Deception

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

"Sometimes I just don't understand you American families. Your customs are so weird," Louis chuckled, and I shook my head.

Of all people Victor had suggested we pull our tables together effectively adding three of our resident angels/demons to crash our supposed family dinner. It wasn't as if I minded Louis being there, as he was making us laugh and keeping everyone at ease, which was no easy feat.

The three of them might be family as well, but I'd been enjoying the thought of a normal human family dinner with no ultimate being type visitors. Aside from the worst thing Liam had done, he was already halfway telling me something new without telling me everything, and Zeke was involved as well. Clearly, he wasn't going to tell me either.

As supportive as I was trying to be, for Lily's sake, I was just as angry about what Zeke had done to her as I was about what Liam had done to me. Regardless, I'd much rather have them here as opposed to Victor. Since she was dating him, mom would consider him like family when he was not.

It was frustrating. She was so oblivious, but it wasn't really her fault. We hadn't told her, and Victor wouldn't allow us to. As far as she knew, he'd done a lot to help all of us and was a wonderful guy. She was also clearly trying to remain strong for all of us and keep things normal.

She'd always been the strong one trying to keep it together for everyone else, and I wondered if she was trying to be that for Victor as well. In the time she'd known them, she'd grown close to Greg and especially Susan. She'd adored Abel in the time she'd taken care of him and I knew she was grieving as well. One thing was so amazing about her.

She was the human who had no idea what was going on around her, who she was dating, what her daughter was, but she was the only one of us who wasn't falling apart. Doing that was unacceptable behavior for her. Maybe grandma and grandpa had taught her or maybe it was what she'd been through. She'd never allowed herself to fall apart when others needed her.

From the time she'd become a young widow with two small children, she'd known she had to be tough and she had to be the one to comfort us and keep on living as best as she could. In those years, she'd barely allowed herself time to cry. I was convinced it was much of the same now.

Perhaps it was best she didn't know, because she had enough on her plate already. She didn't need one more thing she needed to be strong for. She'd been through too much already. By that point, I'd stop being brave and just go into her arms, letting her be brave while I hid away. As tempting as that was, I couldn't do that to her to anybody. This was essentially my battle.

I brought her into this and I'd also brought Jay and Mattie into this as well. They were normal, and it was my existence that both changed their lives and placed them in danger. It would be a little too tempting to claim Dad bore some responsibility for this. Yes, he'd married mom and had Jayden as well as made me her daughter and him my brother, but it was hardly his fault.

It was my existence that forced him to watch over me until Liam caused his death. It was my existence that could be blamed for a lot of things. If I hadn't existed, maybe Dad would still be alive and still married to Mom, with Jay never having had a drinking problem. Mattie was affectively in our family because of me, but didn't I place her in danger as well? She might not have Jay, but would she have been better off without me?

She'd always been likable and popular while I was a loser who held her back. All the things during our high school years that she could have done but didn't because of me. After all that, now I was endangering her life just by existing. All the things that had happened to them since they'd been here had been because of me. But ruining my family member's lives hadn't meant I stopped there. No, I'd ruined everyone else's lives by existing from the very beginning.