"When was that?" Eren asked.
"Three years ago. For a while Uncle Rodric and I had a sort of uneasy ... I don't know, I guess you'd call it a truce. And, I mean, when Mom died I was twenty-one, barely more than a kid. It just seemed natural for Uncle Rodric to move in and take care of everything. But then I started realizing after a while that he was trying to shove me out completely. When I started to push back was when things started going badly."
Eren had to unclench his fists as a surge of furious protectiveness rushed over him. "And that's when he sent men after you?"
"Oh, that wasn't the first thing he tried. First he tried to bully me into signing over the company to him. And when that didn't work, he had me locked up."
"Hewhat?"
"I've been locked up in the family villa in France," Lucy explained. "I guess I just went along with it for a while, because I thought—well, I don't know, I thought he'd get tired of it or something when I didn't give in. I didn't believe he'd actually hurt me. But he got weirder and scarier and more controlling. The grounds were patrolled by men who turned into wolves and tigers, and eventually he wouldn't even let me leave my room. Anyone I tried to contact for help thought I was exaggerating, and everyone who worked at the villa was loyal to my uncle. Finally I started trying to escape, and that's when he had me brought here. I guess he thought I wouldn't run away in Newfoundland."
"I guess he was wrong." Eren's hands were balled into fists so tightly that his knuckles hurt. How could anyone do that to Lucy—sweet, gentle, kind Lucy? "I can't wait to see those guys again. And your uncle too. I'm going to wallop them so hard they'll be seeing stars for a year."
"You really mean it," Lucy said. Her voice was soft and wondering. "You believe me. All of it."
"Of course I believe you. I can't believe anyone else didn't."
"I wish I'd met you years ago."
He sat down beside her on the bunk and put an arm around her, and she snuggled close to him. "Maybe you met me at exactly the right time. I wasn't that great a guy to know a few years ago. I'm not sure if I was any better than your uncle's goon squad."
Lucy gave a small gasp and looked up at him. "Don't youdaresay that," she ordered him firmly. "You're nothing at all like them."
"Lucy, you don't know any of the things I've done."
"I don't care," she declared. "I knowyou. And I know you're a good person. A gentle, kind person. Someone who protects others, not someone who hurts people."
The words felt as if they were torn out of him. "Ihavehurt people, Lucy."
"I'm sure you had good reasons for it."
Eren couldn't look her in the eyes. "They didn't deserve it."
"But did youwantto?"
Somehow that simple question cut through all his guilt and self-recrimination. No. He hadn't wanted to.
"I don't think that matters to the people I hurt," he said.
"Maybe not, but it matters a lot to you, and the kind of person you are."
"There's no way you can understand, Lucy. You weren't there."
"So tell me," she said. "So that I can understand."
And suddenly he thought,Why the heck not?He had been hiding the full story from his family, but the longer he tried to hide it, the more he felt as if it was going to burst out at the worst possible time. If it ruined things with Lucy, at least it would happen now, at the beginning of things and not after they had built a life together.
He wasn't going to start things by lying to her. He wouldn't.
"All right," he said. "And if this makes you fear or hate me, as soon as the storm clears I'll take you wherever you want to go, and you never have to see me again."
"I don't see how it possibly could," she said in a decisive tone and leaned against him. She was very soft and warm.
"We'll see," Eren said. He felt as if he was poised on the edge of a cliff, about to step off. Then he started talking, and the relief was overwhelming and unexpected. It was as if he had been waiting years to talk to someone about it.
"For starters, I was a really angry kid. My mom died when I was small, which I guess you can relate to. I was more or less raised by my big brother and sister. Somehow, they always held things together just fine, but I was a little tornado of rage all the time. I got in fights with the other kids and with my dad, I did stupid things like take the boat out in storms like this one—basically, I was an awful kid."
"You sound like a hurt kid who didn't know how to handle it," Lucy said softly. One of her hands covered his, rubbing lightly against the back of it.