He chuckles, hugging her back. “It’s good to see you, too, Mrs. Taylor.”
“It’s just Ronda,” she chides him with a faint smile. “You’re old enough to call me that now. And I dropped Taylor after the divorce.”
Heather appears in the doorway, her tone sharp. “What’s going on out here?”
Her eyes land on me, and the color drains from her face.
“Holy shit, Jay.” She rushes off the porch and grabs my cheeks, examining the bruises. “What happened?”
“Can we go inside, please, and I’ll tell you everything?” My voice wavers. I don’t want the entire neighborhood to hear this. “And, Heather, I’m sure you remember Aiden.”
She looks past me, realizing it’s not Ray standing next to me but another familiar face. I see the moment recognition dawns. “Damn, Aiden, you’ve got hot.”
Naturally, that’s the first thing that comes out of my sister’s mouth.
He thanks Heather with a quiet chuckle and a brief hug.
“Let’s go inside so you can tell us how this happened,” Heather insists.
We sit in the living room, with me and Aiden on the couch and my mom and Heather in the chairs across from us.
“Before I start,” I say, “please don’t interrupt. I need to get this out.”
They both nod in agreement.
My throat feels thick as I start, “It was Ray.” Admitting the truth brings a wave of shame. “He did this to me.”
In unison, they exclaim, “What?”
“Please. Let me finish.” The words come haltingly. I’m desperate to disconnect myself from what happened. “Things have been bad for a while. This isn’t the first time he’s gotten…physical.” I swallow hard and hesitate. “But this time…things got out of hand. He was really pissed at me about something, and…he hit me.”
My mom gasps, covering her mouth.
Aiden lightly touches my shoulder and whispers, “Jay, he did more than hit you. You need to tell them everything.”
I close my eyes, shame flooding over me as I admit the truth, allowing the painful details of what Ray did to me and the aftermath of trying to hold myself together to spill out before I lose my nerve.
When I’m finished, Heather’s whole body is stiff. “I’m going to kill that sorry son of a bitch. I can’t believe you didn’t come to meabout this. You know what I see every day. You could have trusted me with this,”
“I know I should’ve told you. I didn’t want to deal with what you’d say. I thought you’d overreact.”
“I’ll deal with that comment later,” Heather snaps, then exhales through her nose. “Have you seen a doctor or talked to the police?”
I take a deep breath and try to stay calm as I answer my sister’s questions. I knew she would react this way, but it’s still hard to get all of this out in the open.
“Aiden took me to urgent care this morning. My nose isn’t broken, but I have cracked ribs.”
Heather keeps pacing, the anger radiating off her. My sister can be intense on a good day, but right now, she’s a storm barely holding back. All I can do is sit here and hope she’s done asking questions. Talking about it out loud makes it all too real.
My mom finally speaks, her voice trembling. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. None of this is your fault. You hear me?” She kneels in front of me, taking my face in her hands again. “You didn’t deserve this. You didn’t cause this.”
Tears spill down my cheeks. I nod because getting out any words feels too heavy. I want to believe her, but I don’t. Not yet.
She hugs me hard enough to make my ribs ache. “I swear, if I ever see that man again, I’ll string him up by his toes.”
Heather sharply responds, “By his toes? I’ll string him up by his balls.”
“You and me both,” Aiden mutters.
