Page 145 of Liberating Lily

“I need to see the rest,” she said.

“No, you don’t. You don’t need to see anything more,” he told her firmly. “Enough is enough, Lily.”

When she was finished throwing up, he turned and helped her take a drink of water.

“Can I have a few minutes on my own?” she asked.

Harvey didn’t want to leave her, but when she turned to look up at him, he couldn’t say no. “I’m just going to go get you a toothbrush and toothpaste, all right? I’ll be right back.”

Lily nodded, and he slipped out the door.

Lily shut the door behind Harvey, locking it. She just needed a few seconds to herself to calm down. She splashed some water on her face and on her wrists, and stared at herself in the mirror.

Maybe she shouldn’t have watched that video. Now she would play it over and over and see Dr. Wallace doing those things to her. But what was worse than that was her mother knowing what he was doing, not only condoning it, but selling Lily to him.

Okay, she had to stop or she was going to throw up again.

She stepped out of the bathroom, surprised to see that Harvey wasn’t waiting there. Instead, an older man was. He was slightly stooped, but still handsome, with thick white hair and barely any lines on his tanned face. When he saw her, he started to scowl, and she was hit by a pair of familiar-looking hazel-colored eyes.

This man was related to Harvey. He had to be a Gallagher. Was this his grandfather?

“Who are you?” the old man demanded.

“I’m Lily.”

“Why are you here? Ronan doesn’t bring his women home, so what are you doing here?”

“I’m not Ronan’s woman,” she said quietly.

“Speak up! Can’t you see I’m old? I’m deaf. Can’t hear a thing anymore.”

Once upon a time, someone talking to her like that would have hugely upset her. She probably would have pulled back into herself and maybe run away. But today, she didn’t have the energy for any of that.

So she just sighed. “I’m not Ronan’s woman,” she yelled at him. “I’m Harvey’s.”

“Harvey’s, you say? Harvey doesn’t have a woman either. And why would you be here in Ronan’s house? You trying to sleep with Ronan when you belong to Harvey?”

“No,” she snapped. “Why would I do that? Why would I sleep around on Harvey? He’s the most perfect man in the world. I don’t even know Ronan.”

“Everyone wants Ronan. He’s the head of the Gallagher family.”

“Well, not me. I want Harvey.” She crossed her arms over her chest, starting to feel very irritated with this man.

He let out a grouchy huff.

“Well, why are you here then? This is Ronan’s house.”

“I came here with Harvey. Otherwise, how would I have gotten here? I didn’t know where Ronan lived, and I wouldn’t be here if my mother wasn’t being kept in the basement.”

Oops, she probably shouldn’t have said that. But it seemed when she lost her temper, she also lost control over what she was saying.

He raised his bushy eyebrows. “There’s a woman in the basement, is there? Your mother? What’s she doing there, then?”

“It’s not for me to say,” she said.

He let out a grunt. “I’ll ask my grandson then. He’ll tell me what’s going on. Or I could go down there and pay her a visit, I suppose.”

She heaved out a breath. “She let a doctor drug me so that he could take videos of me while I was naked and out of it and we don’t know what he was doing with them. Is that what you wanted to know? That there are videos of me naked, while a man poses me? That my own mother knew it was happening, and she took money from the doctor because, God forbid, people find out that she was broke. And because the pills that he gave me kept me pliable and made me suggestible to what she told me to do, like marrying an asshole I didn’t even like.” She blinked back tears. “And now, I have to live with the fact that I’ve got these patches of memory loss, where I can’t remember a thing, and yet I can play videos of what happened to me over and over in my head. Do you know how that feels, to be betrayed by your own family member like that? To have someone touch your naked body without your knowledge or permission? To have other people watch?”