1. Novel

  2. Severed Heart (Ravenhood Legacy Book 2)

  3. Severed Heart: Chapter 51
Severed Heart (Ravenhood Legacy Book 2)

Severed Heart: Chapter 51

WHEN DELPHINE HAS drifted into a sound enough sleep, I carefully unwrap myself from her to lock up the house so I can rejoin her and be there when she wakes. Reeling from what transpired today, my need to get back to her hastens my every step. It’s when I reach our front door that I pause, spotting my mother sitting on the lone porch step.
“Mom?” I call softly, walking through the storm door and holding it so it doesn’t snap closed before joining her where she sits. “I thought you left.”
“I couldn’t just yet,” she admits in a tearful voice, wiping her eyes.
Glancing over at the woman who raised me, I track the splotches on her face, stinging at the sight of them while instantly running my palm down her back. “Shit, I’m sorry. I know that had to have taken a toll on you—”
“No, son.” She looks over to me, knuckling more of her tears away. “Make no mistake,” she sniffs. “These are tears of pride. Utter pride that I had a hand in raising a man so remarkable . . .” She shakes her head in incredulity, and I drop my gaze, which she instantly refuses.
“Look at me, Tyler,” she demands adamantly until I do.
“A man so compassionate,” she continues, “that he’s a living, breathing example of empathy, who refuses to coax it gently both from and for the people he loves, but instead, rages for their peace.”
“You’re giving me far too much credit,” I tell her. “I’m capable of—”
“We all are, Tyler. We are all capable of bringing out whatever we fear from within ourselves, but what I’m speaking to and of right now is a huge part of who you are. You’ve been taking care of others so dutifully and selflessly your whole life . . . and though I’m naturally biased, I didn’t say you were perfect.” She shakes her head with a light laugh. “You’re not at all subtle. You get furious and frustrated and lash out at those you devote yourself to for whatever solution you think might bring them that peace. You tend to give them hell if they don’t recognize it the way you do,” she imparts on a long exhale. “But, it is still, very much, an expression of love. And for that, I’m so very proud of the man you’ve become.”
I swallow before I give her my admission. “I’ve been trying to kill my inner hypocrite for a long time.”
“Self-awareness is half the battle, so don’t give yourself too much hell. And as we get older, what seemed so simple when we were young, the solutions that seemed so damned easy become far more complex, don’t they?”
“Understatement.” I let out a long exhale. “I don’t know how to thank you for this—for helping her.”
“I’ll take some credit, but you are the one who changed that woman’s life. Sometimes, all it takes is one person to bring awareness to another in pain, to make them feel like they belong here on this earth and have their place. You made and became that place for her, and she did the rest. I’m so proud of you both, but you need to take some of that recognition for your part in that, Son. Okay?”
“I’ll try . . . it’s . . . she”—I shake my head—“she calls me her miracle.”
“Biased as I may be, by choosing you, she’s since developed great taste in men.” She winks at me before scanning the orchard and night noise. “You both have built a beautiful life here.”
“I want you to like her,” I utter, “and I’m not asking for approval—”
“And you don’t have to.” She covers the hand on my knee as she holds my gaze. “Easily done, Son. I love her and my God, the way you look at one another. It’s a beautiful thing. Of course, I feared your relationship with her early on, but with the trust you gave me and seeing what’s become of it, I’m so thankful you entrusted me with this. I’ve never seen you so happy and honestly”—she nudges me—“I can’t wait to get to know her on a more familial level . . . though we still have some things we need to work through.” I nod as she stands, turning back to look down at me where I sit, giving me a pointed look too easy to decipher. “And one day, hopefully soon—”
“Mom—” I utter due to exhaustion, “can we not tonight?”
“Please, Son. Please try to find some of that empathy for the only human being who comes close to garnering the level of love you have for Delphine.”
“That’s not true,” I counter.
She stares down at me for long seconds in a call of bullshit, her gaze unrelenting. “I’m fine being second to your father, always have been since you two bonded so deeply when you were young, but what I’m not fine with is getting all the love and attention you have for both of us.”
I scrape my lip with my teeth as the distant ache becomes present. “I don’t know why I can’t let it go.”
“Because he’s the first great love of your life and broke your heart in a way you can’t quite get over.” She shivers as an icy breeze whispers over us. “But avoiding it isn’t working, is it?”
“No,” I admit grudgingly.
“So, just think about it, okay?”
I nod as she starts to walk toward her SUV and stops, turning back to me. “I heard the entire exchange with your father the morning you left home, Tyler. It was all I could do to keep from ripping open my bedroom door.”
I gape up at her. “All of it?”
She nods solemnly. “You wanted to protect me from it, and so I wanted you to believe you did,” she relays shakily, “and God, how I love you for it.” She raises her hand as I go to speak. “Don’t you dare apologize. It was me who should have better protected you, and I still fight at times to forgive myself for that. But I understood your reasons. Hell, I sided with you, which is why I let you go without a fight, as much as it damn near killed me. But you should know you left your mark, and I came so close to leaving him hours after you did. In hindsight . . . I’m so glad I stayed. It didn’t happen overnight, not at all. It was hell, but eventually, your father lit fire to his mistakes and forgave himself. He earned my forgiveness and has since given me some of the best years of our marriage.”
I stare back at her, trying to absorb her words as truth, and she nods in confirmation, sensing my doubt. “My best friend came back to me, Tyler. So don’t thank me for anything.”
Emotion swells my chest as I cup my jaw, heart heavy.
“Your father has done the work and is desperate for you to get to know who he is now,” she releases a pained sigh. “He’s never made peace with your absence and never will. He’s waiting on you, but you need to know he’s breaking a little more with your fly-throughs and overly polite exchanges. Please, my boy. I know she’s your priority right now, but please consider talking to him soon. Really talking to him.”
“I will, Mom,” I manage through the burn in my throat. “I promise.”
“Maybe you two could come to the house for Christmas?” she prompts, opening her SUV door.
“Let’s not push it,” I mutter in jest, which has us sharing a smile shortly after trading ‘I love you’s’ before she drives away.
* * *
The morning sun beams on my back, its heat welcome due to the frigid cold. Tugging down my beanie, I prop the hood of my truck, needing the busywork to keep myself occupied. When I flip open my toolbox, Delphine’s guttural scream again rings through my psyche, temporarily paralyzing me. A scream that’s been on replay since I heard it yesterday.
The length of it alone, the way it morphed from one of fear to precisely what she spoke—outrage—damn near took me to my knees. I’ve been hovering and suspicious since Delphine left a few nights ago to ‘run an errand she would explain later,’ knowing that something was coming. It was when my mom suggested I stay close by before they started their session yesterday that those suspicions were confirmed.
But it was the gravity of what was happening behind our spare bedroom door, her eruption just after, feeling every bit like a physical and mental blow, that had me outside that fucking door within the same heartbeat. Pacing the hall outside of it, I tuned out what was happening to respect her privacy, preferring to hear it from the source. A trust I’ve broken in the past and knew I would have to earn back.
One she solidified I redeemed after she prompted my last confession. A confession I fully intended to give her but was hesitant to due to the picture it could’ve painted. Of a possible shift in her perception. My fears erased wholly by her reaction after. By the way she regarded me, thanked me. All secrets between us now shared. Even if it means continually deceiving my brother. Keeping him ignorant of the lengths we’ve both gone to and will continue to go to have his back. To keep him safe from evils unknown. Neither Delphine nor I blind to the sacrifices T’s made for us thus far.
But as she suspected, I have learned the nature of the beast Delphine spoke of. Having committed the necessary evils while learning of my ability to do so, and with ease. Something that initially scared me, that I feared would repel her, which has now only brought us closer. Solidifying what I’ve always known. She is, and forever will be, the only woman to know me.
All of me.
In awe of her resilience, and though I know it will take more therapy to continue to incorporate coping mechanisms she will utilize for the day-to-day, I also know the fighter I fell in love with is far stronger than my mom might give her credit for.
Resisting the urge to check on her, to hover over her any more than I have, I’m relieved when the creak of the screen door sounds. Rounding my hood, I catch sight of Delphine emerging from the house in a black sweaterdress. Her hair styled in the gorgeous waves she often boasts that her new friend Layla taught her to make. Her feet covered in brand-new purple Doc Martens—boots I don’t recognize ever seeing in our shared closet.
It’s her expression that has me pausing, her silver eyes looking firelit. Dressed to kill, her mindset is evident in her face and posture. Looking ready for battle, I stand stunned, in awe of her, because Jesus, does she look incredible in the armor she chose. The sight of her in this state after what she endured yesterday nearly knocks me on my ass but only confirms my suspicions—she’s already fighting again.
“I know that look”—I tilt my head, slowly making my way toward her—“or maybe I don’t.” Her expression remains stoic as the breeze lifts her hair, the sight of it fitting as I gaze at a woman utterly on fire.
It strikes me then what expression she’s wearing—an utter lack of fear. In wonder of her, and though I’m growing more curious, I do my best to keep my comment casual. “Those are some pretty little boots you got on there, General.”
Without acknowledging my comment, she lifts the cell phone in her hand. “I need to make a call, Tyler.”
“Okay.” I nod, a little confused by her statement. “Do you want some privacy?” I ask as I walk up to her, unable not to pay her the compliment.
“I would ask how you’re feeling right now, but it’s everywhere. You look fucking incredible, baby.” I go to give her a chaste kiss and leave her to make her call. She palms my chest to stop me, leaving her hand there while lifting her fiery silver gaze to mine. Argent flames roaring inside them as she speaks.
“Merci,” she says of my compliment. “Stay for this, Soldier,” she whispers, her voice softening for me, even as her expression begins to morph into one of wrath. I nod as she keeps me idle with the palm on my chest. She initiates the call, putting it on speaker before the line trills, indicating it’s overseas. Though confused, I stay mute.
“Ello?” A man answers a few rings in.
“Ormand,” she whispers venomously, her voice curling around his name with pure ire. “This is Delphine.”
A prolonged bout of silence follows.
“Ah, Delphine, how are yo—”
“I am wearing the boots you bought me twenty years ago,” she cuts in. “For the first time today . . . and do you know why?”
Dead silence lingers on the other side of the line.
“Of course you fucking know why.” Her voice rattles with ferocity as she continues. “It’s why you were crying so hard the night I woke in that hospital bed and why I pushed you away that day and every fucking day after until I ordered you to go back to France.”
I tense then, on edge about having dismissed Ormand as a suspect. Of having any part in wrongdoing toward her during my investigation due to his ties with Tobias. And the fact they’re still overseas partners.
“So many times I wanted to tell you—” Ormand starts.
“You lying fucking coward,” she hisses. “I could never understand why you took what happened upon yourself so gravely. Why you could not look me in the eyes for months after that night. And it was because you knew you had boasted your affection for me in front of Alain. Even after I told you the cost to me. But that night, you decided to tell him you gave me these fucking boots to assert and announce yourself as his competition while also letting me know your patience to wait for me to leave him for you was running out. Your way of staking claim on the woman you so desperately claimed to love—”
“Delphine—” Ormand croaks, confirming his guilt as my blood starts to boil.
“But you didn’t stay after to watch what gloating over your gifted boots caused. Did not stay to watch your childhood friend brutally and repeatedly rape his wife as he viciously beat her until she was unable to move. Before he took a marble ashtray from the kitchen table and altered her life forever.”
I swallow, my insides rattling with fury as Ormand begins to openly cry over the line.
“No, you did not stay for that . . . did not stay to protect the woman you claimed to love. You only saw the after. And when I woke with no idea why my husband tried to kill me due to that damage, you fucking knew.”
She relays this to us both as I match her stare, desperately trying to communicate what strength I can muster in my return gaze.
“Twenty fucking years,” she bites out with undiluted venom, “all this time you left me to put the pieces of that night together. Knowing that now, and what a fucking snake you are, I suspect you convinced Celine and Beau that it was for the best for me not to know. I fucking dare you to deny this, Ormand.”
“I will not,” he admits as I mentally mark him for retribution.
Her eyes flare as he confirms it. “So now, I get to know why my husband tried to kill me. Why he did not stay to finish the job. Why he failed. It wasn’t because the man who claimed to love me protected me. No, it was my sister’s husband who ran him off.”
“Delphine, I regret it every day,” he offers weakly.
“You should have told me,” she says to him as she keeps my gaze. “You could have eased my suffering greatly, but the truth is you’re just another fucking man who made love a liar again,” she condemns. I fall further in love with her with every word as she ends her war.
“I should hate you, Ormand. For so long, I could not understand my repulsion for you after—and even though my mind concealed this from me, my soul and heart remembered your betrayal.”
“It is my biggest regret. Please believe me, Delphine,” Ormand croaks.
“I do not give a fuck about your regrets. You had twenty years of chances to come to me, to right some of this wrong, but you will hear what I have to say.”
A long silence ensues before Ormand gutturally replies, “I’m listening.”
“Hating you takes too much energy from my life. A good life is what I have now.” I cover the palm she still has on my chest. “All there is to do is forgive you, so it won’t interrupt or steal that life. So I forgive you, Ormand. I forgive you for the part you played, even if it will never be deserved.”
“I’m so sorry,” he croaks. “I’ll be sorry my whole life.”
She ignores his comments as she keeps my gaze, her eyes softening.
“You should know I have found love from a man who is truthful with me. Who believes me strong enough to always know the truth. Who loves me with far more than his eyes. Not as a possession, but for who I am inside.”
My chest lights fire at this as Ormand speaks.
“I am so happy you found this Delphine—”
“I don’t need you to be happy for me,” she cuts in as the conversation starts to shift from between them to the two of us. “I want nothing from you, Ormand, but your loyalty to Jean Dominic, who is currently under your watch, and Ezekiel as his partner. For you to look out for them both in France, to protect them at all costs because your price for this fucking betrayal is your life for theirs. If you in any way break your word, if either of my nephews meets any sort of harm there, no matter what the threat is, that is exactly how you will pay.”
“You have my word. No harm will come to either of them here,” he vows, “you have it.”
“I have a man I love now,” she declares as my soul lights fire. “Who has loved me wholly at my best and worst, beautiful or ugly, without any condition and would never hurt or betray me. A man who, for the first time in my life, made love a truth-teller. Because only the man who is right for you can make it so. And so I will never waste a second with him ever thinking of you again.”
Ending the call, she drops the phone on the porch as I crush her to me. Her body shakes lightly as she begins to press kisses to my neck and jaw before capturing my lips in a kiss that has me soaring. When she closes it, I scoop her off her boots, which dangle at my shins as she beams down at me where I have her hoisted just above me. “You won your war, General,” I rasp out, “I’m so fucking proud of you.”
“Because of you, Soldier, because of you. Je t’aime, I love you, Tyler, my soldier, my one true love, my best friend, my miracle. My God, how I love you, and always will,” she pledges, “forever.”
No more words necessary, we collide, kissing for long minutes. When we pull away, her lips lift at my expression. “I know that look. I love this look, and oui, please s’il vous plaît, fuck me senseless.”
I’m already stalking us through the door before her order is doled out, headed straight for our bedroom, my heart thrashing against hers as they sync and pound between us. The energy bouncing between us surreal as we become impossibly more solidified.
“The day is young,” she whispers as I lift her dress over her head, “but I have a request for after we watch our sunset.”
“So do I, but mine is for right now.”
“Oh? What is your request?” she asks through kiss-swollen lips.
“That you keep those pretty boots on,” I grin, determined to erase their history, though she’s already working on that herself. “Easy done, Soldier.” She smiles as I ask.
“That’s easily done,” I correct.
“Merde,” shit, “maybe I should just give up,” she utters dryly. “I may never master English isms.”
“But you won’t, my fighter,” I murmur, palming her skin, covering her perfect breasts as her eyes begin to hood with desire. Whispering kisses along her shoulder, my curiosity stoked, I pull back slightly to ask, “What are we doing after sunset?”
That spark of determination comes back in her eyes. “I want to make a big bonfire.”
Inside that silver blaze, I see precisely what fuel she’ll be using to stoke that fire, and personally, I can’t wait to watch that fucking cigar box go up in flames.
Just after, and as I bury myself inside her again and again, a euphoria lights up in my veins. My whole being harmonizing with the completion of the mission I started long ago—by becoming a loyal man for her to entrust, the man she reaches for.
And the only fucking man for her.
Report chapter Comments
Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.