Page 118 of Ricochet
Cut.
My father.
Maya.
The worst thing I ever did in my life was taking what wasn’t mine to take. I raped her. I fucking raped her, and if Ophelia knew... No, she didn’t know. If she knew, I would’ve been dead by now.
“Phee,” I started, trying to remind her of who we were. “Do you remember your seventeenth birthday?”
She let go of me, taking a step back.
“Do you remember how excited you were to get all those presents, and how you pretended to be serious every time I was in the room? Do you?”
Her eyes frantically looked from me to Storm, but she finally focused on me before replying.
“What does that have anything to do with this?”
“It has everything to do with this, because even though you tried to hide it, I knew you liked me. And you know what, I liked you too. I liked you so much that I would’ve tried to take the stars from the sky, just for you, just so you could keep smiling in that crooked way of yours.”
She took a deep breath, and dropped to the floor, sitting crossed-legged.
“And when they announced our engagement, I was thrilled. I was also terrified, because how could someone like you, ever love someone like me.” I took a deep breath, before continuing. “I hated what they did to you, what they made of you, and for the longest time, I tried to change that. But there’s no changing it, is there? This is who you are, and I was too stupid to accept it, and for that I’m sorry. I am sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me, when the darkness was too much to bear. I am sorry for being confused by my own grief that I never saw yours.”
“Kieran,” she whispered.
“I needed someone to blame because it was easier blaming you than blaming an unknown person. And Cynthia,” she started shaking her head, but I didn’t stop, “she was one thing I never should’ve done. I hurt you so much, and I am so, so sorry. For everything I did, for everything I didn’t do. There are so many things I want to change, but the past is in the past, and we are here, in the present.”
She finally looked at me, and hope blossomed in my chest at the cracks in the façade she erected around herself, because that girl, the one that used to smile at me, she was still there.
“Phee.” I reached for her hands with my tied ones. “Stop this madness. I believe you; I really do. And Cillian and Tristan will too. Just come home, Phee. Come back to me.”
I thought she would move back, she would get away from me, but she just sat there, staring at our joined hands.
“Please, baby girl, please. Let’s leave this madness behind. Let’s start anew. Only you and me. Far away from this mess, from this insanity. I don’t care what you did, but I can’t spend another day living with this pain eating at my insides.”
I pulled her closer, our knees touched.
“I need you by my side. I just want everything to be normal, for us to be who we used to be.”
“Kieran, we can’t.”
“No, I refuse to believe that. We can, we still can. God, don’t let what we had go to waste.”
“But you did it first,” she said. “You threw us into the flames, and now you expect me to run to you, when all you did was run from me. You were the one that destroyed us, not me. You destroyed us.”
“No, no, that’s in the past.”
“But that past,” she wiggled her hands out, “is what shaped us. You, me, your brothers, my family. Do you really think I can just get over everything? Just like that. Just because you asked.”
“No, but we can work on it.” God, please. I am begging you. Let us work on this. Just give us another chance, and I promise, I will never betray her like that again. And I will help her find Maya. I will even tell her everything that happened. She has to know. “Just come back to me.”
“I-I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. Please, Ophelia.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You couldn’t handle me then, and I am sure you won’t be able to handle me now. I am not who I used to be, Kieran. I am not the girl you remember. That naïve little girl doesn’t exist anymore. She’s gone, and you and your family helped push me over the edge.”
“Please, baby. Just, let me in. Let me in and I’ll show you how good we both can be.”
