Page 82 of The Forbidden Villain
“Your uncle will soon find us, and everything will be all right.”
Mommy also explained the concept of family to me.
According to her, we belong to a powerful family that wields significant influence in Boston. And my uncle is the only one who had taken care of her all this time, so she trusts him to save us.
When I asked who the monster was, as he called himself my father, she told me he’s a liar and thief who kidnapped her.
And to never consider him a father because a father is the one who loves, protects you, and cherishes your mother, and he’s none of those things.
He kept us here because he’s an obsessive rapist, a term she failed to explain to me, and he hates my uncle.
Mama calls him a true prince who would defeat the monster and free us from his clutches once he finds us.
That’s why she named me in his honor.
Lev.
It means lion in Russian.
I gently tap on her cheek, meeting her glazed-over eyes, which means he probably poured the brown substance he calls whiskey into her mouth again. She reeks of it too. “What if he hates me, Mama?”
The monster barely tolerates me. He calls me a little fucker with Lev’s eyes and attitude.
I’m not sure what it means because I’ve never seen myself. Mama said one can study their reflection in the mirror, but we don’t have any. The monster took it away a long time ago whenMama shattered it and wanted to cut her wrists with a sharp piece before I was born.
I’m not sure what that means either. I just know he yells whenever he remembers about it and tells Mama that her life belongs to him and if she ever tries shit like that again, he’d kill me.
She squeezes me even tighter, resting her chin on top of my head, and replies, “Impossible. You’re his blood, and his only heir for now.”
She once mentioned the word “mafia,” but she couldn’t properly explain it to me, so I’m not sure what it means. I just know my uncle is in the mafia, and this will protect us somehow.
She continues to rock me in her arms. “We just have to wait a little bit,moy lvenochek.”
Listening to her strong heartbeat, I close my eyes and get lulled to sleep, filled with hope about my uncle who’ll finally free us and put an end to her suffering.
The thing about monsters?
They either keep you or kill you.
And once they decide to kill you?
You’re marked forever with death chasing you after you wherever you go.
I should know.
I’ve been avoiding mine since the moment I was born.
Lavender
Rolling to the side, I burrow my face deeper into the pillow as an unfamiliar ache spreads all over my body, my sore muscles letting themselves be known with each move I make.
I open my eyes, only to wince and close them again when the blinding sun streaming from the window hurts me. “What in the world?” I mutter, knowing I usually keep my blinds closed, preferring to sleep in complete darkness after being forced to live in a fully white room with constant surveillance. “How could I?—”
I freeze when I shift to the right a little, and my knees hit hard muscle, only then realizing my body seems tangled with another.
That’s when everything that happened last night comes crashing back, and I sit up on the bed, gasping at the naked man lying next to me, who might as well be a freaking Norse god for how handsome and perfect he looks under the morning light.
The scars all over his body, intertwined with various tattoos, only add to his charm and appeal, making me wonder what might have happened to him to experience such pain, and a certain sense of awe fills me because he’s so proud of them.
