Rick would settle her finances, as well as putting you in a position of power, which meant that she would be in power.”