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“I am. I just stood there, Oz, while he said all those awful things. I didn’t say a word while he accused us of…incest.” My voice breaks on the word.
“Fuck him,” Oz growls, closing the distance between us like he can’t stand it any longer.
“My mouth went dry, and I had words, but they wouldn’t come out. I don’t think like he does. We’re not doing anything wrong. We’re not.”
“Etta,” Oz says.
“You’re not my brother, you’ve never been my brother, you were my monster and now you’re my husband, but never my brother,” I say quickly, forcing all of the words I should have said while Bruce and my mom were here out in one rambling blurt.
“Little One,” he says softly, cupping my cheeks and wiping away my tears with his thumbs.
Lifting my gaze up to meet his, I swallow thickly.
“It’s okay,” he says, trying to reassure me.
“It’s not. How could he say all those things? Why would he say them?”
“Because he’s an asshole,” Oz says simply.
“But why didn’t my mom say anything? She knows we’re not actually related, she knows everything he said was wrong.”
“I don’t know why she didn’t say anything. But she didn’t agree with him, she just stayed quiet,” Oz says, defending my mom, even though he hates her.
“That’s worse,” I shriek, finding my voice for what feels like the first time and it’s not even the right time. “I’m her. Both of us were silent, pathetic idiots, just standing there listening to her husband spout venomous bullshit.”
Oz’s soft, amused chuckle stops my tirade in its tracks. “Why are you laughing?”
“Because you’re defending us,” he says with a smile.
“Why’s that funny?” I demand.
“It’s not, I just like it.”
“Why aren’t you angry?”
“Because I don’t give a fuck what he thinks. Today gives me a reason to never have to speak to any of them again. He can think what he wants to think, but I stopped caring about his opinion of me and my life a long time ago.”
“What about the kids?” I ask.
“They don’t know me, and I don’t know them. I guess we’re half related by blood, but we’re strangers. They don’t need me in their lives, and I don’t need them. We’ve got plenty of family here. We don’t need them.”
A part of me wants to argue, to tell him we could have a relationship with them. That he could get to know the siblings we share, but honestly, after today, I’m not sure that’s possible anymore. I’d guess right now Bruce will be brainwashing them into believing that Oz and I are actually siblings and that we’re doing something weird and illegal.
Carson, Dawson, and Everly aren’t stupid, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t believe what their parents are telling them.
Sagging against Oz’s chest, I melt into his warm skin, needing to feel him close to me. Just like I hoped, he wraps his arms around me and holds me to him, blocking me from the rest of the world while he shelters me in his arms.
“Come on, I still need to feed you, then I’m taking you back to bed, and we’re ignoring the door for the rest of the day.”
Just like he promised, after he made me breakfast, he carried me upstairs in his arms and spent the rest of the day distracting me in the very best way.
But as much as I’ve tried, I can’t forget the things Bruce said or the way my mom just stood by and allowed him to speak to us like that.
It’s been two days since the confrontation with our family, and apart from a couple of text messages Oz has received from Bruce spouting the same kind of hurtful nonsense, we’ve not heard anything else from them.
After holing up in our house for three days, we’ve run out of food, so despite my desire to stay in the sex and ignorance-filled bubble we’ve created since our uninvited visitors showed up, it’s time to venture out into the real world again.
My stomach feels queasy the entire drive down the mountain. I don’t know why I’m so tense. Mom, Bruce, and the kids will have left town by now. But even knowing they’re not here, the urge to throw up only seems to worsen when we step into Tori’s store to grab something to have for dessert later.
