“I’m going to let the slap go, because I was a little temperamental. Remember, Coraline, I made you. I gave you the balls you’re so willing to put on display, try to lecture me again, and I will rip them right out from under you, and then I’ll go after Declan. Are we clear?” I asked, squeezing just a little bit tighter before letting go.
So, I flipped out. I didn’t want a lecture from Liam, and I sure as hell didn’t want one from Coraline.
She coughed holding onto her neck before speaking again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry your mother is a…”
“You’re pushing me, Coraline,” I said as I dropped the towel.
“So be it then. I’m still going to speak my mind, balls or no balls. We are family; you are my sister, okay? I’m on your side, Melody, I promise. Just please, be on mine.” With that, she left me alone to finish getting dressed.
Those who got high occasionally should know that the come down was horrible, especially if you aren’t ready for it. Life was fine for Liam and I; everything we wanted was slowly falling into our laps, and then this.
My mother…was dead. She died when I was young…she was murdered when I was little…but that was a lie. It was like my brain didn’t—couldn’t—wrap itself around that thought.
When I was younger, I had come to terms with the fact that I was motherless. The first Mother’s Day after her death, I cried until Orlando sat me down and told me we don’t cry. No matter how bad our lives got, Giovannis did not cry. I was a child, crying was one of the things children did, but after that moment, the tears went away. I found the deepest part of my soul and buried my sorrow there.
The only time I truly remember giving in to the tears and the pain was last year, right after I lost our child. That was the first time in years I had truly felt pain like that. When Liam was hurt, from what I now know was his own plan, I felt fear. That’s why I needed my revenge and killed Saige. It still gave me satisfaction to think about her and the twelve mile drive before her screams stopped.
That night, I made Liam scream in a different sort of way. I wasn’t a huge fan of bondage, but tying him up as I sexually tortured him for hours was fun. At the end, he all but begged to be free. When he was, the room looked sort of like the hotel room looked now…like two wild animals had been set loose.
In one year, I had felt fear and pain. Now, it seemed I’d moved on to hurt and anger. All the reasons I tired to come up with to explain Aviela DeRosa’s existence didn’t hold any water. Nothing could explain how she could be alive…how she could have just left. How she could be nothing like I thought she would be. The white shoes were a lie…the white gloves were a lie. She didn’t have clean hands; they were dipped in as much blood as mine were. She’d literally left me in the middle of the ocean as a child, clinging to life. The chances of anyone living through that were slim to none, and yet she took that chance and I was her child.
Kneeling down, I reached for the flash drive that Liam must have dropped during our fight; I knew that if I opened its contents, there would be more questions than answers. The biggest ones being—why did my own mother hate me so much that she had people trying to kill me and my family? If I saw her today, would I be able to kill her as well? From the very day you are born, you’re told family is everything. Even if you had to hurt them every once in a while, family still came first. Would I be able to kill her? I hoped so. I hoped I would be able to show her why we didn’t let anyone live.
When I turned around, I found Liam leaning against the bathroom door looking like Satan himself, his dark brown hair dripping wet and disheveled, and his green eyes focused only on me.
“Coraline is still following in your footsteps it seems.” He dried his hair. “What happened to there being only one Bloody Melody?”
I snorted. “Coraline still has a ways to go. Either way, she’s family right?”
He looked to me and a soft smile grew on his face, as he wrapped his arms around me. “Let’s go home. I have something for you.”
I knew that look.
“Liam, once we get back, we have work to do. No sex of any kind,” I stated. But he didn’t seem to be listening.
LIAM
I drank from her, my tongue licking up everything she gave me as she rode my face. She bounced and rocked against my tongue, bracing herself against the bed, as I braced myself between her thighs.
“LIAM!” she screamed, as she came all over my face.
I reveled in her juices, enjoying each drop of her. Spent, she rolled herself off of me and came to rest beside me. I watched her chest rising and falling as she tried to catch her breath, and as I licked my fingers clean of her, she turned to watch me.