Corbin was to the point.
“So unless your terrible is that same terrible, trust me, I’m not going to be horrified by what you say. I’m not going to run, and I’m not going to take it lightly. I’m an advocate for people who have been abused, and I can tell from how you run, and how you fight, that you’ve been a victim too.”
That hung there.
Alex was measuring out everything the man had said. He wanted to have hope, and he wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe, he might be able to finally find that safe place to hide. Only, he had to make sure.
“I was six. My parents did a lot of drugs. They ended up making drugs, and caught the house on fire. I climbed out on the roof, and I was saved. They weren’t.”
Corbin’s heart hurt for him. He’d been called to countless drug houses in Philadelphia when he was young. They were always traumatic to the kids.
“That had to be scary.”
Alex shrugged.
“It made me who I am today. You don’t forget your past,” he said, wishing he could.
Corbin said the only thing he could.
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
Alex actually laughed.
“That was the good part, Corbin. Trust me. Maybe we shouldn’t have this discussion.”
Corbin put his hand on the man’s knee.
“You have to trust someone. I’ll never break that trust if you open up to me. I’m not a dick.”
Deep down, Alex wanted his person, and he’d kill to be seen and loved. While he knew he could never give the words to anyone, he hoped his person would see and know.
“I was sent to live with my grandfather—my mother’s father and he was the most evil, horrible person on the face of the earth. He was a minister, and he believed in pain and suffering to teach a person character. He abused me a lot from the age of six to sixteen. At sixteen, I ran away, and I got picked up by a case worker. She was sweet, and she took care of me, until my grandfather got me back.”
Corbin just listened.
“He came for me, even though he didn’t want the burden of me in his life. I begged and pleaded with her. She knew all about the abuse and what he did to me. Still, she let him take me. I never recovered from that betrayal. She let him take me back into that house of horrors.”
Corbin went there.
“What did he do to you?”
Alex laughed, and he sounded so tired. Corbin knew how exhausting survival was. He’d fought to live, only to lose the one person who helped him stay afloat. Along with Will went his desire to live.
Corbin’s heart hurt for him.
“When he got me back, he was worse. He told me every day they died because of me. They died trying to make money. I should have been in the fire. He withheld food, affection, and anything to spare the rod or spoil the child. His whole goal was to make the demon living in his house repent for his sins—sins that weren’t mine. He wanted me to suffer for the sins of my parents, and the burden I was. At some point, I wanted to die.”
Corbin picked up his hand, and held it in his, giving him someone to hold onto as he relived it.
Because that’s what he’d want.
“I started working full-time, and doing community college full-time. I got a job as a cop, and then a detective, and along came Elizabeth and gave me a job in the FBI. By some miracle, she saw value in me, and thought I could be an asset. She’s the first person to believe in me. God knows I was a mess, until I was paired up with Noah.”
Corbin had never met the man, but he knew there was a fondness between the two of them.
“He saved me while I saved him. His fiancé was abusive, and I protected him. He became my whole existence. We worked together, came home together, lived together, and it was theONLYrelationship I ever had that I loved.”
God.
