Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 131209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 656(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 656(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
My hand instantly went to my mouth, as I held in the bile. “Oh my God,” I whispered.
“I’m so sorry, Miss Stevens. I didn’t know. I told her his name, and she instructed me to let him up. I was going with what she approved. I had no idea,” he reasoned.
I shook my head. “Leave.”
“Miss Stevens…” he coaxed.
“Please… leave.”
He worryingly nodded. “I’ll be in the lobby if you need anything.”
I turned around and faced the window. My mind trying to catch up with what was reeling of my feelings. I couldn’t process it fast enough.
Party.
Clients.
Drugs.
Alcohol.
Lust.
Desire.
Primal.
Fucking.
Orgasms.
Devon.
Breaking.
Bathroom.
More fucking.
Shattered.
Betrayal.
Sorrow.
Self-loathe.
Broken.
Numb.
Before I knew it, my key was unlocking the iron glass doors to their house, stepping inside the cool, tranquil, air. It breezed against my skin, and made a false illusion of peace and serenity. I looked around the rooms, as I made my way into the kitchen, all the memories, every last one of them.
The good.
The bad.
The ugly.
I stopped when I saw her. She looked so beautiful in the dim lighting, as she stared off into nothing. Twirling the diamond on her ring finger, around and around it went, precisely as my relationship with Devon.
And her marriage with my father.
Her gaze caught mine. They locked together from across the room, unable to look away from one another.
“Brooke,” she spoke surprised.
“Mom,” I replied, knowingly.
CHAPTER FIFTY
<>B<>
“Why?” I asked, not wasting any time.
She shook her head, confused.
“Don’t give me that. Why? Answer me! I deserve to know.”
Her eyes intensified in recognition, and she sat up.
I put my hand out in front of me. “No. Tell me,” I ordered.
She stood in place with one hand over her heart, and the other sternly placed on the breakfast table, supporting her weight. I sensed that her composure was buckling though she portrayed otherwise.
“Fucking tell me!” I yelled clear across the room.
She jolted. “Brooke… I’m so sor—”
“No… you don’t get to say that to me! You don’t get to pretend to feel remorse. You can’t stop this with apologizes or excuses. Tell me the truth! Tell me!” I winced from the impact of my abrasiveness.
“I love him,” she simply stated.
My eyes instantly watered. “So… that makes it okay, that makes it alright what he does to you? The fact that his dick can’t stay in his pants. How can you let him do this to you?”
Her eyes watered, too.
“Do you have any idea what you have done to me? Do you even fucking care? You knew! You know! You’ve always known that I knew the truth. But you didn’t care; you didn’t say anything to me. Why? Why would you do that to me?” I bellowed, the tears sliding down my face making it hard to breathe or to see.
She bit her cheek and took in a deep breath. “I was ashamed.”
I sucked in air, winded by her short, yet detailed answer. I disgustingly shook my head. “You have no idea what you’ve done to my life! It was so much easier for you to ignore me, and keep pretending that your marriage is nothing, but a fucking lie!” I brutally shouted.
Tears ran down her face. She didn’t wipe any away as if she was wearing them proudly. “That’s where you’re wrong. Our marriage is not a scam, Brooklyn. I love your father, and he loves me,” she justified, but it meant nothing.
Nothing ever would again.
I stunningly chuckled, surprised by my reaction as well. “Are you fucking kidding me? Where is he? Huh? Where is Daddy? Is he with Charlotte? Or with VIP?”
She didn’t answer, and that’s when I knew she didn’t know either.
“This is so fucked up. He uses you! He uses you because you let him! You’re nothing to him! Do you understand me? NOTHING! You want to know how I know? Because I’m him, Mom! You’re looking right at him when you look at me. AND that’s why you couldn’t tell me because you fucking knew it. So you pretended to live in the fake fairytale you’ve created in your mind.” I wrapped my arms around my body, suddenly feeling cold and alone.
“You hide. You hide just like me,” I consciously added. “You want to know the truth? You want to know what I have become? What you made me become?” I threatened, wanting to inflict pain. The same aching I was feeling.
“That’s fucking enough,” I heard him roar from behind me. I closed my eyes, and waited for the storm to wash over me. I was sitting in the eye of it, awaiting the mass destruction that would wreak havoc on my being. It would take me right along with it, and I would let it.
“You will not talk to you mother like this, Brooklyn, do you understand me? You will not hurt her or disrespect her,” he ordered in a fatherly tone that made me sick.
I turned around and looked deep into his broken eyes that mirrored mine. “No… that’s your job.”