I see Damien get off the swing. “I know you hate me, and I know I should never have listened to my mother. I should have listened to Ryker. Should have known the moment I saw her. She was up to no good. But she is my mother and I” He doesn’t finish, just shakes his head.
“I’m sorry Lily, if it makes you feel any better I have spent all afternoon, removing the door and all the padding from the room. I will even let you do what you want with it,” He says, wrapping his hand around mine, which is holding the chain of the swing.
“Can I ask you a question?” I ask, looking at the house. He nods before sitting on the ground between my legs and resting his head on my thigh. I brush his hair with my fingers and I feel him shiver from my touch.
“Why do you live there?”
“What do you mean?” He asks, confused.
“I mean, after everything your parents put you through, why didn’t you tear it down?”
“It’s not the house’s fault, besides I have remodelled it, although the layout is still the same. Honestly, I don’t know why” He says, looking up at me and I trace my finger over his nose. Damien grabs my wrist before pressing it to his lips and running his nose over the inside of it inhaling my scent.
“Can I ask another?” I feel him nod before he looks up at me. “What did your mother do, Tabitha said she was worse than your father”
He shakes his head.
" In some ways, she was. She never hurt me like he did. But I can understand why Tabitha would say that”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” He shakes his head and I sigh. Damien gets up and extends his hand to me, I look back at Tabitha’s house.
“I promise Lily, I won’t lock you up again,”
“Darian won’t let him Lily, you can trust him besides I have enough strength to shift, I can kick his ass if needed now” Layla tells me. I hesitantly grab his hand and let him pull me up. I hear him sigh before pulling me against his side, wrapping his arm around my shoulder as we walk back home.
Chapter 39
Lily POV
Stepping inside, my heart rate hammers in my chest. Damien's eyes darted to me as he looked down at me. Looking toward the stairs, I can see piles and piles of the padding all tied together at the foot of the stairs. Damien squeezes my hand softly, tugging me toward the stairs but I shake my head not wanting to be trapped up there again.
“If I remove the bedroom door, will you come up?” He asks and I nod, still unsure. Damien walks off, going to the cupboard under the stairs before retrieving something and walking up the stairs. Waiting I can hear the noise of a drill and I hear him moving something before he appears at the top of the stairs. I watch as he walks down the steps before he reaches his hand out to me.
I hesitantly place my hand in his and let him tug me up the stairs. Once on the landing, I looked to my prison and the door was gone.
“You can look in it if you want, it looks very different now” He says and I look at him before following him into the room. He was right, it looked vastly different. It had massive bay windows which must have been boarded up.
I could see where he plastered the tiny holes from whatever was used to hold the padding to the walls. I was also shocked to find another door. Moving toward it, I open it and find a small room. Only big enough to fit maybe a single bed if you were lucky.
“That used to be my room,” He says, making me look at him. It didn’t even have a light, it was that small. And wasn’t much bigger than the storage cupboard under the stairs. Our walk-in was bigger than this small room. Closing the door. I step back, Damien watching me from the doorway. The room was pretty big without all the padding, and with the door gone the entryway was huge.
“This was originally my father’s office” He says looking out the windows, a troubled expression on his face. I nod before walking over to him.
“Why do you stay here?”
“Because as much as I hate it, it’s still my home” He says, tugging me against his chest and wrapping his arms around me. I lean against him.
“You can help me paint it tomorrow? You can pick the paint” He asks.
“What, there is more than one shade of white?” I ask, the entire place was white.
“Well yeah, actually there is, but you can pick something different if you want?” And I can feel the unease move through him at the thought.
“You have some serious OCD problems,” I tell him.
“I don’t have OCD” He deadpans.
“Yeah, you do and I could hear your heart rate spike at the thought of the walls not being white” His heartbeat skipping a beat and I raise an eyebrow at him proving my point.