Page 53 of Temptation
“H-He,” She coughed. “He fucked her already. He took her before she could ever be yours.”
“That’s not true. He married us! He blessed our Union.”
“He wasn’t the one who was supposed to bless it. The Dominion is. Your father never wanted to give her to you. He always planned to keep Skylar for himself.”
Her eyes rolled into the back of her skull, her legs kicked against mine, and even though I knew I could hurt her, I didn’t want to.
Solitude was the worst punishment for her and I was going to take away the one thing she wanted to have the most.
With one last look at her and her struggling face, I removed my hand and took a step back, letting her fall to the floor. She started coughing, her entire body shaking from the shock while I stood there, replaying everything she said.
“D-Dylan…” She whimpered on the floor, trying to reach my leg, but I took another step away from her, then one more, until the distance between us felt like I could breathe again.
“This is the last time you’re going to see me,” I whispered.
“No.” She looked up at me. “We can finally be together, just how we always wanted to.”
“This is the last time you’re going to talk to me, Joanna.”
“No!” Her shriek echoed around us. “Don’t do this. You don’t have to be with her anymore. You don’t have to pretend that you love her. They’re going to take her and you can be free.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” I kneeled, suddenly feeling sad for her. “I love her.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You don’t. You love me. You’ve always loved me.”
“I never loved you. I wanted to kill you at least ten times before I even turned fifteen, but Father stopped me.”
“You’re lying! You love me, baby. You’ve always loved me!”
“No.” I smiled. “I loved my mother, but you aren’t her. You are not a woman that gave birth to me. You’re just what is left of her.”
I got up and turned toward the sink, seeing an empty plate sitting inside along with an empty glass of whiskey my father always drank from.
He was still here. He wasn’t out of town as he told me.
“You can’t leave me, Dylan. You need me!” she bellowed from the floor as I started walking toward the hallway.
“I don’t fucking need you. I needed a mother. I needed love, real motherly love, but you were never capable of that. You never loved me how a mother should love her son, so no, Joanna. I don’t need you. I haven’t needed you for a very long time, and I’m finally ready to tell you to fuck off.”
“Dylan,” she cried. “Please.”
“I’m just going to warn you this one time. If something happens to Skylar and I find out it was your doing, you’re going to wish that you never lived at all. That I can promise you.”
“Baby!”
“Goodbye, Joanna.”
Her cries followed me all the way through the hallway and toward the front door. Her screams and cries did nothing to me. It’d been a long long time since I cared about her and her well-being.
She’d never cared about mine.
But there was one person who I cared about, and if Joanna was right, and I had a feeling she was, there were worse things in this world than my mother who could fuck this thing up between Skylar and me.
Maybe she was never supposed to be mine. Maybe she wasn’t promised to me. Maybe she was supposed to be with Ash, but I’d be damned if I let them take her away from me.
Skylar was a Blackwood—she always would be.
The Dominion could come. I’d wait.
