His Best Kept Secret

Chapter Sixteen

Silas found Ebony staring at herself in the mirror, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. He'd stop by their bedroom to check on her. She'd been unconscious for four hours. Now she stood in front of the mirror looking at her reflection as if it was a stranger to her. He walked towards her and stood behind her. "Baby, you okay?" He watched her eyes move to his chest. She saw the thick bandages creating a bulk from beneath his shirt and winced.

"I hate who I've become. I don't know who I am anymore. Wait...yes I do, I'm a monster..."

"Ebony..." Silas reached out for her. She moved away before he could touch her.

"Don't try to comfort me! I don't want it or need it. What you should be doing is finding a way to stop me from hurting the people I love!"

"Ebony," Silas tried to move to her again, but gave up when she took a step back. "What was done to you wasn't your fault. You've gone through so many changes in such a short time, you weren't able to mentally adjust to this new you and what Rex did to you was wrong. He purposely wanted to manipulate you into killing those men."

"What he showed me was true! Why didn't YOU tell me Silas?! Why keep it a secret from me?"

"I kept it from you because I knew it would destroy you and it almost did!"

"The things I did, never in my life I thought I could do such horrible things...." Ebony grabbed a fist full of her thick hair. "All this time you've been trying to protect my innocence, but it was in vain. There was a monster lurking deep inside of me all along just waiting for its time to come to the surface!"

Silas walked to her and grabbed her hands to keep her from pulling her hair out. "You're not a monster. You didn't kill those people."

"I almost did. I almost killed you and the others!"

"Almost! But you didn't! The monster is Rex, Ebony, not you."

"Rex...I loved him like a brother. I loved him and he shot those innocent men...killed them...I strung them up like cattle and he shot them in the back when I let them go. They didn't deserve that, no one deserved to die like that! We're both horrible people. Don't make this easy for me, Silas, don't dismiss my actions because you love me. I don't want to be forgiven for what I've done!"

Silas held her tightly, ignoring the pain in his chest. He let her sob against him and closed his eyes letting out a deep sigh. He knew she would suffer from this, he was prepared, but still it was heartbreaking to see. She suddenly tried to push him away, he wouldn't let her.

"I better not ever catch you crying alone again, Ebony. You want to cry, you come to me, otherwise, you hold it in until you find me! And if you ever try pulling out this gorgeous hair you worked so hard growing back again, I swear I'll throw you across my knee and spank you!"

Ebony blinked. It was such a crazy thing for him to say she didn't know how to respond. If he was trying to distract her from crying it had worked. She stared at his shirt. It was beginning to turn dark and not from her tears. "Silas, let me go, you're bleeding again."

"Well if you stop trying to push me away...."

There was a knock on at their door. Both turned to see who it was. The door slowly opened. Dakota stood there looking badly battered, but alive.

"What is it Dakota? Why are you out of bed?"

Dakota tried to smile at Ebony as much as he could with his busted lips. "I wanted to see for myself if Ebony was able to overcome her biggest challenge."

"And what challenge is that?" Silas wanted to know still holding Ebony.

"The monster inside of her..."