She isn't fine like she pretends to be. On the contrary.
Liliana Storm Whitlock is shattered into a thousand pieces, used from the ones she loves, betrayed by the ones she loves, broken by the ones she loves.
So she lost herself.
And it all seems t...
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"Now I'm going to be sick."
I jump up from Rhys's lap and stumble to the closest restroom. As I empty the little content in my stomach in the toilet, Rhys is already behind me, holding my hair back in a ponytail.
He trails small circles on my lower back to ease my nausea. Yet, despite his soothing touch, a profound weight settles upon my chest, a consequence of the news I've just been confronted with.
Liam killed someone. He killed someone for me. Ashiver runs through my spine, my breath hitching in my throat. The information doesn't settle into my brain, and the idea of Liam hurting someone echoes in my mind. And somehow, I think of Thomas.
I haven't heard from him in a while along with Isabelle... did he do something to them too ? But he doesn't know anything about his abuse.
Oh my gosh... what is going on ?
I'm fine. I'm fine. We are fine. I'm-
"Princess, you're okay."
I hadn't realise I was now in the arms of Rhys, nestled against him on the couch, as Ostin and Louis worriedly watch me. I am trembling like a leaf, unable to breath in a constant manner as a panic attack threatens to break through. But I won't with Ari by my side. I am safe.
"H-how ? It's Lee...w-we are talking about... I... I don't understand." Sobs wrack through the words that I try to force past my lips, each syllable becoming a struggle.
"I don't know baby. I'll do some background check for you. But I trust Jace, he isn't wrong with this one."
I swallow the pill. Liam Raymond. What have you done?
"I want to see him." I murmur, barely audible words, but they seem to leave a heavy silence as they are spoken.
For a second, not a breath is even exhaled, no one daring to move. But as expected Rhys recovers the first, so tense that I can bet the words he is going to utter before he even opens his mouth.
"Baby..."
"No, I n-need to understand why-" The tears flood past my eyes, as the innocence of Liam just got tainted with an awful action.
"No."
Not a demand. It's a command spoken by Rhys Ari Heartlow.
"You don't understa-"
"I don't think you heard me Liliana, " he warns dangerously in my ear, sending shivers down my spine. "I said no. He is not coming close to you right now. And you are definitely not going back to Hemfield with the state you are in right now. Forget. it."
The words that were ready to spill past my lips are stuck in my throat. The sharpness of his tone, leaves me with nothing to fight, because I already know the outcome of it. Rhys won't let me leave his side and go to Hemfield. I know he is right. I couldn't handle seeing him at this moment.
