with the weight of the memory. The horrible memory of the day Liv ran away at thirteen, hopped on a bus, and showed up at their father’s house for the summer visit he’d promised.
“All those years, he’d been lying to us, telling us that he just didn’t have time or space for us, and instead . . .” She shrugged. “It was a lie. He had a massive house. He just didn’t want to fight with his new wife.” Who’d wanted nothing to do with them. Who’d refused to let them live there or visit.
Thea took Liv’s hands again. “I don’t understand. When did he say—”
“That I’m not worth the trouble? Before he put me back on a bus and sent me home.”
Thea paled. “You said you came home on your own. That he wasn’t even there when you showed up. That she was the only one there.”
“I didn’t want you to know.” Irony brought a sad laugh from her burning chest. “I lied.”
Thea’s face crumpled. “Oh, Liv. I’m so sorry.” And then suddenly rage replaced Thea’s sorrow. “God, I am so sick of us paying the price for our parents’ bullshit.” Thea dropped to her knees in front of Liv. “Listen to me. I almost lost Gavin because of the baggage that they saddled us with. Don’t lose Mack over it too.”
“This is different.”
“How?”
“I—it just is.”
Thea’s eyes managed to convey both pity and disappointment in a single glance. Liv hated both. She looked away. She couldn’t explain something to Thea that she barely understood herself.
Thea’s phone trilled softly with an incoming call. She pulled it from her pocket and looked at the screen. Her eyes immediately flew to Liv’s. “It’s him again.”
Liv’s stomach dropped. “Don’t answer it.”
“Liv, he’s so worried. He’s going crazy.”
“I—”
Thea answered at the last second. She didn’t bother with a greeting. “She’s here.”
Mack raced inside Thea’s house, his face stormy and his voice thunderous. He ignored Thea, palmed the back of Liv’s head, and crushed his mouth onto hers.
He pulled back just enough to rest his brow on hers. “Do you have any fucking idea how worried I’ve been?”
A squeak from near the stairs was his first indication of Thea’s presence.
“I’m going to just, uh, go upstairs, I think, and let you guys talk,” Thea said. Her feet beat a soft staccato up the stairs.
Mack ignored her as his scattered thoughts cataloged Liv’s appearance like puzzle pieces he couldn’t fit together. Red dress. Soul-shattering curves. Curly hair long and loose atop bare shoulders.
Eyes that had once gazed upon him with passion now stared with betrayal.
“Braden McRae,” she whispered.
His hands fell to his sides. “I don’t use that name anymore.”
“Why did you lie to me?”
Mack looked at the floor. “Because I’ve been lying to everyone for so long I didn’t know how to tell you the truth.” He lifted his gaze, and his heart shattered at her blank expression. “My father was an abusive alcoholic who used to beat my mother. Us too. My brother and me. We weren’t spared.”
A tear slipped down Liv’s cheek. “Oh, Mack. I’m sorry.”
Mack dragged a hand over his hair. “One night he got in a fight at a bar, and he killed a man. No remorse. Just nothing but anger. And then he came home and continued to take it out on her.”
His voice cracked, but he couldn’t stop. He wouldn’t, not until she knew everything. “The thing is, I was there when it happened. And I didn’t do anything. I was too scared to protect her. I grabbed my little brother and hid in the fucking closet like a goddamned coward until it was over, and by then, it was too late. I thought she was dead when I found her.”
Tears dripped from her chin. He wondered if she even knew she was crying.
“You asked me why I started reading romance.”
She nodded, sniffling.
“It was when she was in the hospital. I found one in the waiting room while she was in surgery.” He looked at Liv, but he didn’t really see her. His brain and mouth were no longer connected. The whole world wavered like he’d been dropped into the deep end of a pool. Everything was murky, thick, confusing. “I loved those stories. Not because of the sex, although”—he managed a sad laugh—“they really did teach me everything I know. I loved them because good people always won in those books. Men were always heroic, and if they weren’t, they got what was coming to them. Always.”