“Her jaw was broken. Her mother called the police on me. It was between me and Judy, but her mother was always getting involved. She didn't understand, Mara. She never understood any of it, but she was always sticking her nose in. It was her interfering that broke us up.”

“But Edward—” Mara hardly knew where to start. Why had Edward never even mentioned Judy until now? And why would he tell her this story on their wedding night?

“I would never do that to you,” he said, soothing her, brushing her hair back from her eyes. “Please don't worry, or be scared. You're nothing like Judy.”

“Edward—no matter what she did, she didn't deserve to be punched!”

His eyes had flickered—she saw just a hint of the blackness she'd spotted at their first meeting. “She cheated on me,” he said.

“But still. If a man ever hit me, ever laid one hand on me—I would leave him,” she said. “In one second flat.”

Edward had gazed at her, long and slow. She felt almost like a fly being eyed by a lizard trying to decide whether to eat her or not. But then the spell broke. He smiled. Thinking of his smiles now, she saw that he had a repertoire—should he pull out the flashy boyish grin, or the slow seductive melting lip twist? This was somewhere in between—détente. A peace accord.

The line in the sand had been drawn.

Edward had let her know that he had fists, and would use them if provoked. She had let Edward know that if he used them on her, she would be out the door.

Important information for both sides. Unfortunately for Mara, she had just put Edward on notice. Otherwise, she might have saved herself a lot of trouble. He might just have gotten mad one day and hit her—and Mara would have been out of there before he'd had the chance to do worse. As it was, she'd let him know he had to find subtler ways to break her spirit.

Gazing at Maeve now, in her hospital bed, Lily felt a lump in her throat. She had been married to Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll had just been one of his masks. It had taken Lily years to figure out that Edward was chipping away at her—so slowly, she barely noticed. He'd found ways to buy time, keep her on the string, throw her little bits of hope so she'd stay another day, week, month, year. How had she ever stayed stupid for so long?

Lily knew that Liam was taking care, keeping watch over Rose. Patrick's words, It's not “if,” it's “when,” rang in her ears. She had brought the people she loved into the same danger that she had known so long ago. And she didn't know what she could do to protect them. Especially Rose, her Rose.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11