bullied (Possessed #0.5) (8 page)

“I love you, too,” she whimpered as he pulled away.

“I know you do, sweets.” His smile, those dimples, a shiver ran up her spine at their effect.

A throat-clearing behind them had her pulling away. There they stood; his parents. With huge smiles on their faces. “Now that you’ve basically said we don’t matter, how about you introduce us to this gorgeous, young woman, Landon,” his mother said laughingly.

“Mom, Dad, this is Cecilia. Sweets, these are my folks Matthew and Rosa Powers.” As they walked up to his parents, she could see they were amused by the way she freaked out and not at all angry about it. She relaxed a little as they pulled her in for a hug of welcome instead of a stuffy handshake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” Smiling, they all went inside.

“Your sister will be here soon,” Matthew announced.

She tried not to show outwardly how much that terrified her, but Landon must have felt her stiffen at his father’s words because he looked at her strangely. Placing a fake smile on her face, she knew things were about to get ugly.

As they walked into the house, she lost her breath at the beauty. Decorated with Victorian-style furniture, she immediately fell in love with their home.

“This is beautiful,” she whispered in awe.

The front door opened up into a family room filled with two big chunky royal blue chairs. The spindling on the wood was phenomenal and the craftsmanship, flawless. A matching sofa was placed evenly in the middle of them with a large oak trunk for a coffee table.

“Matthew took me to an auction about twenty years ago; I got them for a mint. I was lucky, too, because they were easily worth five times the amount I paid for them,” Rosa explained to her.

“Really? May I sit?” she asked unsure if they were for show or comfort.

Laughing, Rosa motioned for her to have a seat.

As soon as she sat on the over-stuffed sofa, it molded to her body. The blue fabric was soft as silk on her hands. Rosa quickly went on to explain about having to re-stuff it a few times over the years, and how once she nearly had to replace the fabric – which was the original from 1754 – because Landon had spilled grape juice on it when he was seven. His laughter had them both shooting him a dirty look before she started talking about its history.

It didn’t take long before all of her anxiety vanished and she was immersed in Rosa’s stories about her favorite pieces of furniture around her home. Like a gorgeous ceramic vase that was made by her great, great, great-grandmother and had been passed down to each generation. The white wash with the stunning, vibrant red rose wrapped around was exquisite. She explained that every few decades the paint had to be refreshed to keep the vibrancy, so it was unlikely that any of the original paint was on it but the design was always the same.

So absorbed in Rosa’s storytelling, she didn’t realize anyone else had entered the house until she heard Ashley bellow, “What the hell is she doing here?”

“Ashley!” Matthew admonished her.

“Hell, no! That freak has got to go! Or did Landon not tell you she’s the reason he won’t speak to me and has cut my credit cards off?” She hissed with so much hatred in her voice, Cecilia shrunk in her seat.

For the first time since she arrived, Landon’s parents looked at her with a less than friendly expression. She was as shocked as they were about Ashley’s confession. Landon hadn’t mentioned his sister to her at all in the last two days. Not since he’d picked her up from college that day.

“Landon?” Rosa whispered horrified.

Standing up, she looked to Ashley first then her parents, saying, “I should go. It was lovely to meet you.”

“Oh no, you don’t, sweets,” Landon snapped. Gripping her arm, he pulled her to his chest before addressing his family. “How about you tell them why, Ashley?”

Cecilia’s face was buried in his chest so she couldn’t see what was going on, but the quiet was so deafening you could hear a pin drop.

“What?” Ashley spat, feigning innocence.

“Really? You’re gonna go with ignorance?” Landon demanded to know.

“Not my fault she’s a klutz.” Ashley actually seemed to laugh at that. At the pain Cecilia suffered from her actions.

She heard a growl deep from Landon’s chest as he lost it. “A fucking klutz? Yeah, maybe because you got some douche bag to trip her and then you both decided it was a good idea to use her as a stepping stone, kicking her as much as possible on your way. Or did you forget I was there in the aftermath? That I have the medical reports? Please, Ash, explain that.”

“Ashley Rose!”

“Oh please, Mother. You should have seen the pathetic way he fell all over himself for her. I mean look at her! She’s ugly! Those scars are hideous and right across her face? I can’t believe you guys don’t see this.”

The shock felt around the room reverberated through her veins. She’d never known Ashley had so much hate for her. They’d gone to school together and while Ashley had always been mean and dismissive, she’d never full-on hated her let alone assaulted her this way.

Tears flowed heavily from her eyes as Landon told his parents, “Until Ashley can be respective of my woman, a woman whom I plan to spend my life loving, we will never be in the same room as her again. I’m sorry, Mom. Dad, you’d do the same and you know it.”

Pulling back from him, tears steadily falling down her face, she looked into his eyes amazed he would try and do this for her but she wouldn’t allow it. “No, Landon. I’ll leave. I won’t do this to your family.”

Fighting her way from his arms, she went to leave when Rosa shouted, “Wait just a damn minute, young lady!” She stopped in her tracks— that mother voice would freeze the devil himself.

“Ashley Rose Powers, what the hell has gotten into you?” Rosa demanded. “What do you have against this sweet girl?” Cecilia still couldn’t turn around.

“I’ve gone to school with her my entire life, Mother. She’s like a dog you can’t put down out of pity.”

She did turn then, slowly. “What?” Cecilia could barely breathe.

Do people really think that about me?

“Oh please, don’t act so shocked.”

“Why?”

Ashley seemed taken aback by her question. She’d never spoken more than a dozen words to the other woman in her life. Refusing to acknowledge the insults she’d always spewed.

“You honestly don’t know, do you?” Landon asked Ashley with disgust.

Shooting Cecilia a nasty look, Ashley whipped around so fast that no one had time to stop her as she slammed out the door followed by a frustrated scream.

A hand on her shoulder startled her into jumping away from the unwanted contact. Glancing behind her, she saw Matthew with a sad look in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Cecilia,” he murmured quietly. His gaze moving to the door that his daughter had just stormed out of. “We had no idea.”

Years of frustration and anger welled inside her.
How did they not know?
She’d been dealing with Ashley’s crap since she was ten-years-old. Her own parents had made numerous phone calls over the years before they passed away. Most of them had been because of how cruel Ashley’s words had always been.

“How? How did you not know? She has been bullying me since we were ten years old. Do you know the name she calls me? Mark me crazy… You know why? The scars. This one,” she pointed to the one on her cheek, “was so much worse ten years ago. It used to pull my eye down and my lip up at a crazy angle. At first, she only called me crazy marks, but then when we were fourteen a boy liked me, I refused to sleep with him and cried when he tried to force me. The two of them came up with the new name ‘Mark me crazy’.”

Out of breath, she looked to Landon to see anger so intense cross his features that she took a step back. His parent’s faces were pale with shock, and she was ready to get sick.

Hearing Cecilia let go of her anger infuriated him. Not because she was finally getting it out, even if it was at his parents, but because he’d never known either. He knew Ashley and her had history, but he had no idea just how much.

He could remember the phone calls about Ashley bullying some kid, but he hadn't known it was his goddess. She’d suffered so much in her short life. First, the accident that forever marked her, then the relentless bullying, her parents’ death, and now she was faced with her tormentor for the rest of her life because he’d become infatuated with her and had no plans on ever letting her go.

When she finally stopped to take a breath, she looked at him and must have misunderstood his anger because she took a step back. He was angry for her, not at her. But she wouldn’t know that and at the moment, he was at a loss as to how to explain how pissed he was at the whole system for their laws on bullying. How much he hated that his parents didn’t do more to get Ashley to stop her torment. Pissed that he hadn’t looked into more himself.

“Sweets,” he whispered as softly as he could manage.

Walking up to her, he wrapped her in his arms again. A place where she had said she felt safest. A place where he knew she was safe. In his arms, she never had to fear anything.

Turning her in his direction, he grabbed her face in both hands tilting her head up to meet his gaze and told her roughly, “I am so fucking sorry, Cec. I’m sorry we didn’t know it was you. I’m sorry that it was you. But mostly, I’m fucking sorry as hell I didn’t find you sooner.”

Lowering his head, he placed his lips on hers in a light kiss meant to soothe her. Pouring everything he felt into the light touch, he hoped she understood just how much she’d come to mean to him in the short time they’d known each other.

Fuck anyone who thought love at first sight was bullshit; he was living it with an intensity that often left him light-headed.

“I don’t blame you, Landon. I’m just shocked that she thinks that about me. That my life can mean so little to someone who has no idea about the things I’ve gone through. In all the years she’s been tormenting me, not once did I wish her to be ‘put down like a dog’.” His breath caught in misery upon her repetition of his sister’s words, and hand to God, he had tears in his eyes for her pain. He felt it as though it were his own.

Kissing her lightly on the head, he felt movement on either side of him as his parents joined their small moment.

“Cecilia, please. I am so sorry. A parent only ever wants to protect their child and in protecting ours, we’ve let you down. Please don’t leave dear; we want you here. Things with our daughter will figure themselves out,” his mother told her.

As Cecilia nodded her head and gave a watery smile, his father told her, “You will always be welcome in our home, sweetheart, never doubt that. You make this hard-headed fool boy of mine smile and that’s the only thing we could ever want.”

“Thank you both. That means a lot to me. One day, I hope Ashley and I can find some sort of peace.”

Hugging Cecilia, his mother joked, “Let’s eat! All this emotion has me craving cupcakes!”

“That sounds wonderful.” Cecilia smiled, wiping the tears from her eyes.

A week later, as promised, Landon had Cecilia set up with new courses, deciding to do online for now. She lost a part of herself those last couple of days after meeting him. Being physically assaulted was something she’d never expected to happen and it played tricks with her mind. She began to have nightmares, replaying it over in her mind, hearing the cruel laughter and snarky words.

Landon, thankfully, had been there for her every night. Calming her fears, chasing the lingering pain away. She felt safe in his arms. In his life, she felt whole. Every day since the night they had dinner with his parents, he’d been trying to convince her to move in with him. While she hadn’t gone home for anything more than clothes or other small things, her roommate’s nasty remarks because Landon paid her no attention had made the decision to leave easier on Cecilia.

They still hadn’t heard from Ashley, and she knew that weighed heavily on Landon’s mind because she was his little sister and he loved her. But he was hopeful she was using the time to reevaluate her life and priorities. That maybe this was a wake-up call for her.

As she lit candles around the room and spread rose petals on every surface, she tried to mentally prepare herself for the onslaught she knew was coming from Landon as soon as she told him she was ready... ready to have everything with him.