“Thanks, but I’m fine. I know how to handle things.”
Sebastian frowned, running a hand down his face. “The car accident, Shy? Was that before or after Javi—”
“Stop, Seb,” she pleaded, blindly reaching out for him and clutching his arm. My mind was floundering trying to put the pieces together.
“But—” Shiloh cut him off.
“Please,” she said with desperation. “Don’t. My dad isn’t like yours anymore, okay. I’m gonna be fine. I promise.”
Seb released a sigh and reluctantly nodded.
“If you change your mind, you know where to find me, alright?”
Sebastian pulled her into his arms, and I stood there awkwardly watching as he tried to comfort her, speaking softly in Spanish. My mom grabbed my attention with the wave of her hand and motioned for us to leave the room. I nodded and headed out, my mind racing, wondering as to why Shiloh thought it was her fault her brother killed himself.
I wanted so badly to be the one with her right now, to be the one holding her in my arms, speaking softly to her with comforting words. But I knew that they had a history, a shared one with her brother that I couldn’t compete with when it came to mourning the loss of Javier.
Shiloh said she could see mostly okay after about an hour, and her hazel eyes didn’t look as beat-up. We all sat in the living room, Shiloh between Sebastian and I, while the rest of my family took turns playing with Ruthie. Shiloh didn’t say anything until after Sebastian left, when she asked me to take her home. I offered for her to stay the night, but she declined.
Strangely enough, she had me drive her to an apartment complex at the lakefront shopping center, and not the little house I’d dropped her off at before. She said they had moved. I wondered if it had to do with her brother’s death. I held her hand on the drive home, unsure what words I could even say to help. She mumbled a goodbye before leaving the car.
I spent the drive home processing everything that happened. I was only left with more questions. Like, what did she mean when she said she was knew how to handle things?Why did Javier ask about the car accident? And what did she mean about Sebastian’s dad being like her dad?
It suddenly dawned on me and I nearly slammed on the breaks to turn around to pick Shiloh back up.
Abuse.
Sebastian knew about the abuse from her family. Maybe Sebastian and his mom were being abused by his dad too, and they had escaped it when they moved to Dallas. That must have been why Sebastian was so curious as to whether Shiloh was still living at home. Why he was questioning her about the car accident. It wasn’t a fucking car accident. My gut instincts were right.
But was she still lying? Was she really safe at home? Despite what she had explained, Shiloh hadn’t managed to convince me that her brother wasn’t torturing her. I didn’t care about his motives or that Shiloh had asked him to hurt her, it was still abuse. Now that he was dead, did that mean she was safer at home? Or was her dad still hurting her too?
Fuck. I hope I’m wrong. Please, let me be wrong. Let her be safe.
Maybe it’s time I ask my dad to get involved.
Twenty-Three
November 2, Tuesday
Shiloh
After making my way through the lunch line, I slumped down into the chair next to Enoch. Jae abruptly stopped talking and he shared a silent conversation with him for an obnoxiously long time.
“Clearly you were talking about me while I was getting food, so just fucking say it to my face?”
Jae looked away and cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Nox was just telling me how Esty thought you were dating,” Jae muttered as he stuffed his mouth with a bite of his sandwich.
I narrowed my eyes at them both, not fully believing the story. I decided I shouldn’t care so much if they were talking shit about me and accepted what was most likely a lie.
“Yeah, it was pretty funny when your mom thought we were having sex upstairs,” I finally said with a smirk in Enoch’s direction.
“What?” Jae’s eyes bugged and he slapped Enoch’s arm from across the table. “Dude, you never told me that part! Why did she think that? And y’all weren’t actually…were you?”
I flipped him off, but that just seemed to make him think we were hiding something.
“No, you fucktrumpet. We were not having sex.”
