Oh God.
I couldn’t handle it.
Her story that felt far too familiar.
The debased, despicable man whose soul was set on desolation.
“Maggie,” I whimpered, holding my stomach.
Without looking up, she held one of her hands out toward me, as if she were asking me not to say anything until she could get it out.
Her grief so strong.
Unrelenting in the space.
“He forced me, Emily.” Her words turned haggard, grating whimpers. “Forced me. The whole time, he kept saying it was Royce’s fault. Like he had a right. And then . . . he . . . ”
Her fingertips went up to rake at a spot on her collarbone. “He cut me. Marked me. Told me that I belonged to him.”
A shiver of revulsion rocked through her.
She tugged down her shirt to show me the angry X that was almost a perfect match to the one I bore on my hip.
My hand went to my mouth and a tear slipped from the corner of my eye.
But Maggie . . . they were pouring down her face.
“Cory just . . . left me there on the floor,” she continued, barely able to speak. “Bleeding and crying and sure that I was going to die.”
Her teeth raked over her quivering bottom lip. “Royce found me. I can barely remember anything at that point . . . I was going in and out of coherency. Completely in shock. I just remember him coming through the door and finding me crumpled on the floor. The roar that came out of him before he rushed in to gather me up in his arms.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “I woke up in the hospital the next day. My father was there . . . sitting in the chair beside me.”
A tremor rolled through her body. “I just remember . . . remember the coldness that had taken to the room, this feeling that nothing in my life was ever going to be the same. He was so casual, Emily. So callously casual and matter-of-fact while I lay there in that hospital bed. He’d said that Royce had been arrested for attempted murder after an assault on Cory Douglas. An unprovoked assault.”
I was trapped by her unwavering gaze, by the truth of what she was trying to convey.
“I’d tried to tell him what happened. I’d begged him. Told him he was wrong. Pleaded with him to believe me. He just pushed to his feet and leaned over me, his voice hard and frigid.”
Hers went distant, her eyes pinching at the corners with her own heartbreak.
Her own betrayal.
“My father told me that I’d been carrying a glass down the stairs the night before. That I tripped and it broke and I cut myself. He said that was it. There was nothing more to it. Then he walked out. My own father, Emily. And my brother served a three-year sentence because he was the only one who was willing to stand up and defend me.”
Agony clawed. So sharp, sinking in, ripping me to shreds. I was trying not to weep.
For Maggie.
For Royce.
Only she wasn’t finished, and I didn’t know how much more I could take.
“A month after he was convicted, my brother’s wife filed for divorce and petitioned the court for his parental rights to be revoked. Royce was deemed a danger to his family. I’m sure my father paid off the judge to make sure it went through. It wasn’t too long after that she and Cory started showing up in pictures together.”
Oh God.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Cory took everything from him, Emily. His wife. His child. His band. His freedom.”
“Royce.” I couldn’t stop the whimper from fleeing through my lips.
Maggie wrung her fingers, cleared some of the roughness from her voice. “When he was released, he was offered a job at Mylton Records as head of A & R, but he was written in as second-in-line. It was the one good thing my mother ever did for either of us, but I’m pretty sure she only did it to absolve her of a little of the guilt she felt for going along with what my father demanded. I always knew Royce had a plan. He’d promised me he would finish what he started, but that it would take time to take down an empire that strong.”
A shiver rocked my soul.
This was where I’d become a tool. A puppet in his intricate play.
She must have caught my reaction because she angled her head, a frown pinching her brow.
“After all that, Emily . . . after everything the two of us had been through . . . could you imagine when my brother went to Atlanta to sign an up-and-coming band, a band called Carolina George, and he discovered Cory Douglas attacking their singer? Using her the same way he’d used his sister? He’d lose his mind, wouldn’t he?”