Page 75 of Forbidden

Cyrus would do that. To protect me. I knew that. Mum knew that. We all knew Cyrus was being serious right now, but Cyrus was missing one fact. And as I looked at Mum, she and I both knew what it was.

“Cyrus, he will make sure we’re dead before he even makes a move on Layla.” Mum sat back in her chair. “For Layla’s safety and ours, and we have to consider Alfie, we have to split up.”

I frowned. “Split up? What do you mean split up?” I questioned Mum. She wasn’t saying what I thought she was saying, was she?

She looked me in the eye. “If I’m not with Cyrus, there is a larger chance Rex will leave Cyrus and Alfie breathing. If he finds us, and it is just the two of us, then he is likely to take us back as a family.”

Mum knew Rex better than anyone. She knew his darker points, his finer points and the things that made Rex who he was.

“You aren’t getting back together with him,” I said firmly. That was the last thing I wanted. Mum being forced back into a relationship with him. “I am not going to pretend we are some happy family!”

“Layla, I know your father.”

“Yeah and I know how he treated you!” Nope. It wasn’t happening. She was not getting back together with him. She couldn’t leave the love her life to go be with a man that didn’t have a heart!

“Layla, I’m going to tell you something that I never wanted to tell you. But I think you need to know, in order for my actions to make sense,” she said calmly, waiting for me to calm down.

When I could take a steady breath, I nodded for her to continue.

“Rex loves you so much that he would rather kill you than let you live a life without him. He wants you and, if you don’t go willingly, he will kill you because that is the type of man he is. He doesn’t understand love. But he would kill the only person he loves if he thought that his chance of being in your life was hopeless.” Mum looked at Cyrus and sighed. “And after he kills her, he will kill us if not the other way around.”

“Rex won’t kill me.” I might not know my dad that well but I knew he didn’t have it in him to kill me. Because there was a day where he could have, hell, he tried. Mum didn’t know about it. It was the day that followed the night of the charges that had been laid against him. He knew he wasn’t getting off them.

It was a sunny day, we were at a river bed and he told me how much he loved me. I didn’t understand why and then he asked me not to fight him. Again, I didn’t understand why. I saw him pull the gun from his holster and put it on the ground. I still didn’t understand what was happening as he held me under the water and I fought to get air.

Now, as I look back, he had every intention on that day to kill me and then himself.

I think I nearly blacked out. I was so close to death’s door when he pulled me from the water. He literally breathed air back into my lungs.

I still remember the words that he said to me when I was awake and he was wrapping his jacket around me.

He said, “No one is ever going to hurt you, not even me. I promise you that, Layla”. And then he kissed my forehead like that sealed his promise.

His plan of killing us failed because he couldn’t go through with it. I didn’t know that when I was six. I didn’t know he tried to kill me. I realized when I was older.

His second plan kicked into gear then, which was escaping with me overseas.

It nearly worked, too.

I knew I should run. I knew I should head overseas. I knew for my own safety and my family’s that I was better off far far away from them.

From everyone that knew me.

I knew that the fake passports and licenses in my fake name should start being used. I should move to another town, another country—start my life undercover and hide from my blood father.

But there was one thing stopping me.

And I knew then in this moment, I couldn’t run. Even though it was the only logical thing to do. As much as Mum was encouraging it and willing to put her life on the line for me.

I couldn’t go.

I might be signing my own death warrant by not doing it, by not running and hiding.

But I had made a promise to someone. Someone who I had grown to love.

And that was to Hannah. I wasn’t leaving her to face breast cancer by herself. I didn’t care if that meant Rex would find me and possibly kill me.

I wouldn’t turn my back on Hannah. Not even the threat of Rex would make me break my promise to her.

---