Page 57 of Deathless & Divided

“God, that woman is vile. How did you grow up in her house?” Lily asked.

“I spent as little time with her as possible but mostly, we were raised by other people. Listen, don’t pay her any mind.”

“Easier said than done,” Lily muttered.

“Hey.” Damian caught Lily’s cheek in his palm. He swept his thumb over the delicate line of her jaw and tilted her head up so she would look at him. The wetness gathering along her bottom lashes said Serena’s words had affected Lily a lot more than she was letting on. “That right there,” he said, still keeping a hold on her while pointing at the unshed tears with his free hand. “Don’t you do that, Lily. She isn’t worth a damn to what I or anyone else thinks when it comes to you. Serena thrives on her need to manipulate and create some kind of drama—don’t be one of her victims.”

Lily blinked the wetness away. “It’s not her or what she said, not really.”

“What is it, then?” She wouldn’t answer him, but Damian had a pretty good indication of the problem. “Your father?”

“Partly.”

“I thought it wasn’t about what she said?”

Lily waved at the closed door with a fierceness and anger that came suddenly. “Those … people. All of them.”

“You’re going to have to explain it more to me, sweetheart.”

“They just label him as a rat. They don’t even care that he was a man with children and a wife, like his life didn’t matter in the end because he didn’t follow their rules. He was more than the Outfit—he was my father. My father, okay. And it bothers me that he can’t be my dad, he has to be the man who betrayed them. He’s still my dad.”

“I know,” Damian murmured.

“He is, right?” Lily asked quietly. “Mine? Why do I have to pretend like he was worthless?”

“He’s still yours, regardless of what anyone else says or thinks. And you’ll never see him like they did because you’re not like them, Lily. For the record, I don’t believe that his actions determine your future, either. There’s a huge difference between being blindly loyal and being faithful to your family.”

“They’re the family,” Lily said. “Isn’t that what we’ve always been told?”

“Your family is what you make it. The family is the people who protect and love you no matter what it costs them in the end. Family is who you keep coming back to even when all you want to do is run away.”

“My brothers, you mean.”

Damian shrugged, still sweeping his thumb over the line of her jaw. “Sure, but I’m hoping you’ll put me in that category eventually, too.”

Lily shivered in his hold. “How can I do that when I don’t even know you?”

“You know enough,” Damian replied truthfully.

All that she needed to know.

“I don’t,” Lily argued. “You still won’t tell me why you agreed to this.”

“Yes, I have. Twice.”

“Because you have to.”

“Exactly, Lily.”

“That’s still not an answer, Damian.”

“Maybe you’re not asking the right questions, sweetheart. If you spent half as much time looking at other people as you do stuck inside your own head, you might find the answers are right in front of your pretty face.”

Lily bit her bottom lip and fidgeted on the spot. “I’m sorry.”

Damian hadn’t been expecting that. “For what?”

“Not remembering much about you. I meant to tell you before, but now seems like a good time.”