Fated - A Mermaid's Curse 2 (19 page)

Owen is there in a matter of seconds. He brings a blanket, a water bottle and a pill. I give him a puzzled look.

“
It will help her sleep,” he says.

She takes the pill and drinks the water, but she won’t look at either one of us. I put the blanket over her back and she curls up on the floor. Owen drops to the floor across from us and just sits there watching at her. He shakes his head.

“
We got one fucking dysfunctional family,” he says. I don’t even respond. He stops talking after that, too, and we and both watch her and listen to her cry until she falls asleep.

Once she is out, I slowly move away from her and motion for Owen to go back outside.

“
What happened?” I ask.

Owen shakes his head, and runs his fingers through his hair.

“
I think she should be the one to tell you, man.”

I give him a stern look. My heart is pounding inside my chest. “Tell me,” I say. “Whatever happened, she doesn’t want to talk about. Did he say something to her? Why the fuck didn’t you stop him anyway?”

“
He was already here when I got back, Blake.”

“
You said the blood was his. Did you fight? What the fuck happened to make you confront him, Owen?”

I’ve never seen this look in Owen’s eyes before.

My hands clench into fists and I know what he is going to say before he does.

“
WHAT DID HE DO TO HER?”

Owen takes a deep breath. He is shaking now. “When I walked in, it was too late. I’m sorry man.”

“
Say it! What the fuck did he do?”

“
He—when I walked in—he--he was raping her.”

I can’t breathe. All air escapes my lungs as soon as I hear it. I turn around and I punch the tree over and over again until my hand is bleeding and I no longer feel it.

Owen just stands back and watches me. He doesn’t try to stop me.

When I’m done, I reach into my pocket with my bleeding hand, grab my phone and call him.

He actually answers it right away and he’s laughing. “It’s a nice piece of ass you got there, son.”

“
You sick son of a bitch. I’m calling the cops on you. You’ll never come anywhere near us again. Do you understand?”

He pauses then laughs. “Go ahead. Call them and you have no idea how fast I will send Molly back to her real mom.”

I hang up the phone and throw it against the tree. It breaks before falling to the ground.

“
Is there anything I can do?” Owen asks.

“
Where?”

“
Where what?”

“
Where did you catch them?”

“
Man, don’t do this to yourself.”

“
TELL ME!”

He shakes his head. “He had her on the couch when I walked in.”

I don’t even recognize the anger in my tone.

“
I want to take her to the house and to my room until we can get the hell out of here. If you want to do something useful, move that couch outside and burn it.”

Owen nods and leaves.

I got back up, sit down on the floor and lift her into my lap. I hold her and cry until I can smell the fire coming from the beach.

I watch her and I hate him even more for doing this to her. I just want to take her and disappear.

“
Arianna?” I call her. Her eyes open and the terrified look is gone. She looks as if she feels safe, but empty. All she does is stare at me.

“
I want to take you to the house and to our room. Is that okay?”

She hesitates.

“
You’re safe. I’m not leaving your side and as soon as we can, we’ll leave the island, but I need your help getting down from here.”

She nods and gets up.

She moves like she is in pain. I go first, helping her with each step. Once we are on the ground, I scoop her up in my arms and carry her to the house.

I go through the back door so she doesn’t have to go in directly through the living room.

She can barely stay awake because of the pill she took.

Once we approach the back door, my eyes widen. The son of a bitch left her torn panties hanging from the doorknob. I tense as she opens her eyes.

I take a deep breath.

“
Close your eyes, babe. I’ll let you know when you can open them, okay?”

She closes her eyes and I make my way into the house.

Through the hallway, I can see Owen stand outside and watch the fire.

I carry Arianna to our room and sit her on the chair. She’s only half awake. I tell her that I’m going to help her get cleaned up and she nods. She’s like an empty shell. She doesn’t talk and barely looks at me. I can’t even imagine what she is going through and all because of me allowing him to be in my life for this long.

I go into the bathroom and start a hot bath for her.

When I walk back into the room, I catch her staring blankly at her reflection in the mirror.

I walk toward her and stand in front of her, blocking her view. I grab her hand and lead her into the bathroom. I turn the water off and turn to find her standing there in front of another mirror.

I approach her and kiss her forehead, but she pulls away. “I’m going to take care of you.”

There’s no reaction.

I feel like I’m walking on eggshells. I don’t want to do anything that will scare her or make her uncomfortable. I don’t know how anyone deals with this or how I should.

“
I’m going to step into the bedroom while you get undressed and get in the water. I’ll be back in a few minutes okay?”

She nods.

I leave the bathroom and a few minutes later, I knock on the door.

When she doesn’t say anything, I walk in.

I grab her clothes from the floor and put them in a plastic bag and take it back to the room. I take my shoes off and dress shirt. I’m still wearing a shirt under it and dress pants. I walk into the bathroom and she stares blankly at the wall. I sit on the edge of the tub. I lean over, and brush her hair off her face. She looks at me, wraps her arms around herself and starts to shake and cry. I get in the bathtub, clothes and all and sit behind her putting my arms around her. “I love you, Arianna. I’m so sorry he did this to you.” She cries even more. At that point, she doesn’t know that I know.

She can’t see me, but I can feel myself cry along with her. When I manage to stop, I help her out of the bath and wrap her in a towel. I do my best to act as if I don’t see the bruises around her waist and other parts of her body.

I help her dry off and put one of my shirts on her. I lay her down on the bed and put the blanket over her and change my clothes. I grab some ice from the kitchen, then I lay down next to her, holding the bag of ice to her face, and when she finally says something, the sound of her voice makes me wonder how much she had to fight and scream and there was no one around to rescue her.

She looks away. “I’m sorry,” she says sobbing.

“
Look at me,” I say. She looks up.

“
You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who is sorry for bringing you into this family and for not being here to keep this from happening tonight.”

Her eyes widen in realization that I might know more than she thought I did.

She starts to sob uncontrollably. “He said I brought this on myself. I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

I sit up and look at her. “Arianna, none of this is your fault. Do you understand me?”

She nods. Then she turns around, and pulls the covers up to her neck and I watch as she cries herself to sleep.

I watch her for a while longer before I get up, grab her clothes, including what he left on the back door and go to the front of the house where I throw everything in the fire.

Owen just watches me, but it’s as if he is not even there.

I watch the fire and wish I could burn her memories of tonight along with her clothes. She doesn’t deserve this, no one does, but after what she went through with the man her father made her marry…

Why the fuck did I leave her here alone? My mind drifts back to her bruises, to thoughts of what she went through and I know I will never forgive myself for bringing her into this dysfunctional family, for bringing her anywhere near the man who causes nothing but destruction to the ones around him. I drop to my knees and I fall apart. I can’t even remember last time I cried this much. I was raised to believe that was a sign of weakness.

I don’t know if she’ll ever get over this.

Owen puts a hand on my shoulder and then sits next me.

I turn to face him.

“
The magic that you used… can you use that against him? Just make him go away?”

Owen shakes his head. “He’s one of them, Blake, and even if he wasn’t, you don’t want to get mixed with that.”

I take a deep breath. “Can you use it to make her forget?” I ask. “I’ll do anything.”

Owen stares at the fire. “I’m sorry, Blake. Black magic is used for evil. I’m sure there is nothing that I can do to make this go away. I wish I could. You have no idea how much I wish I had gotten back here before he did.”

I nod, stand up and go back in the house. I walk into the kitchen where I know there are a few bottles of whiskey left. I reach for one, but I can hear her voice in my head, asking me to promise not to and I can’t do this to her.

I go back to my room, lay next to her and watch her sleep.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

OWEN

It’s the middle of the night, and after tossing and turning a few times, I give up on trying to sleep. I lie in bed, in the darkness of my room, and I can’t stop re-living the scene that I walked in on. Things were bad before, but never this bad. If he is capable of doing this, there is no telling what he is capable of doing to the rest of us.

I hear a soft knock on the door.

“
Blake?” I ask.

When I get no response, I get up and open the door to find Arianna standing there with a blanket wrapped around her and she is shaking.

I hate having to ask if she is okay because I know she is not, so I stand there quietly hoping that she will say something.

“
I—I want to talk to you,” she says.

“
Okay. Do you want to go out in the living room?”

That scares her. Crap. “I’m sorry. I—Do you want to come in?”

She nods.

“
Okay, let me just get a shirt on.”

I quickly grab a shirt and put it on.

She waits for me at the door until I turn the lights on and tell her to come in.

I start walking faster and she picks up the pace, too.

I sit on the bed and she sits on the recliner across the room.

She starts crying as soon as she sits down.

“
I’m sorry I didn’t get back in time to stop, Arianna. I just—I wish I could go back in time and fix this, all of it. I really do.”

In between sobs she says, “I want you to take me away so that Blake doesn’t have to see me anymore.”

“
What? Why?”

She looks away from me. “Owen, what happened… that’s all he’s going to think about every time he looks at me. I don’t even want to look at myself and I don’t want to force him into doing so.”

I shake my head. “Things are going to be tough, but he loves you, Arianna. You’ll get through it.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think I can.”

“
Arianna, people like Blake… people who are given a dose of happiness after being used to not having that for so long, are the ones who fall the hardest when that happiness is tainted. I’m not saying this to make you feel bad or to force you to stay, but you need one another. Maybe… maybe we should just say fuck it and file charges against my dad. At least that way, you and Blake can feel safe.”

She shakes her head. Her whole body is shaking really. “I don’t want to talk about what happened. Just know that I can’t be strong for Blake right now because I can’t even be strong for myself. I can’t worry about what this will do to him. I can’t worry about what he’s thinking every time he looks at me and much less every time he touches me, that is, if he even wants to ever again. I can’t—I just can’t.”

She gets up and turns to leave and she is crying hysterically, so I just run in front of her and without thinking, I put my arms around her. I expect her to freak out, but she doesn’t.

“
It’s okay. That is your decision. I just made a lot of mistakes and I will pay the consequences for a long time. I think that letting you walk out of his life would be another mistake… for me and for you, but maybe I’m wrong. I seem to be wrong a lot.”