73

NORA

His tapping halted as soon as the words tumbled from my lips. It was pretty obvious that whatever had happened between Liam and his father was a soft topic for him. I wondered if I’d overstepped when he went a full two minutes without saying a word, but then he sighed and my heart resumed its functions.

“You found the letter from him,” he said. It wasn’t a question. I frowned but nodded. I had always thought the letter was addressed to his father and not the other way around.

“I did,” I answered when I realized he couldn’t see me. The journey wasn't as long ahead of us, but the confines of the vehicle gave us enough time and space to speak freely.

Liam’s handsome face was marred by tension. Perhaps I shouldn’t have asked that. Maybe it was too touchy of a subject to brooch? I opened my mouth to tell him it was fine, but he’d already started talking.

“My mom was very young when she met and married my father. "He was this hotshot businessman’s son that her father had wanted her to marry by all means.” Liam’s eyes seemed far away, almost like he had been thrust back in time to the years before he was born. I listened with bated breath and rapt attention, eager to not let a word slip past me.

“Mom was even so much prettier as a young woman and Dad was completely enamored by her. "She was only eighteen at the time and didn’t know shit about marriage, but the thought of being with a man like Ford Carter was life-changing,” he turned a bend, foot pushing the pedal to the floor.

“They got married, had me and everything seemed perfect. Until one day he lost a contract, came back home drunk, and suddenly obsessed with breaking the beautiful woman in his life,” the storm of darkness" was evident in Liam’s eyes as he spoke. Clearly, this was a very touchy subject for him.

I had a feeling I knew where the conversation was going. I hadn’t been in abusive relationships, but I knew what happened when a man decided the woman in his home would feel the heat of his life going to shit.

Still, when the next words tumbled out of Liam’s lips, a shocked gasp escaped my throat. He would…he would hit her. Every single time. And she just stayed with him. Two years after she had me, Mark came along. "Things changed a bit, but he soon got tired of slapping mom around and then turned to me…”

My heart felt like it stopped. I felt the tears pool in my eyes. Liam’s father abused him too? I would’ve never imagined. He was so impassive, so rigid, and he never let anyone in. How could he keep all of this to himself for decades? My heart bled for this man. This man was forced to watch his father assault his mother and then move on to him.

“Liam,” my voice was soft. He’d placed a hand on the console between us and I intertwined my fingers with his, offering comfort with the little rubs on the back of his palm. The tension in his body seemed to relax, so I kept at it.

“You don’t have to say anything else,” I told him, meaning it. The last thing I wanted was to open up old wounds.

But his resolve was clear: “It’s fine, Nora. "It feels good to talk about it,” he threw me a soft smile, “plus you spilled your guts on me the very first time we met, remember?”

A small laugh bubbles in my throat at the reminder of that fateful day. The day I thought I would die in a plane crash while trying to escape the brutal reliance my ex had painted me.

“I was kind of glad, you know? "At least he didn’t have to hit my mom as much,” he shrugged.I would always show up to school with a shiner and the occasional broken rib. Everyone thought I was this kid who got into many street fights and I kind of embraced the persona.”

“That’s terrible. No one ever cared to ask?”

“Not even the teachers. "I was labeled a bad boy and everyone stayed away from me. "I kind of didn’t mind, to be honest. "Made me the brooding mastermind I am today,” he joked.

But I wasn’t in the mood to laugh. Not at the expense of a preteen Liam going through shit at home with no one to open up to about it. I never stopped massaging soft circles into his hand. Part of me felt bad that I wasn’t there to help, that I was having an amazing time with my family when the man I was destined to love was going through hell.

“How long did this go on for?” I asked instead.

“Not sure. But it stopped when I was in my junior year of high school.” All traces of humor vanished from his face. The fucker passed away, and I was the one to find him,”

Good riddance.

“How did he die?”

Liam hesitated for the first time since he began talking, sparing me a quick glance before finally responding, “Mark stabbed him,”

~

My mouth fell open and closed like a fish out of water. The soft circles I was rubbing on Liam’s hand faltered, and I could feel my fingers trembling.

“What?” I finally asked.

There was a grimace on Liam’s face when he said, “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have dropped that on you like that,”

“No, no. It’s just a little shocking. Mark is so prim and proper. He’s a lawyer for goodness’ sake. "I would’ve never imagined he’d do such a thing,”

“Well, difficult times call for absurd measures,” he shrugged his shoulders, like he didn’t just tell me his brother killed their father.

I mean, I get that he was abusive, but…wow. This was a lot.

Liam sensed my hesitation and the fact that I had stopped caressing his skin. So, he flipped our hands over so he was the one holding onto my hand. He resumed my earlier movements.

“It’s okay, Nora. He did it in self-defense. Dad was very heavy-handed, but he also liked to use a belt. I’d tried to protect Mark from the harsh reality of our father’s true nature, but I just wasn’t as good of a protector as I thought.” He sighed. But Mark wasn't like me. He couldn’t take the constant assault and when he found an opening, he took it,”

“That is one crazy family lore,” I said. He also explained why Mark held his brother in high esteem. He’d once told me Liam meant everything to him because he’d protected him from so much. I had assumed he meant bullies and heartbreak, but the reality was much grimmer.

Liam shrugged his shoulders and threw me an amused glance. “I’d say it’s a good riddance to bad rubbish. Don’t you think so?”

I sighed. “Well, I guess. He was a shitty father and deserved what came to him,”

“Cheers to that,”

Liam agreed as he finally slowed down in front of an estate.