“But it didn’t matter.I got the restraining order.” My voice is hoarse. “He threatened me with vile things over messaging apps. I knew to take a screenshot. But I foolishly thought the piece of paper would be enough to stop him.”
Angela, one of the older women, offers me a tissue. “You did everything they tell us to do. There wasn’t anything else you could’ve done.”
I give her a weak smile. She means well even if she doesn’t know how wrong she is. Thereismore I could have done. I have resources most don’t.
I have my brother and an entire security firm willing to cross any line to make sure Aaron never hurt me again. But I’d been so embarrassed, so determined to handle it on my own, I hadn’t told anyone what was happening.
The first my brother knew about Aaron’s stalking was when the first responders called him from my phone. After that… Brady did what I’d always known he would. But Aaron’s death doesn’t weigh on my conscience.
But it was the part of the story I couldn’t share with these women.
“What happened to him?” Hannah asks quietly. At some point she’d taken my hand in hers, and I squeeze, grateful for the support.
I make a face. “The same thing that always happens when rich men are accused. He’d been smart enough to cut the power to my security system, and he wore a mask, so I couldn’t say for sure it was him. By the time the police went to his house to question him, his brother was there offering an alibi.” I shrug like it doesn’t matter. “With their money, they put up a wall of lawyers. He was attacked in a parking lot, and his parents were convinced I was behind it. He left town soon after.”
“I’m so sorry,” Bree, a thirty-year-old mom, breathes. “About…”
I can feel her eyes on my scars, and I feel my walls click back into place.
“It’s okay,” I assure her with a brittle smile. “Could have been so much worse.” A phrase I’ve repeated dozens of times. “It was cold out, so I had a coat on. And I heard him at the last second, so I had time to throw my arm up, and my neighbor was letting his dog out and rushed over with the hose. If not…”
I try not to think about how much worse my injuries would have been if Diego hadn’t been letting Zeus out and heard my screams.
Most of that period of time, just before and after the attack, is blank, but I’ve been told that it was Diego’s quick intervention with the garden hose that saved me from even worse disfigurement.
Dr. Swan meets my eyes and gives me a small nod. I’m sure she’s pleased with herself. It’s taken me almost two months to open up. The altercation with Joelle knocked something loose. And though I didn’t want to admit it… I feel better having shared it.
I listen as the other women give brief updates on their lives, but my word vomit took up most of the allotted time, and soon we’re back in Hannah’s car.
“I want to say I’m sorry that happened to you, but I don’t think you want to hear it,” she finally says into the quiet of the car.
I think about it for a minute. In the past, those words, even with the best of intentions, rubbed me raw. Maybe it’s because Hannah has suffered, too, or if after tonight, it feels like the wound has finally been lanced and some of the poison has drained away. It doesn’t bother me the same way it usually does.
“Thank you.”
She flicks the stalk next to her steering wheel, and the click of her turn signal sounds unnaturally loud as she prepares to turn into my parking lot.
“You don’t seem like you’re still afraid of him.” Her voice is careful. “I wish I could get that peace.”
“I’m not.”
When she pulls to a stop under the portico, she looks at me. Her eyes show more understanding than I expect. “You said he left town.” I hold still. “He’s not coming back, is he?”
I make my face blank, and she whispers. “Super-secret ninja shit. Good for you.” I stop breathing. Her hand rests on mine in my lap, and it takes everything in me not to recoil. “It’s okay. If I could get rid of...”
“I didn’t get rid of Aaron.” I say firmly, pulling my hand free and unlatching my belt.
She rolls her eyes. “Your brother?”
Fuck. I rack my brain trying to think what I’ve let slip. I won’t let anything happen to my brother, for what he did for me.
“I understand why you’d jump to that conclusion, but it’s not true.” I say evenly and meet her eyes.
“And none of the guys you work with did anything when they found out he hurt you?” She looks at me like ‘come on’.
I keep my tone even. “No.”
She arches a brow, unconvinced.
