The Past

They sat there for some time, Wren tucked up close to Talon’s warm body. She did not have to do anything to show him she was there for him; she just needed to be there.

Talon breathed in her fragrance.

“Thank you,” he said.

“There is no need to thank me. I did not do anything.”

“You did more than you will ever know,” he insisted. “You have done what no one else has ever done. You have accepted all parts of me. I will forever be in your debt.”

Wren’s heart twisted at his words. Could he not see the others did as well?

As for him being indebted to her, she did not know what she wanted from him, but it was not to be indebted to her.

“What was your childhood like?” Talon asked after some time had passed.

“Why?”

“I did not know anything about you before you came here.”

Wren was silent. She did not want to talk about her past.

There was nothing good there.

“There is nothing worth speaking about.”

“I still want to know. Please.”

He had just said, “Please.” ~Well, shit, now I have to tell him.~

“I grew up in a home with parents who loved me in their own way,” Wren said, hoping that Talon understood she was just stating facts, not embellishing or taking away from anything. “I was not the one they wanted.”

He had been honest with his past; now she must be honest with hers.

“Explain.”

Wren took a deep breath. “I was adopted.”

Talon was not sure why, but he knew she thought it was a bad thing. He would have done anything to have been wanted enough to be adopted.

Wren spoke methodically and without emotion as she explained her childhood. “I was pulled from my mother’s abusive boyfriend and put in foster care with a little brother. We were not there long before we were removed from that foster home when it was discovered they were taking the money and abusing us more.”

Talon did not move as he listened. Life sucked, but it sucked even more when you are pulled from one bad situation and put into another.

“How did you end up with your family?” he asked.

“My parents were asked to take both of us, but they only wanted a little boy. In the end, they fell in love with him and agreed to take both of us in.”

“That sounds like a good thing.”

Wren nodded. They were not bad people; they just did not need a third child.

“It was. The thing is,” Wren looked at her hands, picking at the imaginary dirt under her fingernails as she continued, “they already had a daughter they loved very much. They did not want more than one, but in the end, if they wanted my brother, they had to take me.”

“Buy one, get one free?”

“You could say that.”

Wren thought back on her childhood. She had had clothing, a good education, and a beautiful home.

You could say it was a “perfect” family. However, it came at a cost.

She was expected to be perfect in public, and at home, she was either completely ignored or expected to do whatever she was asked to do.

Her upbringing had made her the perfect target for Don and his sadistic personality. In the end, it had cost her much more.

Wren let out a humorless smile. “I drove my parents nuts because I was not into sports, nor was I one of the ‘popular’ students. I would rather be in the music or art room and do everything possible to get out of the monthly salon visits.”

Wren’s mother got to the point where she would pick Wren up and drag her to the salon once a month to put the most godawful perms in her hair. It was not because Wren looked good with that hairstyle or the shoulder-length haircut that went with it; it was because she did not want her to outshine her own daughter.

When it was finally found that she needed glasses, Wren’s mother actually jumped up and down with glee. The woman did everything she could to make sure Wren knew her place in the family.

“I can see that,” Talon said, smiling.

“Mmm.” Wren did not smile back.

The memories were coming back quickly. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The last year at home was the hardest. She had worked in some capacity since she was ten, but her senior year…when her parents found out she planned to go to college, they did everything they could to stop it.

They took her money. They spread rumors, causing employers to fire her or not even hire her.

She was denied dances, prom, homecoming, and even graduation. It had not stopped her from applying, getting a full ride to a small college, and leaving them and her sister behind.

“Anyway…I left. Went to college. I got my teaching degree and moved away, calling every so often and going back occasionally. Nothing more.”

“Then you came here?”

“Yes.”

“What are you not telling?” He could feel an uneasy feeling coming from her.

She had skipped over her entire adult life. She was hiding something.

“Nothing. It’s just…I… How do I explain this one?”

“Just tell me.”

Wren sat up and moved away, curling up into a little ball on the other side of the couch.

Talon immediately missed her warmth but could feel her pulling away into herself.

If he reached out right now, there was a good chance she would not finish her story…or worse, leave.

Wren spoke quietly, continuing with the part of the story she would rather forget. “I found a man I thought I loved.”

“He was flashy, smart, funny, very handsome, and my parents adored him.”

“I could not believe he loved me since I am so dull and plain. I was so happy I had found him. I thought I had finally done something right in my parents’ eyes. I thought…they might decide to love me too.”

Wren went back to the memories that she had locked away.

^SEVERAL YEARS EARLIER^

~“Here we are!” Don opened the hotel room with a flourish.~

~Wren stepped into the dark room, searching for a light. Once it flicked on, she noticed the room.~

~She turned back to the room. “I thought we were going to have two rooms. I did not realize it was going to just be two beds in the same room.”~

~Don wrapped his arm around her waist. “Relax, baby, I will not do anything. That is why there are two beds.” He let her go and flopped down on one of the beds. “One for me and one for you.”~

^PRESENT^

Wren shook the memory away. Talon should know, but she did not need to go into the details. Not now and hopefully not ever.

“I agreed to go on a trip with him, with the understanding we had separate rooms.”

She could not come out and tell Talon she had believed in marriage before sex at that point. He would just laugh at her stupidity.

“Once there, I found out there was only one room, but two beds, and I decided I could live with that. That was my mistake.”

She had a hard time speaking the next sentence.

“That night he took advantage of me.”

“Did you tell someone?”

“No.”

“Why did you not tell or leave him?” Talon asked, not wanting to interrupt her story, but needing to understand her logic.

“He did not use protection. He used the fear of pregnancy and repeated assaults to keep me in line,” she explained.

“And I was foolish enough to think that if I left him, not only would he smear my reputation, but I would lose my parents’ approval.”

“Did you have it?”

“No,” Wren whispered.

“I wanted to believe I had it so badly I stayed in a situation that became unsafe.”

Talon watched as Wren repeatedly picked at her nails as she talked. He wanted to reach out and stop her but was afraid she would pull away even more.

~How much do I tell him? Do I state the bare facts? How much do I have to say?~ Wren did not know how much of his abuse and control over her Talon needed to know.

~I guess I can just give the bones, and then, if I have to, I can fill in parts if I need to.~

Wren’s mind made up, she continued with her story. She hoped Talon would not ask too many questions. She did not know if she could answer them if he did.

“His personality changed after that. He became controlling, never leaving me alone for fear I would do something ‘rash.’ I was stupid enough to believe he had a hold over me and continued to allow him more and more control as time went on.”

“How much control did he have?” Talon asked quietly.

He could not imagine a woman as spunky as Wren being controlled by anyone. Let alone a douchebag like this guy.

Wren gave him a look.

“What would you like to know? How he made me clean the toilet with my tongue if it was not up to his standard? Perhaps you would like to hear about his ‘punishments’ if his meal was not done ‘right.’

“Ooo, here is a good one. Would you like me to go into details of my ‘role’ at his monthly parties? Or perhaps you are wondering about our bedroom life. How he ‘educated’ me in the bedroom on how a proper lady behaves toward and with her man.”

Talon could feel the disdain and self-loathing seep from her very soul. The woman had deep wounds, and no one had helped her.

“How did you get away?”

“One night, I heard him tell a couple of his friends how he had won the bet. I was his now. His slave, mentally and physically. I was no more than a kept pet that would crawl back to her master no matter what he did.”

Wren felt the bile threaten to escape her throat as she thought back to that night. She refused to dwell on the details.

She dwelled on them in her dreams enough as it was.

“He had the proof on tape and even offered me to ‘service’ them whenever they wanted. After all, he had no more use for me once he had found a woman worth his love. I was expendable. Again.”

Wren looked at her fingernails, raw from where she had been picking at them, and forced herself to stop.

“I was already on the verge of breaking. I did not know what to do, and there was no place I could go. I even reached out to my mother. She told me I was in the wrong and needed to make it right with him.”

Talon reached out to touch her but stopped himself as she continued to speak.

“I was finally able to save myself thanks to a friend who refused to allow him to push her out of my life. She helped me escape, but I was not able to do anything legally against him, so he got away scot-free.”

“Good for you.”

“But not for her…” Wren explained quietly.

She still remembered Lisa’s life leaving her body as Wren held her in her arms. She had been the only family her friend had had, and she had been the cause of her death.

She would live with the guilt for the rest of her life.