Anthony brought out my vulnerable side. My trauma. My broken innocence. He felt the safest to me because we bonded over our shared damage. He was the most open with me, and I saw parts of myself in the way he interacted with the world. He didn't make me feel crazy for still holding hope about my mother. He was my fly swatter. My harbinger of death.
William was my complex analytical side. Like me, he observed the world. He processed. He unpacked a situation and faded into the background. Restrained and secretive, I related to his martyrdom and the way he viewed the world. I wasn't sure if we had a future together. Of all the brothers, he felt the most betrayed by my inability to choose. I hadn't even seen him since the moment in his office. Breaking those pearls felt like breaking our relationship. I wasn't sure we would ever repair it.
And Malice, dark, dangerous Malice. He brought out my inner destructiveness, my power, my deepest, darkest curiosities. Every bit of my filthy soul, he dragged to the light. He personified my most thrilling nightmares. He coaxed passion from every pore in my body. Malice was the wildest parts of my spirit. He was the hardest to love, but the most rewarding too.
And I did love him. I loved all of them. It was a whirlwind. Quick, reckless, and doomed from the start. There was no way that this could work, but I'd enjoy it while it lasted.
After we ate breakfast, Anthony went to the dungeon to work, and I relaxed for a few hours while avoiding the other inhabitants of the house. I needed a moment to marinate in my feelings for a bit. Yesterday was equally thrilling and traumatic. Malice and I would eventually have to finish our conversation, and at some point, I'd need to find William and see if there was still any hope for us.
After working up my courage, I went downstairs and decided that if I ran into Malice, I'd ask him about his promise. I still wore the necklace we'd battled for. The sentimental jewelry felt like a weight around my neck. A secret.
I was making my way to the kitchen when the front door opened and in stormed none other than Vicky and William.
It took a moment for me to process that she was here and that I had to now come to terms with breaking best friend code. We'd spoken some after my trip to Gwendola Lane but never about my relationship with her brothers. I knew that I needed to face the consequences of my actions. She was my friend first, but that didn't mean I was prepared to do that right this second.
"Vicky!" I said awkwardly. "You're home!"
I walked up to her with my arms stretched out ready for a hug. She had a fresh golden-brown tan and wore a black mini dress with wedges. The sunglasses on her face made it impossible to see her eyes, but her mouth was fixed into a firm line. She didn't return my hug. She stood there stiff as a board.
"I missed you," I whispered, emotion clawing up my throat.
"Did you, Juliet? Did you really?" she asked as I pulled away. I turned to look at William, who was raking his eyes up and down my body, as if assessing it.
"Where is Nick?" she asked while staring at my neck. "And take my necklace off right now. You have no right to be wearing that."
How did she know about the necklace?
I reached up to press my finger against the delicate chain, my heart thudding with anxiety. "Vicky. Can we talk?"
"Where is my brother, Juliet?"
I looked to William. Was this his doing?
"You're back," Malice said from the top of the winding staircase. He was in slacks and a button-up shirt, both hands thrust in his pockets, as if he had been casually standing there. "I was wondering where you'd disappeared to today, William. Did you decide it was time for our sister to come home? I'm not used to you having the balls to defy my wishes. Someone should take a photo of the moment."
"You're insane," Vicky said. "Is this your way of punishing me? Tricking my only friend into thinking you like her?"
Malice strutted down the stairs, and with each step, a sliver of doubt started to creep in. Was this a game to him? Was I just revenge? He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. The contact made me sigh in relief. William clenched his fist. Vicky's face turned an angry shade of red. "Don't ever disrespect Juliet like that in my presence again," he said in a stoic voice before bending over to kiss my temple. I squeezed my eyes shut. This was not how I wanted to handle this.
"You took her to Cora's compound," William interrupted. "You risked her life, and for what? Is this another game? Another way to get a reaction out of me?"
"This is insane. You're insane, Nick. Juliet isn't like us," Vicky added.
I cleared my throat. "Maybe I'm more like you than you think."
"That's not a good thing, Juliet," she screeched. "You're killing people and working at a sex club. What happened to you? You've literally become all the things I hate about our world. William told me everything. He said you spent the night with Anthony last night, too. I thought we discussed this," she shouted.
"I didn't realize William was keeping tabs on me," I replied before glaring at him. It wasn't his right to tell her this.
Malice laughed. "Then you must be blind. The man watches everything you do."
"Fuck off," William shouted.
"I get sent halfway around the world, and you're here fucking my brothers. I thought we were friends."
"We are friends, Vicky," I said with a sigh. "I should have talked to you, but I didn't know what to say. I'm still processing it all myself."
"Processing what?" Anthony asked while walking into the foyer. He was barefoot and wearing only a pair of jeans. His hair was wet, as if he'd just showered, and the moment his eyes landed on Vicky, a broad grin broke out on his face. "You're home."
Unlike with me, Vicky actually hugged her brother, but the way her arms wrapped around him made it seem like he was this broken china doll, as if she was trying to catch all his broken pieces in her arms. "I've got so much to tell you," Anthony said while pulling away. He turned to look at me, then strutted to my other side not occupied by Malice.
"I think I already know," Vicky replied venomously.
"Oh great, we can skip past the awkward 'I'm probably going to put a baby in your best friend' conversation then," he said with a shrug. "By the way, I think I have a breeder kink."
"Absolutely not," Malice said before pinching the bridge of his nose.
Vicky threw her hands up in exasperation. "I have never been so betrayed—"
"You're better than this, Juliet. I thought I knew you," William added.
I breathed in deeply, closed my eyes, and tried to find my footing in all this. Vicky had a right to feel the way she did. William, however, did not.
"William," I said, "you don't have any claim to me just because you essentially stalked me for three years. I considered you a stranger all that time, and I'm not some object you can possess. I'm not a toy. You don't own me. And I'm not mad that you brought Vicky here, but hiding behind my best friend and thinking we would somehow magically go back to the way we were, isn't how this works. We could have talked about it. But instead, you humiliated me in your office and stormed off. You hid. You watched me and said nothing."