Chapter 13
Skylar hasn’t said it outright—hasn’t said anything at all—but Quinn knows. He knows how relationships like this go—he’s done his research. The physical abuse almost always goes hand-in-hand with the emotional and mental. Cut them down to size, make them think they are worth nothing, make them dependent on you and your “love.” That’s what all the articles said, psychiatrists, doctors, victims themselves all accounting the same tales, following the same storyline. It’s like every abuser picked up the same how-to guide and followed its perverse, degrading instructions.
Lies. Bryan only ever fed him lies. But Quinn doesn’t know how to make Skylar see that. He wants to tell him how he really feels, open his heart and pour out his love, show him that he cares and that he thinks the world of Skylar. That he is beautiful and clever, with a soul that rivals the Seven Wonders of the World, vast and magnificent and completely alluring.