‘Olivia, baby.’
I feel an electric shock fly through my body as her soft touch meets my arm. It has my small frame bucking again in Carl’s hold, except this time I manage to free myself.
‘Gracie, leave her!’ Carl roars as I bolt from behind the bar, my legs instantly numb from the speed I’ve achieved so quickly. I can think of nothing except escaping. Get out of here. Run away. I make it to the bar door and take the corner quickly, just catching her coming after me, but then William appears from nowhere and blocks her.
‘Gracie!’ William’s tone is oozing threat as he fights to hold her back. ‘You stupid woman!’
‘Don’t let her go!’ she yells. ‘Please, don’t let her go!’ I can hear the anguish in her voice, see the terror on her beautiful face as it disappears from my view when I round the corner. I can see it. But I don’t feel it. I can only feel my own hurt, anger, confusion, and I can’t cope with any of it. I return my focus forward and pelt for the doors that’ll take me away from this hellhole, but I’m suddenly not moving anymore, and the sensation of my legs working but the door not coming any closer takes a while to sink in past the distress consuming me.
‘Olivia, I’m here.’ Miller’s soothing words are whispered quietly into my ear, but however hushed they are, I hear him perfectly over the screaming alarms and frantic activity around me. ‘Shhhh.’
I whimper and turn, throwing my arms around him and holding on for dear life. ‘Help me,’ I sob into his shoulder. ‘Take me away, please.’ I feel my feet leave the ground, feel myself held secure against his chest.
‘Shhhh.’ He cups the back of my head, pushing my face into the comfort of his neck as he starts to pace away. His strides are purposeful. I can feel the panic in me beginning to subside, just from being immersed in his thing. ‘We’re leaving, Olivia. I’m getting you away from here.’
My dead muscles come to life under his fierce hold of me and his calming tones, and I squeeze my appreciation, no words forming to voice it. I’m vaguely aware of the blaring sirens cutting abruptly, but I’m more than aware of footsteps pounding behind us. Two pairs of pounding feet. And neither are Miller’s.
‘Don’t take her away from me!’
I swallow hard and push my face farther into Miller’s neck as he ignores my mother’s demand and marches on.
‘Gracie!’ William’s bellow dilutes the stamping of feet, making Miller’s stride falter slightly, but my head shaking into him soon kicks him back into top gear. ‘Gracie, damn it! Leave her!’
‘No!’
We’re suddenly jerked to a stop and Miller growls, swinging around to confront my mother. ‘Let go of my arm,’ he hisses, his tone bursting with the same level of threat that I’ve heard him use on others. The fact that this woman is my mother is of no consequence to Miller. ‘I won’t repeat myself.’ He remains still, obviously waiting for her to let go rather than yanking himself from her grip.
‘I’m not letting you take her.’ Gracie’s resolute voice puts the fear of God in me. I can’t face her. I don’t want to face her. ‘I need to talk to her. Explain so many things.’
Miller begins to pulsate against me, and it’s in this moment I fully comprehend my situation. He’s looking at my mother. He’s looking at the woman who abandoned me. ‘She’ll talk to you when she’s ready,’ he says quietly, but there’s no mistaking the warning laced in his words. ‘If she’s ready.’
I feel his face turn into the side of my head and his lips push into my hair, breathing in deeply. He’s reassuring me. He’s telling me I’m going to be doing nothing that I don’t want to do. And I love him so much for it.
‘But I need to talk to her now.’ Determination is rife in her tone. ‘She needs to know—’
Miller loses it in the blink of an eye. ‘Does she look ready to talk to you?’ he roars, making me jump in his arms. ‘You abandoned her!’
‘I had no choice.’ My mother’s words are shaky, her emotion obvious. Yet I feel no empathy, and I wonder right now if that makes me inhuman. Heartless. No, I have a heart, and it’s pounding in my chest right now, reminding me of her cruel actions all those years ago. My heart has no room for Gracie Taylor. It’s too consumed by Miller Hart.
‘We all have choices,’ Miller says, ‘and I’ve made mine. I’d walk through the bowels of hell for this girl, and I am. You didn’t. That’s what makes me worthy of her love. That’s what makes me deserve her.’
My sobs return full force as a result of his admission. Knowing he loves me fills the emptiness within me with pure, powerful gratitude. Hearing him confirm that he thinks he’s worthy of my love makes it all overflow.
‘You self-righteous arsehole,’ Gracie seethes, that Taylor sass flying up to support her.
‘Gracie, darling,’ William pipes up.
‘No, Will! I left to prevent her from being subjected to the depravity I faced. I’ve skipped from country to country for eighteen years, killing myself on a daily basis that I couldn’t be with her. That I couldn’t be a mum! I’ll be damned if he’s going to strut into her life and toss every painful moment I’ve endured all these years to shit!’
That statement registers loud and clear through my crippling agony. Her pain? Her fucking pain? My need to jump from Miller’s arms and slap her face sends me momentarily dizzy with anger, but Miller pulls a long, steady breath of air and flexes his arm around my waist, distracting me from my intention. He knows. He knows what those words have done to me. He shifts a palm to the back of my leg and tugs in a sign for me to respond, so I wrap my thighs around his waist in acknowledgement, and maybe for my mother’s benefit.