Page 74 of Love Me Not

I’d never seen her this angry before.And it was all for me.Forus.She had come to protectus.

“Juliette!”Bella cried, running to me.

“I’m okay.I’m okay,” I said and turned to hug her as she clung to me.Her small hands were shaking as they fisted my clothing.I patted her back as her breathing quickened, a sure sign that another panic attack was making its presence known.“Over here.Come on.”

“Don’t you walk away?—”

“You don’t get to order her around,” Lux spat.“You don’t get to be in this house.”

I got Bella far enough away to have her full attention, carefully angling us so she couldn’t see the showdown in the living room.Kneeling down, I placed my hands over her ears so she didn’t have to hear it either and turned her so she was facing me.

Her face was already red, her eyes watery as they darted around, trying to take it all in.Ideally, I would take her to her room, but she was spiraling so fast into her panic attack I didn’t want to risk it.

“Look at me, sweetheart,” I said when she tried to turn her head around.“Just me.”

I mimicked blowing out candles, and she shakily held up her hand before she weakly started blowing.

“Juliette,” she whined, her little voice full of despair.“Don’t let her take me.”

My heart broke into a million pieces.I wanted to promise it.Vow that I’d never let her get taken.

But it wasn’t in my power, and promising her that would only exacerbate matters if her grandmother was ever granted custody.

“I told you to never show up here uninvited again,” I heard Lux growl.

“I’m allowed to see my granddaughter,” her mother huffed.“I’m the one who’s supposed to have her anyway.I don’t know what you did to make your sister change her mind, but I know for a fact I was the one supposed to be her guardian.”

“Have?Have?Do you hear yourself?Bella is not athingto have.She’s a beautiful, resilient young girl who doesn’t need this.Doesn’t need you.Now leave on your own before I make you.”

Bella tried to turn around again, but Gina was there now too, blocking her view.She crouched down at her side and held out three fingers.

“Blow them out.”

Bella took a deep inhale and blew one out, her breath shaky.Slowly, Gina lowered it and gave her an encouraging smile.Bella hesitated, then did one more.

“You see what you’re doing?”Lux asked on a whisper.My gaze shot to them to find them staring at us, both scowling but for entirely different reasons.“Leave if you really care about her.”

“We’re not done,” she warned and sent me a glare before storming out of the house.

When the door slammed behind her, there was a collective exhale from all the adults in the room.I waited a few moments, making sure she was completely gone, and only then did I take my hands from Bella’s ears.

“You did so good,” I said with a small smile.I ran my hand down her hair, fixing the bits that had gotten messed up.“I know it can be hard, and blowing out the candles can seem a bit silly, but you did so good.”

Lux was suddenly on her other side, kneeling down like us, and as soon as Bella saw her, she wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

“Don’t let her take me, Auntie Lux,” she pleaded, her eyes wide and her lip quivering.

Lux rubbed her back.“I don’t know what she told you back then, but I won’t be letting you go without a fight.”

She pulled away and looked at Lux with tears in her eyes.

“Promise?”

“I promise,” Lux said, wiping away the remnants of her tears.

I didn’t know it was possible, but in that moment, I fell for Lux even more.Not just because she had protected us, something no one had ever done for me before, but because of how gentle and caring she was afterwards.

Lux had admitted that she didn’t think she was made for this, but I knew she was.She just needed a little help to bring it out.She had changed in the short time that I had been here.

---