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“This isn’t going to be easy to hear, and it doesn’t excuse his behavior at all, but you need all of the information. Everything that he did was to protect you from Blake and his men. If he showed any sort of affection to you, then Blake would torture you, and Liam had no control. Most of the time, while you were getting beaten by Blake or his men, Liam was as well, to stop him from interfering with what was happening to you. Liam quickly learned that if he showed no interest in you and even joined in with verbal abuse, Blake would leave you alone to a certain extent.”

Alaric watches me closely as I try to absorb what he’s just said.

My voice is flat. “What about before Blake gained control? How would Liam’s behavior explain that? Blake was older than me by quite a lot, and the torture started when I was young, but at one point he still listened to Liam. I remember Liam stepping in.”

I frown as those words catch up to me and I realize that they’re true.

Liam used to step in and stop it whenever he saw it.

Alaric frowns. “Your mother. He was protecting you from your mother. He’s been protecting you your whole life, albeit not in the best way.”

I open my mouth to argue. Liam was horrible to my mother.

Wasn’t he?

My ass hits the bed as memories that I had buried fly to the surface.

Fuck.

It was her. She started it. She was the instigator. She encouraged Blake.

The memories of Liam screaming at her come back, and I hear it from an adult's point of view.

He was defending me. He was being vile to her because of what she was doing to me, and what she was encouraging Blake to do to me. After she died, Blake carried on what she had started and took it even further.

I clear my throat. “Why did he have to be horrible too? Why didn’t he leave and take me with him?”

Alaric crouches down in front of me.

“I’m not going to try to understand his reasoning, but your mother had the control. She had the estate, the money, she came from the crime world, she had the connections. By the time Liam realized what she was truly like, it was too late, he was too integrated. He couldn’t have left with you without serious repercussions. They would have killed you. She would have killed you simply as a punishment for your father, and Liam couldn’t risk that. She was very ill. So he thought he would wait it out, protect you as much as possible, and then take over and ensure your safety. Unfortunately, Blake already had his plans in place, and it went from one fire to another. He played the bad guy extremely well, and when I started to step in and pull you away from him, he kicked up the fuss that he was supposed to, but he never actively tried to stop it. Blake did.”

My head falls into my hands.

This is a fucking lot.

I would be tempted to argue and call Alaric a liar, but Alaric has never lied to me, and he wouldn’t lie to me about this.

He just wouldn’t.

Still, I ask, “Are you sure?”

“Remember the research that I said I was doing?” He asks gently. I nod, and he continues, “Blake had videos, surveillance from the house going back decades. I didn’t let anyone else watch them. It was just me who saw what was on the tapes. I knew as soon as we found them that there was a good chance that there would be something on there that didn’t need to be seen by anyone outside of the family. I saw it all. I questioned Liam about it, and he told me to fuck off. He’s still trying to protect you from it all even though the threats are now dead. When I told him how I knew, he crumbled.

“As much as you hate him, he hates himself a thousand times more. The only reason why he’s still here is because he wants to make sure that he’s there for you if you need him. Whether you know that he’s there or not. Just like he always has been. He thought he’d found his happy with Amelia, but she turned out to be just as selfish, bloodthirsty, and evil as your mother.

“He feels responsible for Ever, too. Guilty. We had a really long heart-to-heart. I am fucking pissed at him for not telling me and asking for my help. I would have never known any of this if I hadn’t seen the surveillance tapes from the house. They’ve all been destroyed. There wasn’t anything on there that we need to convict anyone other than Blake, and he’s dead.”

I nod, “Good. Thank you.”

“The fucking idiot said it was his mistake, and the way it played out was safest for everyone involved. If it had played out any other way, then we wouldn’t all be alive right now.”

He stops talking, and I lift my head as he watches me closely, and I simply stare back at him.

My breath stutters. “Ever.”

One simple word, and Alaric knows what I mean.

My head drops back into my hands as I try to wrap it around everything that Alaric's just said.