hades
I smellthe smoke before I see it.Not the good kind from a barbecue, but the acrid burn of something that shouldn't be on fire.My pulse spikes as I pull into the driveway, but the house looks intact from the outside.
Then I hear the crying.
Not the kids.I know their voices by now; know the difference between hurt and scared and frustrated.This is raw, broken sobbing coming from somewhere inside the house.
Evangeline.
I don't bother knocking; just use my key and head straight for the sound.I find her in the kitchen, sitting on the floor with her back against the cabinet, tears streaming down her face while she stares at what used to be dinner smoking on the stove.
"Angel."I'm across the room in three steps, turning off the burner and opening windows before dropping to my knees beside her."What happened?Where are the kids?"
"Sleepover," she chokes out."All five of them.At the Connor's.They're safe.Calla trusted them.They offered last week and I said yes.I figured one night of something normal-ish might help.”
Relief floods through me, followed immediately by concern for the woman falling apart in front of me.I've seen her stressed, overwhelmed, tired, but never like this.Never broken.
"Talk to me.What's wrong?"
She lets out a laugh that's more sob than sound."Ethan came by.We had another fight."
"About what?"
"Everything.The kids, the house, my choices, my life."She wipes her nose with the back of her hand, looking younger and more vulnerable than I've ever seen her."He said I was playing house, being irresponsible.That I'd regret throwing him away for some fantasy that was never going to work."
"He's wrong."
"Is he?Look at me, Hades.I can't even make dinner without burning it.I've got five traumatized kids who need stability, and I'm barely keeping my head above water.Maybe he's right.Maybe I am in over my head."
The defeat in her voice makes something hot and protective flare in my chest."You're not in over your head.You're doing an incredible job with those kids."
"Am I?Because Jake had another panic attack yesterday, Emma's failing Math because she can't concentrate, and I don't know how to help any of them."
"You help them by being here, by showing up every day, by not giving up on them even when it's hard."
"Ethan said I was being selfish, that I was disrupting their lives even more by playing pretend family instead of finding them proper homes with people who actually know what they're doing."
The casual cruelty of it makes my vision go red around the edges."What else did he say?"
"That he'd given me enough time to come to my senses, but clearly I wasn't going to.That he wasn't going to stand around and watch me make a fool of myself anymore."Her voice breaks on the last words."He said he'd show me what happens when you throw away everything good in your life for a pipe dream."
"Show you how?"
"I don't know.But there was something in his eyes, something cold and calculating.Like he was planning something."
The threat implicit in her words makes every protective instinct I possess roar to life.If that bastard is planning to hurt her or those kids...
"Did he touch you?"I ask, my voice carefully controlled.
"No.Not physically.But he was angry, angrier than I've ever seen him.He said this wasn’t over.And the way he looked at me?It was like he’d already started planning something."
My fists clench at my sides.It takes everything in me not to find Ethan and make him regret ever raising his voice to her.
I reach for her hands, and she lets me pull her up off the floor.She's shaking, either from emotion or adrenaline or both, and it takes everything I have not to track Ethan down right now and make him pay for putting that fear in her eyes.
"Look at me," I say quietly."He's not going to hurt you.I won't let him."
"You can't promise that.He keeps showing up.He doesn’t seem to get the message that it’s over."
