Chapter 123

The Unwanted Bride Of Atticus Fawn Chapter 123 ~CLARISSA~

After everything, how could he still hold her in his arms and treat her like he was in love?

I grew closer and closer to hating Damon every second that passed by. The man that I was once crazy over, the man that once was my protector, was also the reason for my pain.

Things have changed so much for us. Still, despite everything, I wanted to protect him from Anya. I would not let her hurt him. I would not let her hurt any of us.

When Damon lifts his face and finally breaks his kiss with her, he doesn’t look at anyone else but her. It hurt my feelings to see him behaving this way. In all their years together, I’ve never seen him act like she was the only woman he cared about.

Was he trying to change for her? Did he feel guilty and want to make everything up to her? Was he trying to be a good husband to her?

“I don’t understand,” Autumn whispers. “Just a second ago, Atticus told me that Damon—”

She didn’t get to finish; Damon turned and saw me next. His eyes widened, and his gaze lowered to the bruises all over my body. He’s taking in everything. He seems shocked as he tries to figure out what happened to me.

I watch as he slowly lets go of Anya, and before I know it, he’s running toward me. My heart skipped a beat, and I felt like stabbing the damn thing for betraying me at a time like this. I should not be happy to see him; I should not be satisfied that he was running towards me, not after the way he kissed Anya just a few seconds ago.

Anya’s eyes are one of panic as she watches him leave her side. “Damon!” She shouts to try and catch his attention.

He doesn’t listen to her. He’s still moving towards me.

“DAMON!” She screams again, but then her eyes fall on me before moving to her sister, who’s still standing behind me.

I see the moment real fear touches her eyes. She knows it wasn’t a good sign that her sister was with me. She knows it wasn’t a good sign that I had survived her trap for me. She was surprised I had made it out alive and terrified that I had somehow found her sister. She knows I’ve found something she never wanted anyone to know about her. But she may not know that I knew the whole truth just yet. I didn’t want to alert her, and I didn’t want her to try and run, either.

Damon grabs my arms gently the moment he reaches my side.

“What happened to you?” He demands as he scans my body. “Why are there so many bruises on you? Who did this to you?”

I didn’t want to answer him. I was still pissed that he was kissing Anya after shattering my heart.

I can hear the concern and anger in his voice, but right now, all I’m concerned about is getting Anya out of our lives for good. I was done with her messing around with my family. I wanted her gone for good.

“I need to tell you something important,” I tell him. I can see Anya approaching us from the corner of my eye. I needed to distract her.

I turned towards Willow; she was the best distraction that I could use at this time.

“Go to your sister and ask her what she’s been keeping from you,” I tell her. “Ask her to tell you the truth about your mother and why she died.”

She nods and leaves my side. She looked determined to find out the truth from her. That’s exactly what I wanted. From the looks of it, Anya at least cared about her sister if she didn’t care about anyone else.

Damon looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.

“Her sister?” He asks. “Anya doesn’t have a sister. How do you know that woman?”

“Look,” I told him as Willow joined Anya’s side. “Anya has been lying to all of us. That woman is her sister, her younger sister. I have the proof other than the fact that the girl told me she’s her sister.”

“What?” He asks, baffled by this new information. “Why the hell would she keep her sister from the rest of us?”

“I think we should ask her that ourselves,” I tell him. I wanted to hear Anya’s excuse for lying about not having a sister.

I would pretend that I didn’t know who her mother was. I would give her the opportunity, to tell the truth even though I knew she wouldn’t.

Atticus joins us next, and he can already tell that all is not well. He knows when something awful is about to happen. Just one look at me, and he already knows I haven’t been up to any good. He told me to stop risking my life, but I didn’t listen. If the fire hadn’t guided me today, I would have been dead, and Anya’s plans would have been successful.

I still didn’t understand what had happened, but after all this was over, I would have to tell Autumn everything that happened to me inside that house.

“What’s going on?” Grandfather asks as he senses the tension in the air. I needed everyone to join us. They all had to know.

“Why don’t you ask Anya that?” I say. “I would like her to tell everyone here why she’s been keeping the fact that she has a sister from the rest of us. What does she have to hide?”

Anya looks like she’s finally been cornered. It felt good to see her look this scared. She had no idea what was coming to her.

“Her sister?” Dante asks. “You told me that she was a friend.”

Her friend? When did Dante even meet Willow?

“We can’t have this conversation when everyone is around,” Atticus says. “We need to leave.”

“During the wedding?” Dante asks. “There will be a million rumors.”

“And a billion if everyone listens to this conversation,” Atticus adds. “We can take this to our new pack house.”

Of course, the new pack house. After the many, many attacks on our family, we were working on rebuilding our pack, making it stronger to fight against anyone that threatened our peace with the help of Austin and his family. Since they were so successful, they were willing to help us. We needed protection against people like Anya and her mother.

“And what do we do about everyone else here?” Griffin asks.

“We can deal with them when we return,” Atticus answers him. “Something tells me that this can’t wait.”