Maggie Norris and Luke Vaudest come with attitudes of stone-cold, rude, sarcastic snakes. Every single time the pair have clashed, it has never ended up being a good thing. The two are more than fine with never crossing paths, again.
Until Maggie d...
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"Did you know that there are over 300 words for love in canine?" — Unknown ————————————————————
Chapter 12 <—————————————>
Luke
The unwanted, spoiled, mayor's bastard.
I had heard those labels many, many times over. All from the same three people: my father, my older half-brother, and my stepmother. Over and over.
At first, they hurt. Of course they hurt. They were coming from the people who were supposed to love me most.
That was the thing about hurt, though.
After so many years, you become numb to it. To them, their words, their efforts. You learn the things to say, the things not to say, in order to leave the situation as quick as possible. You learn to take the punch, and carry on as if nothing happened. You learn to shut the fuck up, and you try to survive in the only way you can.
Physically, anyway. Emotionally, there's nothing left, but a fucked foundation that you'll have to somehow build off of. I had done so.
I'd learned how to take the punches. How to clean my own wounds, mentally and physically. I'd learned to abolish their words into nothingness, to turn and twist them until they wouldn't have a hold on me. I learned.
Though, the moment I heard those words come from Maggie Norris's' mouth, all those lessons went out the door. Every pain in the insults I thought were never there, seemed to drown me the second she gave them.
Unwanted. Spoiled. Mayor's bastard.
It was true. My father reminded me of it every time he saw me. I'd accepted it for what it was long ago, but I'd never expected to hear it from anyone other than my family before.
I didn't care what Maggie Norris thought of me. She could think that I was the worst of the worst, and I'd still sleep good that night. She was nothing, but my employee.
But, fucking shit. Hearing her say that fucked with me.
This was my fourth beer. As soon as she left, I trashed the place a bit to calm my tantrum, then drove home. I considered texting one of the blondes in order to blow off some steam, but I didn't have the time, nor the energy, right now.
I had a plan, though.
Maggie wanted to be a little bitch while I'd been nothing, but gracious. More than that, really. She wanted to dig into my shit in order to avoid her own.
