“I’ll take that back, and you can stop pretending that you aren’t into his stalker-like obsession with you.” I tap her nose. “You’re blushing.”
“No, I’m not!”
“Denial doesn’t look good on you, princess.”
“I can’t wait till you fall in love. You’ll be worse than Rush.”
I still at the word love.
While I grew up surrounded by it…I don’t really understand it on a deeper level.
Is my possessiveness, obsession, and need to own and protect considered love? Or rather, an unhealthy desire to possess the object of my fascination?
Every psychologist out there would call me a psychopath or put any other label on me for the crimes I commit.
My father and Rush aren’t very different, though, and they use the word love in their vocabulary. And while I’ll do anything for my woman…is it love?
We never spoke the word between us, and a strange need within me awakens, craving to hear her say it to me, even if I don’t believe in words.
They mean nothing; only actions matter.
Why is it so important to hear them now, then?
“Probably. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be a Scott, right?”
Her face softens, her blue eyes filling with warmth that’s so Aileen.
She surrounded me with it the minute our gazes met in that hospital room, and everything inside me calmed when she was near.
“That’s so sweet, Levi.” She hugs me tight, and I rock her in my arms, another thing I usually do just to make her and Mom happy. Hugs and embraces usually aren’t my thing either. They require a special connection that my aloofness wouldn't allow.
Hilarious, really, since my arms are the place I like Lavender most.
She’s my exception to every rule, creating cracks in my darkness brick by brick and letting the light in that’s blinding and intense in its nature.
“I know I’m getting married soon, and I’ve been preoccupied with other things, but I love you, baby brother. I hope you never forget that.”
Leaning back, I palm her cheeks, and ask, “Where is this coming from?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m overly emotional lately with all the wedding stuff.” My brow rises. “The Wrights are so broken inside, it made me really grateful for growing up in our family. My heart hurts for them all.”
“Hearts can heal.”
Rush, Rafael, and Lavender aren’t alone anymore.
“That’s true.” She rises to her tiptoes and kisses me on the cheek. “Let’s go before they summon us for real.”
We share a quiet laugh, and in moments like this I wonder about my baby sister, who has lived in my mind for the past fourteen years.
No matter what I did, I could never find Robert and my sister.
I couldn’t even remember the property properly to search for it, and this kills me.
To think that I have a baby sister who grew up with a monster—a perverted monster.
So there is always a sense of guilt attached to my connection with Aileen.
I’ll find her, though, if it’s the last thing I do. He won’t be able to resist the need to hurt me because that’s how fuckers like him operate.
