Picture Perfect Love

Chapter 13- Confessions

Kennedy took a deep breath, trying to decide where the best place was to start telling her story from. In the meantime, Lucian was feeling guilty. Sure, he had been dying to hear this, but only if she was sure. He didn't want her feeling obligated to pour her heart out to him.

"Kennedy, if you're not ready, you don't have to do this," Lucian let her know.

She closed her eyes, shaking her head and quietly replied, "No, I do; if not for you then for me."

Lucian nodded in understanding and squeezed her hand in silent reassurance.

"Three years ago, I was raped at a party at work," she began.

Already Lucian didn't want to hear anymore. Someone had the nerve to take advantage of his mate and he hadn't been there to protect her! His wolf snarled at him, wanting to hunt the bastard down.

"About a month later, I found out I was pregnant. After the incident at work, him and I began to date. He'd told me countless times nobody would want to be with 'damaged goods' like me; except for him that is. I was so broken from what had happened I believed him. When I found out I was expecting I told him, but he ditched me before I could even finish telling him.

For months at work I had to see him; there was no way around it. At about five or six months in, Mina convinced Mr. Jenks, our boss, to send him away on a photo-op mission.

The rest of my pregnancy went by great, no worries, but the trouble was far from over."

Kennedy paused to collect her thoughts. She didn't want to relive those memories, only move on from them. She pulled Lucian's hand up, softly kissing it to feel those sparks soothe her. So far so good.

"Roughly two years ago, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Adam. He was everything I never knew I wanted. It didn't matter his father wasn't in the picture, because I instantly loved him enough for the both of us.

When we celebrated his one-month mark, Mina and I began noticing some changes. Adam was sick a lot, had a hard time recovering from colds. I was always afraid of letting him go outside, letting him have fun with other kids, trying to prevent him from catching something.

It wasn't until we saw all the bruises did the doctors take us seriously. I-I remember him getting them from things as simple as dropping blocks on his legs. They wouldn't go away and sometimes took weeks to start healing," she said.

Lucian never had children of his own, but by the look in Kennedy's eyes remembering, he could tell it was a magical thing.

"The doctors diagnosed Adam with Leukemia at two months old; gave him three months to live. They might have been specialists in medicine, but they didn't know my Adam. By the end of their deadline, Adam fought right on. He was my little trooper. Not long after, his Leukemia even went into remission. The doctors were stunned. For the next eight months Mina and I spoiled him rotten. Anything my son wanted he got, but was never once demanding. His blue eyes would sparkle every time Mina came into the room and his blonde hair even grew back after a while," she said.

She smiled fondly at the memories and Lucian smiled too at the distant happy look in her eyes.

"When he turned a year old, Mina got him his own cake. God he made a mess, but I'd never seen him so proud of himself practicing to say 'thank you' and posing for my camera. We had to use the hose to spray enough cake and icing off to be able to toss his outfit into the washer!" Kennedy laughed with tears in her eyes.

"It-it was at a year and a half his Leukemia returned. For the next seven months, two days, Adam fought like hell. By the end of it though, his little body just couldn't handle anymore. He... he passed away a month after his second birthday, been gone about seven months," she stuttered out.