White Lies and Sweet Compromise( 𝐁𝐖𝐖𝐌💕)

Chapter 36

The Wither's Mansion late Sunday morning.

The curtains being drawn to let in the late morning sunshine had Kylie groaning in annoyance. She rolled over unto her side and turn away from the intrusion. A shadow coming by the bed had her reluctantly opening her eyes, it was Lionel there with a glass in his hand.

"What time is it?" she asked as she pulled herself up in bed and took the glass from him.

"Where were you last night?" he asked instead of answering.

"What does it matter?" she said before gulping the bitter brew that had her grimacing with a shudder.

Lionel took the glass and sat beside her on the bed and stared intently at her. She looked away and stared down at her hands. She did not want to get in an argument with her brother but being carefree was not the way to go about it.

"Are we going to constantly have you being the centre of all the wrong attention," he said with a sigh.

"I just went to a catch up with the girls at the Classique Pallet for a late dinner and few drinks more like a little celebration for my accomplishments...then head on back home when I realized Lizzy had left," she told him deciding that being elusive was not the best way to deal with the situation. "It was not my intention to get you upset or worried."

He gave her a half-smile then said, "I know it wasn't easy going out to the Clinic and having your picture taken or being interviewed, but I am proud of you."

Kylie too gave him a half-smile in return but said nothing. They sat there in silence both of them minds caught up in matters that lead to the same things even if it was constituted by different persons.

"So how are you, Leo?"

He knew what she meant and he would have told anyone else that he was fine but knowing Kylie would know the truth he responded, "I never thought I would see her again."

"And I bet she was wishing that she never saw us again too," Kylie responded. "Seeing her again made me miss the days of our childhood when we were too innocent and naive to know how cruel people could be."

"I wish I could blame mom and dad for the things that befell us but I played my role in hurting Leela," he said his voice husky with the pain of self-loathing. "I let our parents take control of everything knowing that I was causing someone I cared about nothing but pain. I was such a coward riding on the power and authority of our parents that I took Leela's daughter."

"She's your daughter too," Kylie said but knew that did not justify what happened.

"Even if Leela and her parents had not been sent away like some outcast I would still have been the hero. Nathan and the others would see me as The Alpha male. I would not be the one ridiculed for knocking up the hired help's daughter or the supposed girlfriend of my sister."

Kylie looked at Leo and said softly. "I never liked or see Lee like that Leo, she was my friend. She was the only person who I could be myself with and who didn't see me as some wild sick anomaly because I liked girls and not boys.

I remember when I started liking Amy Richardson and Lee realised she did not run away but stood by me and kept my secret. I did not have to bribe her or buy her friendship the way Jess and the others did when they caught Amy and me kissing. I was so scared of what would have happened to Amy but Leela assured me everything would be alright even when she knew it wasn't.

I remember her even giving Jess a black eye when she kept calling me dyke, earned her a crazy fat lip and some nasty bruises but she stood up for me, she never let me down, and it wasn't because she was infatuated with my self absorbed brother but because she cared about me as her friend."