Read Online Beautifully Revealed by Bethany Bazile - Free Book Online Page B

would have been like if she would have been my mother painfully eating away at my resolve not to cry.
    She made a huge mistake by not reaching out to Liam all those years, but that didn’t make her any less of a good mother. She suffered through abuse to stay with Liam as long as she did so on the scale of bad mothers, Anna’s mistake didn’t even register on the chart my mom sat on.
    As much as I’d like to scream at the sky about how unfair it is that the only person who felt like a mom to me was taken away, I can’t. Instead I’m thankful for having known her and the gift she left behind to me in her son. So when the tears finally came, they were tears of pain, sorrow, and thankfulness. Not many good things happen for me in this life and Anna Fields was a great thing.
    ********

 
     
     
    I walk into the office in the morning hoping I don’t look as bad as I feel. In my rational mind I know it’s ridiculous, but I miss Liam to an unbearable extent. I guess love isn’t rational. It’s illogical and foolish. It makes me feel like a raving lunatic one moment, blissfully content the following day.
    Lillian is not at her desk so I head to Rich’s office. This time I knock and wai t until he yells for me to enter, lest I get another live porn show. Fortunately, Rich is alone. He waves for me to take a seat while he finishes a call. He cuts it short and gives me an odd look.
    “What’s wrong?” he asks. Is it that obvious? I must look like shit.
    “Everything.” I slump over in my seat.
    “Care to elaborate? ”
    “ Well Vegas was a disaster. After the news about Anna, I felt really bad for Lucas so I slept in his bed to comfort him.”
    “ Oh oh, sounds bad already.”
    “Yeah it was because I woke up in the morning to Lucas molesting me.”
    R ich sits up in his seat and his eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean molesting you?”
    “I mean putting his hand into my panties while I was as leep. Then to make matters worse, as if he didn’t violate me enough, he throws it in Liam’s face at the hospital. Their mother is in the room dying and they’re having a pissing contest in the hallway. What kind of shit is that?”
    Rich shakes his head in disbelief . “You might not want to hear this, but I think Lucas is selfish. Everything you’ve ever told me about him points in that direction. This only makes it worse. He doesn’t want to see you happy unless you’re with him, and throwing how he took advantage of you in Liam’s face only proves it.”
    Lucas is my friend. My only friend for ten years , but as much as I hate to hear it, Rich is right. Lucas has probably been selfish from the beginning, but I was too busy being manipulative to care. So maybe back then we deserved each other. Getting what we needed out of each other in underhanded ways. I don’t want to be that way anymore and I definitely don’t want a friend who wants to destroy what’s most important to me.
    “Liam put me out last night ,” I confess. There might be something to this opening up to people after all, because soon as I say the words the tightening in my chest releases a little.
    “What? Where did you go?”
    “He didn’t actually put me out, he offered to leave, but I didn’t feel right about chasing him away from his home so I offered to leave instead. I got a room at the Brazilian Court.”
    “Well you’re not staying there. You’re coming to stay with me.”
    “Not a good idea , Rich. Liam is already suspicious of our friendship. Staying with you would only fuel the flames.”
    “What better way to get a man to come to his sense s than to make him crazy with jealousy.”
    “Fine , I’ll come stay with you, but only because that hotel room is so lonesome. Now enough about me, how are things with Lillian?”
    His face falls and he drops his head back against his chair. “ She won’t even look at me, and I’m lucky to get a few words out of her when we’re here.”
    “ Before I left you were talking about