The Storm

Chapter 17

Atlas

"What the hell are you implying?" I ask. "Cause to me it sounds like you asked my brother to rape your goddamn child."

"It was the easiest way to show her how cruel men can be."

I rake a hand through my hair, pulling at the ends of it. "Who does that?" Seriously. How sick does a mother have to be to ask someone to rape their child.

Nico admitted he had no other choice to Sierra and me before. He told us how he'd been paid off to do it. And being only eighteen by that time, he took the family-threat a bit too seriously.

I'm not saying what Nico did was the right choice, it sure as hell wasn't. But Sierra and I both understand why he didn't think he could do anything else but just that.

"It's not like he said no."

"It's not like you gave him a fucking choice!" If I remember correctly, Nico said Rose threatened to kill either him or his entire family. Fucking sick.

Rose shrugs. "It was for the best. Though, I now see where I went wrong."

I let a chuckle escape me. One that says I cannot fucking believe her right now. "Now you understand where you went wrong?" I scoff. "That's not how you teach your child a lesson."

"Like you know. Your children are toddlers."

"And guess what? I don't have a rape at eighteen for either of them planned."

"How else are you supposed to teach them to stay away from men?" She looks at me with desperation, like she truly doesn't know where her thinking is wrong.

"You cannot prevent that from happening." Sierra speaks from the middle of the stairs. She's not exactly dressed appropriately right now, but then again, neither am I really. I'm still shirtless because I gave my shirt to my wife. Now Sierra is dressed it nothing but a white bikini.

She takes a seat on the stairs, intertwining her own hands while covering up her chest. God, Sierra looks absolutely edible. But this isn't the right time to drag Sierra back upstairs into our bedroom so I can have her for dessert.

"You wanna know what happened?" Sierra asks, though I doubt it's an actual question. "I stayed away from people my whole life. I only ever had Athena and Cody. Yeah, I spoke to some coworkers, but do you know how scary that was to me?"

Rose shakes her head.

"Didn't think so." Sierra speaks with such venom in her voice, I barely recognise her. "Drew hated me. You knew that. He's only ever done the bare minimum for me. It's a miracle he even let me stay after you supposedly died. He wanted me out of the house, I knew that. But I had to wait until I could afford it. That was only possible by working. Can you imagine what fearing men is like? Cause I get the feeling you don't."

"Sierra, it's was better for you."

Sierra laughs, getting up before she walks over to me. She takes a few more steps towards Rose, but I hold her back, wrapping my arms around Sierra's body.

I'm not sure Sierra wouldn't break Rose's neck if she got the chance to.

"How was it better for me?" She leans back into my body, letting me protect her. "HOW?"