Phoenix Knight [A Bad Boy Story] - Editing

Chapter Twenty

Dedicated to _kaptain for the incredible new cover!!!! :)

Today’s word of the chapter: ‘Impregnable’. Definition: (Adjective) strong enough to resist or withstand attack; not to be taken by force,unconquerable.

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Chapter Twenty

My mother grimaced at the sight of her handwriting and snatched the photograph. She flipped it so that the two smiling faces were grinning at her from her lap where she left the image as she spoke. “Will you let me explain?” she asked quietly. Her eyes were slightly downcast and she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

Despite my anger, I found that I was taking a seat and that my face was softening. My mother always had that effect on me because every time I saw her sad, I always imagined my father beating her senseless. But he always avoided the face. Always. Perhaps he wanted to ensure no one saw the damage that was done or maybe he just liked the look of her face unharmed, much unlike the rest of her body.

“Go on then,” I mumbled resignedly. “Explain.”

She looked up at me through her lashes and took a deep breath. “He threatened to kill you, just like he killed them,” she mumbled. “He told me that if I so much as murmured their name then he would get you.”

I felt my lips sag as I tried to process her words. “Why though?” I begged. “Why would he kill them?”

“Because Anthony questioned him,” she explained broadly. When she saw the questioning glint in my eyes, she sighed and attempted to explain. “I can have children, Sadie,” she said. “It’s just that I won’t. I don’t want to.”

I stared at her in confusion. “Why not?” I muttered. “And what does this have to do with the Knights’?”

She blinked a few times and slyly wiped the moist from her eyes. “Your father, he was angry that night; the night I told him I was two months into my second pregnancy. I knew that he wasn’t particularly fond of you but I just thought that it was all a facade, that deep down inside he actually loved you. You were six by then. And I had completely misread him. He didn’t want any more children...

“That night, he beat me into having a miscarriage,” she admitted with a rough release of breath. She reached up and wiped more tears from her eyes. “And from that day onwards, I promised to never have another child. I knew that if I had to feel another child be beaten to death before it was even born then I would probably shatter. That was also the night that I started saving so that you and I could get out.”

I stared down at the table and watched a drop of water splash onto the surface. Except, as I raised my hand and touched my eyes, I realised that I was crying with her and that it hadn’t been water at all. I was never one to cry easily, even when I was overwhelmed. But this was different. Watching my mother cry made me want to crawl into a foetal position and bawl until the seasons changed, simply because my mother never cried.

Even when my father had beaten her numb.

“What did that have to do with the Knight’s?” I chocked.

She used both hands to wipe her eyes dry but it was useless because they were wet a second later. “Phoenix’s mother and I were close, almost as close as your father and Anthony but not quite. Before it happened, I had told Anthony’s wife all about the pregnancy and how excited I was about having the child. I told her about how healthy it was. I told her about all of the positive remarks from the doctors,” she explained. “And she told Anthony.”