Royal Prick (A Stepbrother Romance #2)(45)

“It’s you that will pay for hurting all those that I love.” The bleak look in his eyes scared me. “It’s you that’s wrong,” he growled, a rumbling forming in his chest.

My mother’s expression morphed into fear. She was afraid of him, and for some reason that made me happy.

“You will be going back to your whore of a mother. I refuse to allow a pathetic criminal like you to continue to stay in this house and around my daughter!” I couldn’t move, the air in my chest stilled as I waited for Royal’s response. Mark rolled his eyes, as if he was done with her shit a long time ago.

It was then that the words Mark spoke just minutes ago hit me.

You got what you wanted seventeen years ago…

It all made sense now, the reason why Royal hated me in the beginning had nothing to do with me as a person but more so what he thought I had caused. He thought I was the reason his parents were no longer married. The reason his dad left and he never had a father figure in his life.

“Good! Do it, because mark my words, Viviana, I will find a way back here. You’re nothing to my father. I’m his son, and I can easily have you replaced. In fact, I will have you replaced.” I’ve heard so much hate being spoken by a person. The anger and rage that was fueling inside of him terrified me. He didn’t just hate my mom, he completely despised her.

“If that were the case your father wouldn’t have left you or your mother all those years ago. Truthfully he doesn’t give a shit about you, or haven’t you realized that yet,” my mother mocked.

“Viv, that’s uncalled for. You know for certain that I tried for many years to contact him.” I could see the anxiety in Mark’s features, but it was too late. Viviana landed the last and final blow to Royal. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to walk away forever.

Royal looked as if he could murder someone as he whipped around, his body shoving past me. My mother’s words caused even more rage to radiate from him; his shoulder slammed into mine, allowing a spark of energy to transfer between us. It was a shock of heat, and flames of fire flickered in his darkened eyes.

“Is this what you wanted, Noelle?” my mother questioned me as the sound of Royal walking away echoed loudly in my ears. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t me he was walking away from, but my mother.

“What I wanted and what you got are two very different things. Hurting Royal, me, even Mark won’t make you feel any better in the long run, and I know you might be pretty on the outside but you’re nothing but a cold, desolate, heartless person on the inside. You’ll end up completely alone and miserable if you keep carrying on with your life like this.”

The fight that was in me was fading. I couldn’t keep going on and on with her about these things. It was pointless. All she ever spoke of was lies. Lies she told just to make herself feel better and tear other people down. All she was good at was spewing hate and demanding perfection from everyone around her. The person she expected me to be and the person I wanted to be were just not the same people, and I was done trying to please her, trying to be what she wanted.

“He will do nothing but hurt you. Break you down, Noelle. I know the type of person he is. He’s violent,” she cried as Mark held her in place. There was a change to her voice, almost a sound of utter defeat.

I shook my head laughing as I started to walk away.

“Are you insane, Mom? That is all you have done to me my entire life. It isn’t Royal that hurts me or tries to break me down; it’s you!” I yelled but kept going.

“Royal makes me feel accepted, like the person I am is all I ever need to be. He makes me feel whole for the first time in my life,” I said and for the first time I realize how absolutely true those words were.

Royal makes me whole.

“You’re making the biggest mistake of your life following that boy. Look at what he just did to me?” She was playing the victim, and it didn’t sit well with me.

“That’s just it. You’re delusional if you think it was Royal that was in the wrong here. All Royal did was give back exactly what you dished out! Just because you think you’re better than him, or better than even me doesn’t mean that it’s more right for you to do something. Look at yourself! Take a long look in the mirror before you start passing judgement around like it’s a dish to be served at dinner.” I turned on her, taking notice of the pity tears that started to fall from her eyes. I couldn’t look or feel an ounce of pity for her. Not when she brought all of this on herself.

“Everything would be better off without you around, since none of us live up to your expectations anyway. Why don’t you just leave? Forget about all of us and go find that perfect life you so badly want.”

She sniffled, pretending even further that she was hurt by the things we said.

“I should have aborted you like your father had told me to. My life would have been so much better if I hadn’t been stuck with your ungrateful ass.” I realized as soon as she spoke such hateful things to me that I should’ve been reeling with anger. That I should have been hurting. Crying even.

Her words should have stung at the very f*cking least, but they didn’t. I knew that if a mother could feel that way about their child then they didn’t deserve to have them.

“Maybe you should have then.” I swallowed around the lump that had formed in my throat and the achiness that consumed the muscles in my chest. I wasn’t so much hurt at the thought of losing Viviana as I was with the realization that she never actually cared about me. She never actually loved me.