Subject displays avoidant behavior consistent with a trauma response. Refuses to discuss interactions with staff. Recommended for continued observation.
No mention of the guard. No record of the abuse, visible to anyone who understands the signs. Only the evidence of its impact on my behavior.
Anyone like Gabriel, with his Rockfordconnections and resources, could read between these lines and piece together what happened to me.
Heat floods my cheeks, shame and rage mingling into a toxic blend that burns beneath my skin. I read every page, forcing myself to witness the full extent of the violation.
The file contains medical records, noting injuries consistent with physical altercations but failing to question their true origin. It documents my withdrawal, my silence, my eventual compliance, all without acknowledging the cause.
The last page contains a request for the release of sealed records, signed by a judge whose name I don’t recognize. The petitioner’s name has been redacted, but the date is recent.
Three days ago. A rush order, processed within hours of submission.
I close the folder with unsteady hands, bile rising.
Gabriel didn’t stumble across these documents by accident. He sought them out, using Rockford connections to access what should have remained buried.
The same Gabriel who held me through the night. Who touched me with gentle hands. Who confessed his insecurities about his place in the Rockford family.
All while investigating my past behind my back.
The betrayal knocks the wind from me, and I’m unable to process how he obtained these sealed records or why he kept them hidden from me. Possibilities race through my mind, none of them good. All of them painful.
How long has he known about my past? Was everything between us built on his knowledge of my weaknesses?
The car closes in around me, the scent of his cologne suffocating. I clutch the folder to my chest and exit the vehicle, not bothering to lock it behind me as I stride back toward my apartment.
My key slides into the lock, the familiar resistance giving way as I push open the door to find Gabriel coming out of the bathroom, hair dripping onto his bare shoulders, a white towel clinging to his hips.
He lights up when he sees me, and the adoring smile spreading across his features twists my stomach into knots. “That was fast. Did you forget your wallet?”
The words die as his attention catches on the folder in my hand.
Recognition registers, followed by panic, and the color drains from his cheeks. “I can explain.”
I place the folder on the counter with deliberatecare as I fight to contain the rage building beneath my skin. “Explain what? How you got access to sealed juvenile records? Or why you kept them hidden while fucking me?”
Gabriel takes a step forward, water droplets falling from his hair to trace paths down his chest. His hands rise in supplication, palms open as if approaching a wounded animal. “It’s not what you think.”
“Tell me what I think.” I remain motionless by the counter. “Tell me exactly what’s going through my head right now, since you know everything about me.”
His throat works as he swallows, Adam’s apple bobbing. “Sebastian discovered the bounty on you first. We needed to understand why someone would target you.”
“So you dug into my past.” The wall around my heart begins to rebuild, brick by brick. “You read about every fucked up detail of my childhood. Every incident report. Every psych evaluation.”
“Not everything.” He secures the towel slipping at his waist with trembling fingers. “Only what was operationally relevant.”
“And the part about what happened in juvie?” The question hangs between us. “Was that operationally relevant?”
Gabriel flinches. “No. I didn’t?—”
“Stop lying.” I struggle to hold myself together, my heartbeat pounding. “You figured it out before I ever shared it. Before I trusted you with the information.”
He takes another step toward me, water pooling beneath his bare feet on the linoleum. “Saint, please. Yes, I knew some of it, but not the details. Not what he did to you. Not how it affected you.”
“Get out.” The command cuts through the air between us.
Gabriel freezes, his body going rigid. “What?”
