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“He barged into my room. I’d just gotten into my pajamas. He accused me of being jealous of his affection for you.” Stacy starts picking at her fingers. “I told him it wasn’t that. I just think he’s too old for you, and he slapped me. So hard I had a ringing in my ears for days.”
“Stacy!” She squeezed my hand.
“I don’t remember a lot after he grabbed me by the throat and threw me on my bed.” Tears roll down her cheeks. “Every night after that, for two weeks, he’d come into my room.”
She sniffs and continues. “I tried everything. Locking my door, but Harry would just break it down and then tell my parents I had a temper tantrum and kicked my door in.” She sobbed and talked between the sobs. “One night, Harry was particularly violent and angry. I wouldn’t do what he wanted me to do. So he punched me, and once he started to hit me, he wouldn’t stop.” She swallows and wipes her cheek. “I ran to my mother’s room when I was able to get away from him, and that’s when I found your father and my mother together.”
“Holy, fuck, Stacy!’ What the hell do you say to that? “Why didn’t you tell me?” A memory hits me. “Wait. That was the year James and I went to that Colorado bootcamp. I came back, and you’d fallen down your stairs.”
“Now you know what really happened.” She gives me a watery smile.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it was the deal your father made with me.”
“What?” I splutter.
“I knew your father was not who you thought he was. I’d figured that out a long time ago. But that’s the night I knew for definite no one fucked with Marco Moretti.” Her hands shake as she rubs her nose. “My mother was furious I’d disturbed her and your father. She was screaming at me about being clumsy, but your father took one look at me and knew.” She reached for the other bottle of water. “He flew out of my mother’s room so fast, and that was the last night Harry laid a hand on me because your father threatened to kill him if he did.”
“How did he threaten you?”
“He told me that I was under his protection and Harry wouldn’t lay a hand on me ever again,” Stacy looks at me, and I see guilt and shame shining in her eyes.
“What was the price of my father’s protection?”
“All I had to do was never tell you who he was, that he was fucking my mother, or about Harry. He didn’t want the darkness of his world to touch you. Marco lied to me and told me he wanted you to have the choice he or your mother never had about how you wanted to live your life.” She looks at me with such remorse. “Please, Bella, forgive me for how I betrayed you. But he asked me to ensure you remained ignorant of it all and to keep you away from Harry.”
Chapter 19
ISABELLA
“Stacy!” I move closer to her. There’s a lump burning in my throat upon hearing what my friend went through. I was none the wiser because her narrative didn’t fit the life my father had built for me. “There is nothing for me to forgive.” I put my arm around her and pulled her to me. “Jesus. I should be begging you for forgiveness. My fucking father extorted a thirteen-year-old and held the fear of being raped by your brother over your head.”
“That was the only time I’ve ever come close to admiring your father.” Stacy snuggles into me. I can feel she’s shaking from having gone down that particular memory lane. “Marco got us all into the lounge. My brother had two broken ribs and a broken nose, but Marco wouldn’t let him go to the hospital. My mother was furious about it. That Marco would dare lay a hand on her boy.”
“Well, I’m glad he did that.” I smooth her hair off her forehead. “But he should’ve taken you straight to hospital.”
“He had the hospital come to us.” Stacy snorts. “While we were waiting, my father arrived home, and he was so shocked to hear what had happened. I thought he was going to kill my brother.” She takes in a shaky breath. “That’s the night I also learned that my mother loved my brother more than me. She told Marco and my father that I’d probably been the one to instigate it as I was such a little whore prancing around in the clothes I wore.”
“I always thought your mother was a cold bitch,” I shake my head, “but this is beyond belief.”
“My father wanted them both to get out of his house, but your father wouldn’t let that happen,” Stacy continues the story. “I have no idea why he wanted them to stay together. But he warned my entire family what would happen if any of them ever laid a hand on me again.” She went quiet for a while. “I also had a shadow following me around after that day—Gunner.”
“Gunner?” I move my head to see her. “Gunner went to watch out for you?” I frown. “I wondered what happened to him. But I’m glad it was Gunner, as he was such a nice guy.”
She nods. “My family was so scared of him. That’s why I moved into the room that had the nursery attached to it. Your father had it made into a small suite for Gunner.”
“I’m glad.”
“My mother moved into my room to be on the other wing of the house and away from my father,” Stacy tells me. “I saw your father there quite often, but I just pretended he wasn’t. Gunner and I would go visit Genevra when you weren’t home.” She laughs. “When I used to visit you, Gunner would visit Genevra. I think they have a thing going.”
“Genevra and Gunner?” I shake my head, but I’m glad they have each other.
Everyone deserves to be happy, and soon, my friends and I will be. When we’re out of America. Fuck, how did I never even suspect any of this? And Harry? I shudder. Jesus, to think we nearly…
“Shit. One day in the pool at your house on your eighteenth birthday, Harry and I nearly—“
“I know, Gunner saw and alerted James.” Stacy laughs again. “You should’ve seen my brother’s face when James told him if he ever laid a hand on you again, his face would be the last thing my brother ever saw.”
