Delicate

Chapter 66

This chapter is very, very long - almost 10,000 words lol, enjoy.

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William's P.O.V

While Damon and I follow behind Mekhi and Liam, I keep my eyes on Liam, tracking him as best as I can in search of some fault or irregularity that would give away all that had happened in that back room.

For brief moments, thoughts of guilt and remorse slipped in, but I set them to flame just as quickly as they appeared. I wouldn't let myself feel ashamed, and I certainly wasn't going to entertain even a sliver of guilt, not now or even again.

"No one is looking at us," Damon assures me making my eyes shift to him. We were back to keeping an appropriate yet painful distance between us since we were back in the open, but Damon made sure to keep himself in step with me so that we were as close as possible. "Stop worrying, everything is going to be fine."

Releasing a breath, I nod and offer him a weak smile formed from my gratitude, it grows wider by the second as he sends continuous waves of comfort through our bond. It was like calming waters that lapped over my worries, taking them out to sea and away from me as it settled over me the same way Damon's familiar hands would.

"Thanks," I say, curling my fingers into themselves to stop myself from reaching for him.

We were so close to being done with this night and I didn't want to risk anything going wrong by making one bad move at the wrong time. What we'd done with Liam was already risky enough as it was, but Damon was right, no eyes lingered on us any longer than it had before and Liam walked with the same confident stride as always.

Things were fine.

"Shit," Mekhi curses.

Or not.

"What is it?" I ask as we all come to a stop when he does. A groan leaves Damon as he looks ahead in the direction of the ballroom, same as Mekhi and Liam, but I couldn't see over all their tall figures to get even a glimpse of the incoming problem.

"Your mother," Damon replies coldly, "she's heading straight for us."

Panic tries to grow through the fissures of my still-present anger like a troublesome, persistent weed, but I pluck them from me before it gets the chance to sprout. There was no need to panic seeing as it was impossible for Mother to know what had just happened by our hands, so there was no fault she could possibly have with me. And even if she did have something to blame me for, there was really nothing I cared to do to change that at this point.

There was always a fault to be found with her anyway.

Mekhi steps to the side allowing me a view of my fast approaching mother, despite the black cast holding her arm steady, she moved in an elegant stride that gave her far more purpose than she truly deserved. 

I try to muster up the appropriate smile for her but fall short with the anger bubbling inside of me. It was still simmering just beneath the surface after our confrontation with Liam and seeing mother now just reminded me of how little she'd cared for me during the time I'd needed a mother the most.

She hadn't cared about me at all. Even with all my pain and suffering, she was still so cruel.

"Couldn't you just hide it, William, now look what you've made happen." Mother once cried while clenching my hand in the hospital.

I'd thought... that when she'd first strode into the small, sterile room and taken my hand in both of hers, that it was meant to be a loving touch, a comforting gesture... something so rare for mother that my heart had shattered under the weight of hope that had settled inside of my wounded body.