Chapter Thirty Four
1008 Words
She didn't answer, she just looked at me like I had lost my mind. Marcus moved his hand closer, as though he thought he needed to protect me from my own mother. "Answer her question, now!" His tone was bitter and dripped with anger that he had clearly clung to for too long. He might have managed to hide it for a while, but it was there out in the open for anyone to see at that moment.
"It's not true. John is her father and we both know it." Marcus looked right at me as though he was trying to find any trace of him in me. It wasn't like I wanted it to be true. I just wanted the truth, no matter how bad it was. I looked into his eyes, but I wasn't sure what I had found there. The only thing I could pick up on was doubt, but that was exactly what I was filled with.
Mother grabbed hold of him so fast and we were both surprised. Marcus tried to stop her, but she was more powerful than I had given her credit for. I grabbed onto her arm, practically swinging on it to try to stop what she was trying to do to him. It was enough of an annoyance for her to react. Backhanding me even harder than before. My head was ringing as I flew into the base of a tree. My eyes could barely see more than a pinprick and everything was out of focus. Everything was spinning, and I knew I needed to stop it, fast.
I could feel my upper lip swelling. I must have split it when she hit me. Concentrating on nothing but the slight smell of blood. It wasn't much, but it would be enough. My tongue slowly sliding out and finding the tear in my flesh. I could feel the V-shaped curve and sucked at it as hard as I could. The burning happened quickly. Each time I changed, it seemed to speed up the process. My senses became more acute and my vision quickly returned to normal.
She still had him in her grip. All I knew was that I needed to stop her before she manipulated him too much. I needed the truth, and she wasn't going to give it to me. I couldn't let her destroy the truths he held in his mind, too. Flying at her with my arms outstretched and pushing her off him completely. Marcus fell to the ground, and I worried that I was too late.
I was so busy looking at him for signs of life that I didn't see my mother as her hands came around my head. "Time to put this to bed once and for all. It's time for the past and future to be what I always needed them to be. Forgive me, it was all for you." I swung my arm around and made her lose her grip. I wasn't as easy to pin as the others. Jumping clear of her before she could try again.
I should have hit her, I should have dealt with it, but I couldn't. She was my mother. "What did you mean by the way you needed it to be? Just tell me the truth. It can't be any worse than what I'm thinking."
"You can't understand the choices I had to make."
"Try me. Marcus is my father, isn't he?"
"Yes."
"Does Dad know?"
"No, he never knew. It isn't what you think. I loved Marcus, always have. I had just found out I was pregnant and John found me with the test. He tried to kill me. He never would have stopped. I could feel the life draining out of me, as he had his hands around my throat when the thought stuck. The only way to stop him from killing us both was to make him believe you were his. I manipulated his mind to believe it, to believe that it changed his viewpoint on the world. I did it to protect you. Giving up the love of my life to keep you safe."
"That's why you resent me, because you had to give Marcus up."
"I didn't resent you."
"Maybe not before. When you found out Marcus was here with me, you started to, didn't you?"
"It wasn't fair. After everything I did to save you, you got him in your life and I didn't. I gave him up for nothing, anyway. The idea was to keep you safe, but instead, I opened you up to a new form of danger. I didn't think he was capable of so much hate. I swapped one man hunting you down for another. It was all for nothing. I focused every drop of love I had on you to hide my pain, then you left and I was left with nothing but emptiness."
"Leave and don't come back!"
"But I did it for you."
"Maybe, but you also blamed me and you still think you are the one who was hard done to. There have been a million times you could have rectified the situation. You could have wiped all knowledge of you and Marcus from Dad's mind and walked into the sunset, but you didn't. I can't bear to look at you right now." I went to Marcus and started trying to bring him round. He was barely even awake as she finally walked away. I didn't know what I was even meant to do with the information. She had created the whole mess, and I was the one left to clear it up. Better that than her wiping all our minds.
"What's going on? Where am I?" I could tell some of his memories had disappeared, leaving me as the only one that knew the truth besides my mother. I had too many decisions to make, and I was all alone. In the meantime, I needed to get Marcus back to the camp. I had been gone too long already.
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