SWNOVELS Chapter 78
“I don’t know why all this happened and after what he did…. I….. I called him from that mall that day and he said he would help me. I’d like to hear what he has to say for himself. Does he know I’m okay? Does he know all about Mexico and everything? He was supposed to meet me at that food court in the mall when I took off and then you found me first, and…”
“No,” he interrupted me. He got up and tossed his ice cream into the trash bin about 5 feet away. I was pretty much done, too. I passed mine to him and he threw it in the bin. He came back over and crouched in front of me. He put his palms on my face and rubbed my cheeks with his thumbs, then said, “Your father told me where you were.” he stopped talking, maybe letting it sink in, and then continued, “That’s how I found you. He had no intentions of coming to meet you. None, Claire. You should have zero guilt where he’s concerned. He should not be at our wedding. He doesn’t deserve to be in your life. Your father is a f*****g douchebag.”
I winced. I had considered how Azriel found me that day. The whole Mexico thing sort of made all of that evaporate.
He raised his hands, “Sorry but it’s true. I called him when you took off and we had a somewhat introductory enlightening conversation to put it mildly and he called me a few minutes later to tell me you’d called and then he gave me your location. He sold you out. He’s already given you away because he obviously doesn’t care for you. He doesn’t get to hand you to me at our wedding because he already gave you away. You’re already mine.”
I thrust my hands through my hair, the revelation about my dad ratting me out to Azriel sinking in. He picked up on it. I felt totally rattled.
“I didn’t want your father to ruin today.” He got back up and threw a rock across the river. It skipped about 8 or 10 times and the boys across the river were jumping up and down. Azriel held another flat rock up in their direction and then did this wrist flicking thing a few times to show them his technique and the boys mimicked him and then Azriel threw the rock and it skipped about a dozen times. The one boy’s rock skipped 6 times and the other older boy’s rock only skipped twice. The kid whose rock had done better looked thrilled and then flicked another and it skipped quite a few more times. The other kid was jumping up and down.
I turned my attention to Azriel who now had his back to the river and was concentrating on me.
“He’s not worthy of you. He didn’t fight for you. Didn’t try to protect you from me. Now it’s up to me to protect you. From him, if necessary.”
I was lightheaded, numb, with a sensation of tiny pins and needles rattling around inside my body. I wanted to curl up and close my eyes and hide from the world.
Azriel leaned back down and took my chin into his grasp, “Don’t. Don’t internalize that. This is his fault.
He’s
the loser. You’re worth way more than he could ever know. You are precious, priceless. Do you understand me? I’ll find out the truth for you because I really do think my uncle is somehow connected to your father because things aren’t adding up. I hope we can put this to bed once and for all and soon.”
“I’m supposed to just let you take over my whole life.” my voice was barely above a whisper.
“Yeah,” he answered simply.
“You’re mad at your father so you’re going to take it out on me. Go ahead. I can take it.” He waved his fingers at himself, giving me a ‘give me all you’ve got’ gesture.
“Mad at him? Sure, I’m mad at him but why shouldn’t I be mad at you, too? You’re mad at him for letting you have me when I had the chance to escape. But yet you took me. You. Took me. Do you realize how f****d up that is?”
“Mad at him? Sure, I’m mad at him but why shouldn’t I be mad at you, too? You’re mad at him for letting you have me when I had the chance to escape. But yet you took me. You. Took me. Do you realize how f****d up that is?”
“Lower your voice,” he warned.
I got up and stomped off down a trail. He followed me. I walked for a good five minutes until we were deep in the bush. Finally, I spun around to face him, almost colliding with him; he was so hot on my heels.
“You’ve played numerous mind games with me, you’ve been controlling, abusive, you’ve raped me, you have me under lock, key, and guard to keep me from escaping, you’ve threatened me with a gun, hit me with a belt, shall I go on? You hardly know me. You’re letting your uncle bribe you, I don’t know, into marrying someone you don’t even love just so you could claim what is rightfully yours. Someone you hardly know. I’m not as dense as you think. You’ve never even had a serious relationship and you’re a s****l deviant, by your own admission, and I’ve got the welts to prove it and now I have to … I have to… argh!” I wanted to kick a tree but I had flimsy flip flops on and it would hurt. He folded his arms over his chest.
The lack of an outlet to take out my frustration made my rage level spike further, “I’ve been dragged into this with not a care for the fact that I had a life. People don’t own people. That’s so f****d.” I started to weep. I started to weep almost uncontrollably. I leaned back against a tree and slid down to the dirty ground. There were mosquitoes swarming my face. I whacked at them haphazardly. Azriel crouched in front of me.