Page 41 of The King of Hearts

She pauses a moment. I blink several times to keep back my tears. Anger and despair mingle together in my churning stomach, making a mess of my insides. I want to gather Liliin my arms, yet at the same time slaughter her brother in the slowest way possible. What kind of sick bastard does that to a child? It doesn’t even matter that he was a kid himself. His threats prove that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

No one says anything, letting Lili determine when to continue. Waves of rage fill the silent space. There’s not a single person in this room who wouldn’t love the opportunity to get their hands on this Grant guy.

Noticing the shredded tissues in her hands, I reach for the box on the table and snatch out two more, handing them to Lili. She takes them without looking at me, bringing them to her face to wipe her cheeks and nose. I wish she would look at me. After meeting multiple women in similar situations, I know what’s going on in her head. She blames herself when there’s not a single thing she did wrong.

“Grant eventually moved out and went to a local college, but he was at the house more than he was at his dorm room. Sometimes my parents knew when he visited, but sometimes he would sneak in and come to my room. I think he was trying to keep suspicion down by not letting our parents know he was in the house so much.”

She stops a moment, her throat bobbing, and her voice is lower when she continues.

“Sometimes, he’d bring his college friends around, and he’d let them… use me too.” A tear trickles down her cheek, and she swipes it away. “I was around ten when I finally realized that what we were doing was wrong. I told Grant I didn’t want to play our games anymore, and he got mad. It stopped for a few months, but it started back up again. His threats became meaner, saying if I told anyone and they tried to take me away, he’d kill our parents and then he’d take me where no one could find me. He said I was his wife and no one takes a wife away from her husband.” She stops and wipes her nose. “So I stayed quiet.Grant was very good at hiding what he was doing, so no one, our parents, or anyone at school knew what was going on. And I was terrified of what he would do, so I was good at hiding too.”

She pauses long enough to blow her nose.

“When I turned eighteen, I took Harper and we left home. I moved us halfway across the country, and for two months, I thought we were safe, but then he showed up.”

“And Harper?” Dad asks quietly, and gently, as if knowing, just as we all do, what her answer will be.

Lili looks up at his question, meeting his eyes with a pained expression. “I believe she’s Grant’s, but I guess she could be one of his friends.” She lifts her chin. “She may carry his DNA, but my little girl is everything good, and I’m proud to be her mother.”

She says it like she’s proving a point, as if daring anyone to question her statement or her love for her child.

It matters not one bit that that precious little girl was partly created by evil intentions and an equally evil being. Lili has nothing to be ashamed of. Harper is beautiful on the inside and out, and that’s all that matters.

“As you should be,” Dad says what we’re all thinking. “You had to have been what, thirteen or fourteen, when you got pregnant? How did your parents not know who the father was?”

“I refused to tell them.”

Movement to our right has my head swiveling toward the window where Bishop is still standing. He’s leaning against the windowsill with his hands shoved into his pockets. His jaw is clenched so tight it’s a wonder he hasn’t broken his teeth, and the hatred in his eyes is burning hot. His gaze is pinned on the back of Lili’s head, but his anger isn’t directed at her. He’s itching to do something. To rip Grant to shreds, no doubt.

I bring my attention back to Dad when he speaks again.

“What happened the night Bishop found you?”

Lili runs her hands up and down her legs. “I found Grant in Harper’s room. When I found out I was pregnant, I ran away. I didn’t know how or where I was going, but I knew I had to get away. We lived in Arizona. I managed to get across the Colorado border before my parents found me and brought me back. Grant threatened that the next time I tried to leave him, he’d cut the baby out of my stomach. After Harper was born, I was so scared he would do the same thing to her that he did to me when I was a little girl. My parents never suspected anything, or at least they never voiced it, that he was around all the time and seemed to take an interest in Harper. They thought it was sweet that he was so close to his niece. I never left her alone with him, and I was hyper-vigilant in watching him around her. But he never showedthatsort of interest in her. Until that night when I caught him in Harper’s room.”

Tears slip freely down Lili’s cheeks, and a soft sob escapes her lips. I wrap an arm around her waist and position my body closer to her, offering her as much comfort as I can. Charlotte grabs one of her hands in a show of silent support.

“She was asleep in her bed, and he was standing over her, lifting her nightgown. I could handle him doing those things to me because I had lived with it all my life, but Iwould not,” she stresses the two words with conviction, “let him touch my baby. That was it. That was the line that changed everything. I would protect my baby, no matter what it took, even if it cost me my life.”

There’s a fire in her eyes that shows more emotion than she’s shown since we brought her here. It’s volatile in nature and gives credence to what she just spoke. This woman is a mama bear intent on protecting her young.

“What happened next, Lili?” Dad inquires gently.

Her voice is stronger when she speaks again, and there’s a hard edge to her tone.

“I never understood the saying that a person sees red when they feel great anger, but it was all I saw. My vision was filled with it, and my sole purpose was to get him away from my daughter. I screamed as I started across the room toward them. It was stupid. His back was to me, so I should have just snuck up on him and attacked, but I wassoangry and scared. My scream alerted him, and he grabbed Harper on her thigh. So hard it made her cry out. There was nothing I could do because he was right there with her. So I offered myself.”

Her face drops, and she uses the tissue to wipe her nose.

“I figured he would take me out of the room. He had never raped me or hit me in her presence before. But that’s not what he did. He released Harper and backhanded me so hard that I fell to the floor. My vision dimmed, but it was okay because his attention was on me and not Harper. I died a little inside, knowing she was seeing what he was doing and what I knew he was still going to do. But I’d much rather have her see it than feel it herself. I don’t remember much after that, except hearing Harper’s cries. The next thing I do remember, Grant was on top of me, and he was—” I squeeze her body with my arm when she pauses. “— forcing himself inside me. Harper was still crying, begging her dad to stop hurting me. My head had fallen to the side, and I noticed a marble statue of a fairy under Harper’s bed. It was something Grant had bought her last year for Christmas. It was supposed to be on her dresser, and I don’t know how it got under her bed. It was like I was outside of my body as I watched my hand reach for it. I remember how the marble felt in my hand. The coolness of the surface and how smooth it was. I was on autopilot when I lifted it and smashed it against his head. Grant was too focused on what he was doing to notice, so the hit came as a surprise. He fell to the side of me, his head gushing blood, and I rolled away. I didn’t trust that he was out, so I hit him again. After that, I grabbed Harper and we ran.”

The room is silent for a moment before Dad asks, “Was he alive when you left?”

“Yes. I remember looking back and seeing his chest rise and fall. I remember it because a wave of dread hit me when I saw it. I knew he would come after us. I thought about going back and bashing his head in until I knew he was dead, but I needed to get Harper away as fast as possible. Nothing else mattered.”

Dad’s head swings around. “Cassio?—”

“On it.” My younger brother gets up from his seat and pulls his phone from his pocket. “I’ll call Tanner and do some digging. Give me a couple of hours tops.” He already has his phone to his ear as he walks across the room and out the door.

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