Of Water and Madness (39 page)

“If it hadn’t been then, it would have been another day, Liam,” she asserted, needing him to understand. “Vivica and Dante told me that they had caused the oil spill in an attempt to lure you away from Euphora. If you hadn’t gone, or if you’d been with your father, then they would have simply caused some other kind of distraction to drag you away. It was only a matter of time.”

“But I let her get to me, I let her use me to hurt you, to hurt everyone,” he reminded her, misery in his eyes. “After everything that we had gone through, all the progress we’d made together, I was going to lose it all because of them. It makes me sick to think of how you must have felt when you saw me in that stupid club, or every time after that with Vivica. I don’t know how you stayed put as long as you did.”

“I stayed because Capri needed me,” she said firmly. “Though really it was the wedding itself that did me in…”

“We were standing at the altar,” he said then, the memory flashing back to him suddenly. “You were across from me, wearing that dress…I remember feeling like I’d woken up or something just looking at you, and seeing you there had been almost like this great relief…”

“You called me Rhia,” she whispered, her throat tightening, choking off her breath. “It scared the living daylights out of me.”

“I remember that.” He frowned, searching through what little he could remember from those horrid days. “You looked at me as if you’d seen a ghost.”

She nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek miserably as she rubbed at her heart, the pain still echoing dully there. “And then it was as if it had never happened. Your face went blank and you smiled, but it wasn’t the same. God, I don’t know why I was in so much denial over it. That should have been the biggest indication…”

“Don’t,” he growled, grabbing her shoulders firmly and shaking her. “It doesn’t change anything now, so please don’t.”

She reached up to touch his face, knowing he was right. As she did so, he spotted the scarring wound on her hand where Dante had cut her, and seeing it staggered him.

Gripping her hand, he looked up from the healing cut to her eyes, seeing the hesitation in them. So far she’d been able to keep it from him, as if it hadn’t mattered. But, damnit, it did matter…

Releasing her hand, he let out the breath that had gotten stalled in his lungs moments before, running his hands through his hair and avoiding looking at her. She would never be able to understand, just couldn’t possibly fathom just how agonizing it had been to walk into that room and see her blood spilled on the floor, smeared over the walls…

“He was a monster, Liam,” she said, her serious eyes firm as they found his. “But he’s gone. He won’t ever be able to get to us again.”

In response, he simply pulled her against him and held her, needing to remember the truth behind those words. Dante was gone…it was done.

Somewhere nearby, someone cleared their throat in a polite attempt to interrupt. Liam turned around and saw his parents approaching, holding hands. His eyes widened at the sight of it, but he kept his mouth closed for fear that he was reading too far into what probably meant nothing…

“Hey there, boyo,” Lucian greeted, grinning ear-to-ear as he patted Liam on the back companionably. His eyes shifted to Rhiannon, and warmed as he nodded to her. “Nice day for a stroll through the gardens…don’t you think?”

“That’s where we were heading,” Liam told him, honing in on his mother. “You guys too?”

Clarity smiled at him timidly, as if she was unsure if he approved of her or not. “I think we all deserve a walk in the sunshine after the day we had yesterday.”

Because he couldn’t have agreed more, Liam smiled affectionately at her. “Thank you both for being there, it meant a lot.”

“You’re our son, how could we not be there?” Clarity said assertively, bristling a bit at the notion even as she glanced up at Lucian, who beamed at her before looking back at his son.

“She’s right, Liam. We would do anything for you.” He wrapped his arm around his wife and held her close, something Liam hadn’t seen him do in years.

“You guys look…happy,” Liam managed before he could stop himself, feeling oddly confused and pleased at the same time. He wanted to still be angry with his mother over everything that had happened before, but somehow things seemed different now…

“We are happy, aren’t we, love?” Lucian grinned down at Clarity, who smiled prettily up at him.

“It’s never too late to be happy,” she said simply.

Liam suddenly felt like he and Rhiannon were intruding on some kind of moment between his parents, so he motioned to her to continue on down the corridor.

“We’ll just let you two get going.” He waved absently and hurried Rhiannon along, unsure what to make of the situation that had just unfolded before them. Rhiannon started laughing as she fought to keep pace with him as he all but ran toward the doors that led to the back gardens, shoving them open and leading her out into the glorious morning sunlight.

“Liam, slow down.” She pulled back on his arm to stop him, wondering why he was acting so strangely. Sure, she knew what had been happening between his parents, she had witnessed it herself…but if they were happy now, then clearly they had come to some kind of resolution. “What’s wrong with you?”

Liam sighed and collapsed onto the top of the stone steps that led out into the wild blooming garden, waiting until she sat beside him to speak.

“That was just…weird.”

“Why?”

He shook his head, not even really knowing the answer. “It’s just that, I’ve never really seen them look at each other the way they just did, and I can’t seem to wrap my mind around it. It’s always been that they were like two separate people. Sure, they were my parents, but they weren’t a collective ‘parents’ the way most are. They were just like parent one and parent two. Does that make sense?”

“No.” She bit back a laugh as she studied him, amused that he was having such a hard time understanding what seemed so obvious and natural to her. “Look, I know how you feel in a way, because my parents were never very close either…but it shouldn’t upset you to see your mother and father actually acting like they love each other. It should make you happy.”

“It does,” he decided, turning to look at her. “Of course it does.”

“Then what?” She nudged him playfully with her shoulder, laughter in her eyes.

He took a deep breath, frowning as he fought to come to terms with everything… “I don’t know. Whatever, I should just be glad they’re happy, right?”

“Yes you should.” She leaned in to kiss his cheek, pleased to see him relax a bit. “My parents are working through their issues, too. They even slept in the same bed last night.”

Liam snorted and eyed her curiously. “How do you know that?”

“I saw them both come out of his room together this morning while you were still sleeping. They both scurried back inside like guilty children. It was actually quite amusing.” She grinned at him, enjoying knowing that her father had managed to find the happy in-between of being his wife’s slave and being a wild and carefree bachelor…

“You know, it’s astonishing how one epic battle can suddenly have everyone making amends,” Liam mused, peacefully gazing out at the wild grasses and roses in the garden.

“I suppose a true life or death situation puts things into perspective,” Rhiannon suggested, sighing deeply and laying her head on his shoulder. “And now we have another wedding to plan.”

“Mmm…two weddings, Rhia,” Liam told her, his arm wrapping around her shoulders casually.

“Two?” Rhiannon’s brows furrowed together as she tried to think back, wondering if something had happened while she’d been away… “Blythe and Jax are engaged now, but who else is there? Brogan’s not with anyone yet, and Tobias and Sierra are too young…everyone else is already married. Oh! Nyxa and Brock must be getting remarried. That makes sense.”

Liam rolled his eyes and grunted. How could he have forgotten about that one... “Okay, three weddings then.”

“Three?” Rhiannon pursed her lips, fully confused now.

“Good Lord, you are not this dense, Rhia.” Liam chuckled, meeting her eyes and shaking his head. “I was talking about us. We are the third wedding.”

“Us…” She blinked, her breath clogging in her throat as she fought to process what he meant. But when he reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring, she felt oddly dizzy. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.” Liam held out the ring so she could take it, and watched with guarded eyes as she held it in her fingers, examining every detail of it in the light. The sapphire stone flashed vivid blue and the diamonds glittered beautifully in the white gold band. Her face was completely unreadable. “Do you not like it?”

She shook her head, her eyes taking in every glorious, beautiful aspect of the ring even as her heart began to swell in her chest. Pressing her lips firmly together in an attempt to stem back the flow of tears she knew was coming, she started to hand the ring back to him.

He stared down at it, confused, before she realized that she was supposed to accept it.

“Is it too soon?” he asked, frustrated by her reaction. He’d expected her to joyfully accept and leap into his arms, all smiles and fulfilled dreams…but instead she just looked shell shocked, and it was impossible to determine just what she was feeling.

“No…no, it’s not too soon,” she said in return, staring down at the ring again. “It’s just that I think you’re supposed to be asking me something right now. That way I can respond and then this will be over.”

“Okay…” He tried not to focus on the word
over
too much as he reached for her face to tilt it toward him so he could look at her. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said simply, her expression completely serious as she pulled away from his hand and slipped the ring onto her own finger. She examined it once more now that it was on her hand, and seeing it there broke the dam of civility and proper manners within her.

Her lips spread into a wide smile as she turned to him, cupping his face in her hands and kissing him.

“Thank you…it’s beautiful,” she said breathily between kisses as her lips pressed against his cheeks, his chin, his forehead, his nose…anywhere she could reach. “I love you.”

He pulled her into his lap and held her close, catching her mouth with his eagerly. “I know, Rhia. I’ll make you happy, I promise.”

“You’ve made me happy my entire life.” She breathed in his scent as she buried her face in his neck, needing a moment to regain her composure. God, was this really happening?

“In case you cared, I got your father’s approval already.” Liam grinned, noting the surprise on her face.

“Really? When?”

“In Times Square, right before we found you,” he told her, running his free hand through her length of brown hair absently.

“I see…” Rhiannon murmured. “So I suppose this is our happy ending, then?”

“Yeah…yeah, I think it is,” he replied, his lips curving into his trademark crooked grin.

“Good.” She rose to her feet and reached out for his hand, the still and silent garden stretching out behind her. Her smile spread warmly as he took her hand and stood up beside her. “Let’s go for that walk now. It’s the most beautiful day.”