Page 98 of Awakening the Beast
Then it hits me.
My jaw drops as the realization slams into me. All this time, fucking everything—meeting Arlo, the madness
that followed—it wasn’t fate. We hadn’t found each other by chance. We were pushed together on purpose.
My eyes flutter closed as it slams down on my heart, my mind reeling. Vivienne had set us up. Manipulated shit behind the scenes to make sure our paths crossed. My breath stops altogether, and when I reopen my eyes, I feel like the ground beneath is opening up, ready to swallow me down into the darkness.
“So... none of this was real?” I whisper, the words tasting bitter on my tongue.
Vivienne shakes her head quickly, panic flashing across her face. “No, Wren. That’s not what I meant. I didn’t make you two fall in love. I couldn’t have predicted that. But I knew... I knew you’d be good for him. Better than anyone else could have ever been. Your intensions have always been good for Arlo. You’ve given him life and love again. You've given him what he desperately needed.”
The room suddenly feels too small. Realizing that my entire relationship with Arlo—our connection, our love—started because of someone’s calculated fucking move makes my stomach churn. Rage boils under my skin, my chest tightening just as my mother’s sharp voice suddenly slashes through the rising fire inside me.
“I told you to stay the fuck away from my family,” she bites and the force of her anger is shocking—I’ve never heard her curse, but it’s what she said that throws me off .
“I knew if Wren was with Arlo, you had no choice but to protect them all, Hazel,” Vivienne retorts, “as a family. But you didn’t, did you? You left my son for dead in Mexico, and I had to pick up the fucking pieces.”
My nose scrunches in confusion as I glance between my mom and Vivienne.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Vivienne stands her ground, her chin lifting defiantly. “I paid the man in Mexico to find and collect Arlo. I arranged for him to be taken to Brazil, treated, and nursed back to health until he could return to New York.”
Her words slam into me like a freight train, freezing the blood in my veins. My heart seems to stop and I whip around to face my mother, fixing her with a glare that could burn holes through her.
“You fucking knew about this?” I shout, my disbelief echoing through the room.
My mom’s face tightens, and she hesitates before answering. “No. Well... I didn’t until shortly before his return.”
The raw anger that surges through me is almost uncontrollable. My fists clench, every fiber of my being fighting the urge to lash out. How could she keep this from me? How could both of them keep this from us?
“I feel like beating the shit out of you right now,” I grind out through clenched teeth.
She stares at me, her eyes softening with something that looks like regret, but it’s not enough. Not for me. Not after all the lies, the secrets. Not after this.
“You could have told me. You could have—” I start, my voice breaking as the betrayal cuts deeper than any wound.
“I thought I was protecting you,” she says gently. “I was trying to keep you out of the mess... out of the danger.”
“Protect me?” I scoff bitterly. “By keeping me in the dark? By lying to me after all this time? You put me more in danger by not telling me, Mom!”
"But I did tell you. I gave you something, Carmella, and that is why we're here today, right?"
With wide eyes, I look between the two women who have played with my life, my family’s life, like it was some kind of sick fucking game. Everything I thought I knew—about Arlo, about my mother, about the world I grew up in—has been shattered in an instant.
Vivienne speaks up, her voice laced with defensiveness, aimed toward me. “You think I wanted this, Wren? You think I wanted to pull you into this mess? I was trying to protect my son.”
I whirl on her, my anger spilling over. “But you didn’t protect him, did you? I shout. “You both played god with our lives, and now look where we are!”
“And me and Lil?” Jasper suddenly asks and we all look into his expectant eyes.
Jasper's question lingers until we then all shift our focus to Vivienne.
“You and Lily found each other purely by chance,” Vivienne says with a headshake. “I had nothing to do with that.”
Jasper’s eyes widen, but before he can respond, my mom jumps in. “Vivienne’s not even her real name, so I wouldn’t have known at that point to stop anything.” She pauses, the hatred pouring out of her. “Her birth name is Cleo. I didn't even know Arlo was adopted or that he was Jaspers twin.”
I suck in a sharp breath, completely thrown off. “And how the fuck do you two know each other?” I grit out, my patience cracking.
