It was a rookie error sending a fucking child to do a man’s job. If Lucien was hoping to get a reaction out of me, he went the wrong way about it.
My mother strides into the kitchen and as her eyes lower to the peas on my knuckles, her lips pull into a tight line and she lets out a deep sigh. “What did Damian do this time?”
“Wasn’t Damian.”
Mom walks over and takes my hand, removing the peas. “Slade,” she groans. “Why do you do this to yourself? One day you’re going to take it too far and break something.”
“It’s fine,” I tell her, trying to pull my hand away.
“Really?” she questions, curling my hand into a tight fist and smirking at the cringe on my face. “It’s not fine. You should go and get it checked out.”
I finally pull my hand free. “Really,” I say, leaning in and pressing a kiss to her forehead, hating how she worries about me. “It’s fine.”
She lets out a heavy sigh and turns as I start making my way out of the kitchen. “Is this about Skylah?”
I look back at mom to find worry in her eyes. She absolutely loves Skylah which is great. She’s never liked any of the girls I’ve brought home before. She’s protective of her and whenever Sky is over here, mom treats her as one of her own. I love seeing it and I love it more that they share a special bond through her mom.
Seeing that mom isn’t nearly ready to give up on this, I give her what little I can. There’s no way in hell I’m about to open her world to Lucien Valentine. She has enough to worry about with me, the girls, and my brother currently deployed.
“It’s complicated, but there’s no need to worry. Skylah is fine. It’s nothing we can’t handle,” I lie, knowing that if Lucien does come for her, it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be the biggest fight we’ll ever suffer through.
I give mom a smile, hoping that it somehow manages to ease the panic within her, but I honestly doubt it. She’s a lot smarter than she looks. I turn away and start heading out of the kitchen when her voice stops me. “This complication,” she questions. “It wouldn’t happen to have something to do with Lucien Valentine?”
The fuck?
I look back at mom as my world flashes before my eyes and dread sits heavy in my gut. I take a step toward her and take her shoulders, suddenly not giving a shit about my knuckles. “How do you know that name?”
Mom watches me for a silent moment and it nearly kills me. Her eyes fill with all sorts of emotions, each one of them worse than the last. Resolve comes over her and she lets out a shaky breath. “Come and sit,” she tells me. “There’s something I’ve been needing to speak with you about for quite some time now.”
“What’s going on, mom?” I demand, refusing to move until I get the answers I need.
“Let’s sit,” she says. “What you’re about to hear isn’t going to be easy.”
“How the fuck do you know that name?” I roar, knowing I’ll feel like shit about that later.
Mom’s emotions get the best of her and instead of reprimanding me for my language, her horrors come shooting out with a sick, gut-wrenching, hatred. “Lucien Valentine did to me exactly what he did to Skylah when I was only eighteen years old, only then we knew him as Lucas Valery.”
My mouth drops open as I stare at her in horror. My heart begins to race and my hands drop by my side, curling into tight fists. She couldn’t possibly be telling me that she was raped as a teenager by the same fucking man who hurt my Skylah. “Tell me this is some kind of sick joke,” I beg of her, clenching my jaw and struggling to control my rapid breaths.
Her eyes soften and I see hurt deep within them. It’s something she clearly never wanted to share with me, and especially in that way, but it’s so damn crucial that she did. Hell, I don’t even fucking know how she knew about any of this. Maybe Shaylee shared it with her.
Tears spring to mom’s eyes as she looks up and meets mine. “I so very much wish that it was.”
Pain guts me and the need to hurl races over me. Seeing her like this, so vulnerable and scared tears at me. Even all these years later, she’s still hurting.
I throw my arms around her and pull her hard into my chest. “I’m so sorry, mom,” I whisper, shaking my head in disbelief, still struggling to understand it all. “How come you never told me this?”
“It’s not something you ever wish to share with your children. It was my lowest moment. I was so ashamed and it took me a very long time to be okay with who I was after that. I had to learn to love myself all over again. He took that away from me.”