HIS DOE, HIS DAMNATION (An Erotic Billionaire Romance) novel Chapter 135

Alaric’s POV:

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting Meadow to say to me. But anything would’ve been less surprising than this.

Anything

“What?” I pulled back to look at her properly–at the wild look in her eyes, the tears that had gathered but refused to fall. “What do you mean you killed your mother? Why would you say that?”

“…” Meadow’s bottom lip quivered. “I can’t… I didn’t know how to tell you so I just-“Her breathing turned shallow, and with the way she was trying not to cry, I could tell that she was about to have a panic attack.

My chest tightened. “Hey, hey, look at me, baby,” I rasped, gently gripping her chin so she was looking at me.” I’m here, alright? There’s nothing you need to be scared of. You can tell me anything. You know that.”

Meadow nodded fiercely as tears slowly slid down her cheeks. “I know, I just-”

“Want me to take you home so we can talk about it?” I asked, pushing her hair away from her delicate face. I wasn’t sure of a lot of things, but one thing I was sure of was that Meadow didn’t kill her mother.

A trauma like that would’ve been too heavy for her to carry.

“Mm mm,” she hummed, shaking her head. “I came here to talk to you about it.”

My brows raised in question.

“Talk to me, then.”

And she did.

“She tried to kill me once,” she started. “Nearly two years after my father was thrown in prison, my mother tried to poison me.”

My entire body stilled. “What?”

Meadow nodded, sniffing before burying her head into my chest again. “She blamed me for everything. Somehow, it was my fault that my father embezzled funds and swindled money off of people, my fault that he killed a man, my fault that he was arrested.” She laughed bitterly as I stroked her hair. “My mother hated me so much, she thought she and Juniper would be better off without me. And so, she slipped something into the meal the housekeeper prepared for me. But Juniper-”

She broke off, shoving out a breath. “Juniper snatched the food from me and ate almost all of it before I even got to the dining table. She nearly died, but luckily, the housekeeper was around and she called the medics. They were able to flush the toxins out of her system, but my mother never forgave herself for that. Or me.”

“Fuck.” My chest tightened. My heart hurt for my wife. She had been through so much as a child, it was a miracle she ended up being someone so kind and reserved and passionate.

A fucking miracle.

“Yeah.” Her voice was lower than a whisper. And then she proceeded to tell me everything else from peeking into the bathroom and seeing her mother swallow a bunch of pills, to Juniper overhearing her conversation with the police officers after just getting discharged from the hospital.

And all of a sudden, it all made sense. The way Meadow always got so defensive about her sister, the way her only defense was “She’s my sister.” The way she took everything Juniper lashed out on her, the way she let her break her heart over and over and over again.

There was no difference between the way Meadow felt and how Nolan used to feel.

She wanted to be punished. She thought she deserved to be punished.

My sweet angel…

“Baby…”

“I know what you’re going to say,” she cut in softly. “You’re going to tell me it’s not my fault. That I didn’t kill my mother, but the truth of the matter is that I did. If only I’d stopped her. If only I’d called the paramedics or cried out for the housekeeper, maybe my mother would’ve still-”

“Been alive?” I murmured as my thumb slowly caressed her cheeks. “She’d have been alive, and what then? Tried to kill you again? Maybe a few more times until she succeeded?”

Her breath hitched, eyes widening. “I—”

“Meadow, your parents hated you, and the one person who was supposed to be your ride or die…” I trailed off, letting the silence do the talking. “I want you to believe me when I say that nothing that happened is your fault. You’re the victim here. Not them. You. And you don’t deserve anything your lunatic sister has ever thrown at you.”

She was shaking her head, like she was trying to disagree with me.

My hand drifted down to her waist, the other tilting her head up to face me. “Why won’t you believe me? Why don’t you want to accept it, Meadow? Why won’t you agree that it’s not your fault?”

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