Royal Prick (A Stepbrother Romance #2)(44)

“Royal has nothing to do with this. The fight was all me. I’m the one that didn’t just walk about. He only tried to stop me. You should be thanking him if anything.” I was certain she was blinded by her own personal rage toward him. She probably didn’t even hear a word I just said because she was too busy thinking about all the ways she could pin something on Royal, or find another reason I wasn’t good enough. My mother wanted me to be something that I wasn’t, and all I wanted was to be me. To be free like a sparrow soaring through the night sky.

“Royal has everything to do with this, and I don’t believe for a single damn second that he was trying to put an end to any fight. Fighting is all the punk knows how to do.” Pure hatred dripped from her words. The hate she had for Royal pissed me off more than the way she looked, acted, and treated me.

“No…” I pushed further in front of him, stepping into my mother’s face, and blocking his view of her, or what I could of it.

I couldn’t listen to her put blame on him anymore, not when her beef was with me. I was no longer the perfect child she wanted, and that had nothing to do with Royal. It had everything to do with me.

“Yes, Noelle. You’re blinded by his charm, but no worries, sweetie, because I can see him for the worthless piece of shit he is…” She was like a snake slithering through the grass, waiting to strike her victim blindly. “It’s really no wonder Mark left his mother for me.” There it was, the strike, the venom sinking into Royal’s body. I couldn’t do anything to stop him as he pushed past me and got straight into my mother’s face.

“You don’t get to talk about me or my mother.” The Royal I grew to know was gone, and in his place was a much meaner, darker man. His fists were clenched so tightly at his sides that the veins in his arms bulged. He was holding himself back, but why?

To protect you.

“It’s the truth, Royal. Have you ever asked your father why he is with me and not your mother?” My mother baited him. Did I want Royal to lay her out?

“That’s enough, Viviana, he doesn’t know the whole truth yet and you have no f*cking right speaking to my son the way you are. You are doing nothing but trying to instigate a fight.” Mark’s voice forced all of us to swing our attention to him, still Royal didn’t care if his father heard what he had to say.

“I don’t give a f*ck what you think you have that my mother doesn’t, didn’t, or whatever...” he seethed. Viviana knew exactly what wounds were fresh on him, and she did whatever she could to sink her teeth into them. Maybe that very thought was what made me stop her from her assault against him or maybe I finally realized that I actually cared about Royal on a deeper level than I previously thought.

“You got what you wanted seventeen years ago, Viv. I’m here with you and Noelle, but the next time I hear you speak to either of my children the way you just did I will take them both and leave you here.” It was Mark’s turn to lose his temper now, and in all the years I knew him I couldn’t think of one time I have ever seen him so angry over something, and especially not toward my mother.

Despite the fact that my mom deserved all the anger directed at her I knew I had to get Royal out of here before the shit storm got deeper.

“Enough!” I screamed at all three of them, feeling as deflated as a balloon. Royal didn’t even glance at me as I pulled him away from my mother and his father. The look of pure satisfaction that lingered on my mother’s face said she thought won this argument, even though Royal’s father came in and forced her to shut her yap.

“Hitting him where it hurts most isn’t okay, for f*ck’s sakes he’s your stepson. Your husband’s child, and all you can seem to think about is throwing him under the bus and degrading him until he loses his shit with you. I mean, what kind of grown-ass woman treats a person that way?” I had to question her, because the question itself was burning a hole in my head. The fire that Royal sparked months ago was threatening to overtake me.

“Do you not see that this isn’t about him, but about the fact that you’re so f*cking hard on me? You want me to be someone I’m not, and Royal being here threatens that precious hold you have on me.” I ran a hand through my hair in frustration and continued on with what I was saying. I needed to get it all out in the open and finally say everything that I have been holding in for the past couple of years.

“If you want to be mad at someone, make it me. If you want to hurt someone, lash out at me. But do not hurt Royal for bringing something to the surface that was already there. I’ve hated you for a very long time, he just helped me become more aware of it.” I could feel a shift in the air as I spoke. If you lit a match, everything within ten feet would blow up. I focused my attention on my mother, watching as her face contorted in anger, her cheeks growing red with embarrassment.

“You’re an ungrateful little bitch!” she growled, her hand reaching out and yanking on a few loose strands of my hair. I didn’t even have a chance to react because Mark stepped in.

“Let go of her right now!” Mark shouted, his large hand wrapping around her body in a firm grip, forcing her to release her hold on my hair. Royal took that moment to grab me, forcing my body behind his so he could get in my mother’s face.

“It’s you, that’s ungrateful,” Royal spat. My chest ached as I watched the raging inferno that was his emotions take hold.