Page 3 of Crowned in Sin
It doesn’t take me long to find refuge inside. I climb the curving stairs without stopping until I reach my own room, shut the door, and kick my heels off.
Sighing, I sit down on the bed and look out at the lawn, hating that my eyes have no problem finding Nico even at this distance.
Three months of imagining what I’d say to him and practicing it in front of a mirror, and all I manage to do is throw a drink in his face while he literally got the last laugh.
I thought three months would’ve been enough to get over him. But judging by how my body is reacting to him, I clearly haven’t.
And that’s the fucked up truth.
I fucking miss it. I fucking miss him and everything about him. His face, his smell, and the way my stomach twists around itself when he’s near. I want to feel the weight of him between my legs, taste the musky salt of his sweat, and hear his voice rumbling against my chest while he buries himself to the hilt.
And as I tear my gaze reluctantly away from the lawn towards the corner of the room where my phone is charging on top of my luggage, I feel a bitter self-loathing bubbling up inside of my gut.
But this time, I know the self-loathing has nothing to do with Nico.
Slowly, I force my breath to return to something that resembles a steady rhythm, and then I walk over to look at my phone.
The notification is still there.
A single unread text message from Mom.
I’d gotten it in that single second after arrival, between taking my phone off airplane mode and turning off roaming. But it had been enough for her message to slip through.
I look at her name and bite my lower lip.Mom.
There’s an odd sense of normality with how those three letters look on my phone, as if it hasn't been seven years since I walked out of her home with nothing but a duffel bag and tears in my eyes.
She hadn’t reached out to me since that day. Which means there’s only bad news if she’s doing it now.
I spare a glance outside again, and see Bella give her new husband a gentle kiss on the cheek before she starts making her way towards the chateau. I know it’ll be a few minutes before she comes to check in on me.
More importantly, I know that if I look at this text, then there’s an almost 100 percent chance that I’ll have to leave before the post-wedding brunch in the morning.
But still… If this is what it takes for me not to have to spend another minute in the presence of Nico D’Ambrosio, then maybe Bella will forgive me.
So, despite a little voice in my head telling me not to do this, I unlock my phone, open the message, and feel my heart drop away the moment I read it.
I need help, baby. Please.
“What about you, Mom?”I asked once we hurried down the stairs with the second step that always creaked whenever anyone stepped on it.
“I’ll be fine, Lyddie.” My mother Bianca spared a nervous glance back into the house, lying. “Don’t worry about me.”
Three years of being Frank’s wife had left her with a permanent sense of paranoia. The copious amounts of drugs that she’d been taking on a regular basis to cope with the abuses ever since their wedding night didn’t help either.
One night after another, I’d come down the stairs to find her trembling on the floor of the bathroom, her lip split open and her hair plastered to the side of her face. I’d kneel over her with a wet washcloth, gather her up against my chest, and hold her while she soaked my shirt with her tears.
The worst were nights when Frank would bring his friends over.
On those nights, I’d find her curled up by the toilet, vomit clinging to her lips as she did her best to sob in silence. Whenever I tried to help her on those nights, she would push me away, like somehow she might dirty me in the process if I touched her.
But tonight, she wasn’t high.
There was a clarity in her eyes I hadn’t seen since the day we found out that Dad died.
“I can’t just leave you here with him!” I turned around once we made it to the door. “I won’t!”
“You have to.” Desperation bled into her voice as she glanced back into the empty house again, lowering her voice like Frank might materialize out of the darkness if she spoke too loudly. “He’s going to hurt you, baby. He’ll hurt you the way he hurt me and I won’t let him hurt you.”
