Page 47 of Broken Harmony
“Step back.” Liam moves in front of me. “She’s just had a long, hard, traumatic day. The last thing she needs is more people in her face.”
“Are you okay?” Tyson asks.
“Yeah.” I give him a weak smile.
“You're not okay,” Ryker growls. “You're in a police station. What the fuck did that bitch do to you?”
“What bitch?” Chase looks between us. “Who are you talking about?”
“Julia,” Liam growls.
Chase’s eyes go wide, dropping to mine. “Did she hurt you?”
My lower lip trembles, and I want to tell him everything. But I honestly don’t think I could. Not right now. Not like this.
“That bitch you hired to be their manager has been manipulating Ally for years,” Liam snarls, and everyone looks horrified. “She’s been using her Alpha influence to make her do whatever the fuck she wanted her to do. And before you get pissed off at Ally for not telling you, Julia covered her tracks and prevented her from doing that, too.”
There’s a round of angry curses before Chase pulls me into his arms. “I’m so fucking sorry, Ally.” I hear the brokenness in his voice, like tears are choking him up. “I was supposed to protect you. This shouldn’t have ever happened to you.”
I want to say it’s okay, that it’s fine because it’s the normal response for everything. But it would just be more lies. And I think I’m done lying for a long, long time.
So I say nothing, letting him apologize over and over again. I don’t blame him, but he’s right. He was in charge of me. This is his company. And he hired someone who abused me for years.
Abused me. I've been abused. I’ve never seen it that way, or maybe I didn’t allow myself to. Maybe I was too blinded by my guilt over failing Lulu to see myself as the victim when worse things happened to her.
I’m pulled out of Chase’s arms and into a group hug with the guys.
“I’m sorry,” I sob, breaking down in the middle of the police station. I don’t even care at this point. Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be any paparazzi around. They can’t come in here anyway.
God, I don't even want to think about the shit-show that's about to happen when this makes the news. That's the last thing I want to be associated with.Good luck to my PR team. Hope we pay them well.
“Sorry?” Ryker asks. “Babe, you have nothing to be sorry about.”
“You did nothing wrong,” Tyson insists.
“I dragged you into this. I brought her into your life.”
“We don’t fucking care,” Skyler states. “She’s the problem. Not you. You didn’t ask for her to do the things she did to you. And we would never blame you for it. Do you understand me?”
I nod my head, closing my eyes as I try not to cry again.
I’m not sure when it happened, but I passed out at some point. Because the next time I open my eyes, I’m in my nest back on the tour bus.
“This shit can never happen again, do you understand me?” I hear Liam’s furious voice.
“I know!” Chase hisses. “Do you think I wanted any of this to happen? This is my niece. I love her. I’d never want anything bad to ever come to her.”
“She was hired by your company!” Liam growls.
“I know,” Chase growls back. “And I feel like fucking shit.”
“Fix it!” Liam shouts. “First, by making sure no other Alpha is in a position of authority over her. Only Betas. That way, there’s no way her Omega can be manipulated or commanded against her will again.”
“I agree. And I’m going to personally hire someone myself. Someone I know. Someone I trust. This will never happen again.”
“It better not,” Liam snarls. “Or I swear, there will be fucking hell to pay.”
Sleep takes over again, and I drift off back to sleep.
