Page 51 of Traitorous Lies
Almost tripping over her own feet, her body feeling like it had gone completely numb, Monique stepped back to allow the other woman to enter. Meeting a sister she’d never even known existed felt so weird. A part of her was excited, she’d always wanted a sibling, especially a sister, but the other part of her couldn’t believe that her dad would cheat on her mom and create another child.
“It was my fault Jax went to France to find you,” Cassandra said, guilt and regret in her pretty green eyes. “I was desperate. We all were, are, but I'm the one who put this all in motion. If I hadn't been conceived, none of this would have happened. None of it. My dad—at least the man I always thought was my dad—wouldn't have been killed along with his team. My mom wouldn't have been arrested as a traitor. She’d still be alive, they both would, and my brothers wouldn't have spent their whole lives focusing on clearing their names. My existence … it ruined everything. Ruined all their lives.”
When Cassandra burst into tears, Monique didn't even hesitate. She quickly wrapped the other woman in a hug and guided her over to sit on the couch.
They might not know each other, but Cassandra didn't hesitate to cling to her as she sobbed, and Monique just let her get it all out. Holding onto her little sister, because she was convinced that was what the woman was, she stroked her back and murmured reassuringly in her ear that she wasn't alone.
“None of that is true,” she told Cassandra when the other woman’s tears began to ease. “None of it is your fault. You being born didn't hurt anyone, you're not responsible for other people’s actions. You have six brothers who love you, who would do anything for you. Do you know what I would give to have that?”
“But you have money, and power, and?—”
“And that’s all I have. Had. Well, no power, but money, sure. I also had a mom who walked out on me, a dad who was quite literally never around. Grandparents who wanted to mold me into a high-society socialite who was only good for being married off to someone who would add more unneeded money to the family. I would have traded it all for what you have in a heartbeat. You had a mom who loved you unconditionally, a dad who loved you even though you weren't biologically his, and six brothers who would go to the end of the earth for you. I can't say what's happened to your family is fair, it’s not, it sucks big time. But you're not alone, and that’s the one thing I've always been.”
“I know I'm lucky to have such an amazing family, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” Cassandra said, and Monique quickly shook her head.
“I know you're not. I know you know the value of family.”
“It’s just … ever since I learned how I was conceived, I just … I feel so dirty.”
They were sisters, yes, it was hard to deny it when Cassandra looked so much like Monique’s father, but that didn't make her dad a rapist. She still couldn’t believe he would do that.
“My dad … our dad … I can't … I don’t think he would do that. To your mom, I mean. I'm still not sure that it wasn't consensual.” Wincing because she knew that sounded harsh, Monique offered an apologetic smile. “I know you don’t want to think your mom would be unfaithful, but honestly, I think my mom left because my dad was so coldly disinterested.”
“Or maybe she left because she knew the truth about what he’d done and fled for her life,” Cassandra said softly, also offering an apologetic smile to soften her words.
Only those words felt like they had opened up a trapdoor beneath her, and she was plummeting into a new depth of hell she hadn't known existed.
Chapter
Fourteen
November 9th
4:06 P.M.
Cassandra had been in there for hours.
Had it been a mistake to allow her to go and see Monique?
Both women were vulnerable right now but were also working at cross purposes. Cassandra wanted proof of who had fathered her and then for that man to be punished for raping her mom. Monique wanted to prove that her father didn't have any other children and that he was no rapist.
Yet the two of them had been holed up inside Monique’s cabin for almost five hours. Hopefully, that meant they were bonding, getting to know one another as sisters. Regardless of whether or not Monique was able to forgive him and trust him enough to give him a second chance, he wanted her to have a family. And his family was already hers. She and Cassandra were sisters, which meant she would always be one of them.
Even as he held on for his miracle that she would be part of them because she was his as well as Cassandra’s half-sister.
Watching the cabin from outside instead of being in there with herwas torture, but he was still grateful to be in a better position than he’d been the day before. Monique had agreed to the security system, and she hadn't said anything about him sleeping in her driveway. He knew she knew because he’d seen her standing in the window looking out at him.
Progress.
Baby steps, but steps all the same.
If he wanted to prove to Monique that she could trust him, that he wouldn't let her down again, then he had to just keep doing what he was doing. Show her that he would be there for her, would put her safety above all else, and was serious about finding ways to make amends. Show her that she was seen. That he understood she was more than the world was shown.
As much as he wanted to be the one in there talking with her, he couldn’t deny he was jealous as hell of his baby sister, he was glad that Monique wasn't alone. If she wasn't ready for his company, at least she and Cassandra were getting to know one another, and she was learning that she had a family who would love and accept her and want nothing in return except her happiness.
When the door to the cabin finally opened, he was out of his vehicle before he even realized he was moving. In the doorway, he could see both Monique and Cassandra, and the two women shared a hug before Cassandra waved and headed down the porch steps.
For a moment, his gaze connected with Monique’s, and when it didn't immediately skitter away, he held it and allowed every drop of what he was feeling for her to shine through. Jax didn't care that it was fast, didn't care that it should be impossible to feel so strongly about someone he’d known for a week. He and Monique had bonded during those days in the forest, and they’d gotten to know a lot about one another.
