Page 57 of Poisoning Ivy
"Not that part." I swipe a stray lock of hair out of her face. "What you were saying to your husband."
Ivy clamps her mouth shut, and Killian raises a dark eyebrow in search of answers. "You speaking to the dead, Bambi?"
"He was my only audience." She shrugs, but makes no attempt to tell the rest of the story that we're still waiting for.
"Ivy..." Monty says her name softly. It's so soft, in fact, that she looks up at him with wide eyes, startled by hearing her real name come off of his tongue. "Who are you?"
"You know who I am." She rolls her eyes. "You've known me almost my whole life."
I suspect we know her better than anyone. Our sweet, gentle doe, our delicate flower. She's always let us push her around because she likes it. She lets people think she's too meek to fight back, but the truth is she's been trained not to fight back with every one else. Her mother, father, husband... none of them were winning awards for their people skills, and she knew standing up to them was useless. But with us, she takes what we give her because it feeds a part of her soul that's locked away deep inside, a part of her soul that isn't our sweet doe or a delicate flower. Itfeeds the part of her that is raw and wicked, that craves our pain and pleasure, the part of her that corrupted each one of us long, long ago.
"We know you come to stay on the mountain every summer." Monty says, glancing pointedly at me.
"And we know that you came back for the first time in five years after radio silence," I add.
"And we know that you crave our attention." Killian smirks, running his gaze up and down her body. "We know that you love the way we make you feel."
She doesn't deny any of those things, waiting for more, just like me. I'm not sure where Monty was headed with this. "When your husband said that your father paid him to marry you, what did he mean?"
"You think I ever saw our finances?" She laughs. "I don't know, Monty. A dowry, probably."
"A dowry?" Killian snorts. "Did you forget what year it is, Bambi? People don't do that."
"Corey said it's normal in families like theirs." Monty argues.
"Cody," Ivy corrects him, and then she shrugs. "Yeah, wealthy families. Families who have to make mergers and business deals, who have enough money to know that true power doesn't come from an arbitrary number on a banking account screen."
I stare at her, awareness starting to take the shape of understanding in the back of my head. "You talking about the mob?" Killian laughs.
Ivy shrugs again, her little pink tongue darting out to wet her lips. "I don't know what my dad actually did for a living. He always told me he was in acquisitions, and honestly, I didn't care. But I did know that he didn't marry my mother because he loved her. I always knew it, the way he hit her, the way she slept with other men. They didn't marry for love, and I always knew I wouldn't either."
"So why did you marry?" Monty asks, needing more.
"Because I was told to. Because I had no other choice." She raises her hands. "Because the first time I tried to run away from home, my mother told me there was no escaping this life. The second time I tried, I got bit by a snake and met Killian, and..." She swallows down the rest of her words, deciding against them.
"And what?" Killian prompts, his eyes narrowed on her.
I watch her bite down on her bottom lip hard enough that blood blooms on her pale lips. She looks down at her toes, peeking out from the bottom of the long dress, as she swipes her tongue over the blood she just brought to the surface, brushing it away only for it to bloom anew.
"And then I didn't want to run. I wanted to stay here, to stay with you guys." She shrugs like that's a stupid idea, as if we haven't tried everything to make her ours.
"Then why didn't you?" Monty growls, surprising me with the ferocity of his tone. "Why did you leave us, Poison?"
"Youleftme!" She snaps, looking up at him with anger in her eyes. "All of you. You abandoned me! I knew I was just a plaything for you, your little toy. I knew it was wrong, everything we did, but I liked it. I liked how you made me feel alive when everyone else made me feel like I was suffocating, drowning. I liked the way you looked at me when everybody else looked through me. Your hate felt so fucking good compared to everything else being so goddamn numb all the time!"
She slides off the piano, standing right in front of me so that I have to tilt my head down to appreciate the view. "The train tracks? When you carved your name into my flesh? Fucking Tilly together in front of me and then fucking me with the barrel of a gun andpulling the trigger?" She laughs, a beautiful, maniacal sound. "I fucking loved it all, even when I knew it was wrong. Every one of those things just tied my soul to yours, made me yours. I knew my parents would never allow me to stay with you,that I'd never get to keep you guys, but what does it matter who has my body if you have my soul?"
I narrow my eyes on her just a little, trying to see what she isn't saying. But I don't have to try too hard, because she tells us in the next instant. "But you took my body, too. I fucking fell for it like a stupid little girl, believed that what we did that night actually meant something to you guys... anything. I slept between Monty and Theo, and I had the best sleep of my life. I felt so safe, cared for. But you came home, Killian, and after years of dancing around it, you all fucked me. The virginity my parents were auctioning off was being taken by you all as they were signing the papers. The ink wasn't even dry before you left me. That's when Uncle Vitoli came to find me."
Uncle Vitoli?
I'd never realized she had an uncle. Truth be told, we always saw plenty of cars in the drive, but we rarely saw anyone go into that house. We saw even less people come out of it.
"He came to collect me for my father-in-law. I guess he put it together that I'd been sneaking out to see you guys all those years. He walked right in through your front door and found me in your bed. I guess he knew he was going to be in trouble for letting me sneak out from under his nose time and again, and he snapped. So, I killed him."
I blink, confused by the sudden end of her tirade, the way she just closed down out of nowhere after the emotionally driven monologue that led up to it. "What do you mean, hesnapped?"
Ivy presses her lips together like she regrets saying so much, but she doesn't double down. "I mean that I'm pretty sure the only thing that kept him from fucking me all those years was the fact that I had worth as a virgin. My sick parents and their sadistic friends all had so much emphasis on that shit. You know, the night you guys killed Tilly? I'd spent the past week locked in the cellar because my mother found a vibrator a friendhad given me as a joke. She was pissed, called me a whore. I thought it was weird at the time, but in hindsight, I bet she was scared I was going to ruin myself before they could get top dollar for me. The next summer, you fucked me with your gun. And you wanna know something sick?"
