Something shifts inside my chest, something dangerous, because I believe him. I shouldn't, but I do.
"What happened?" I ask quietly.
His gaze never leaves mine. "When I got there?"
I nod.
Lorenzo is silent for a second, but then he tells me everything. He tells me about Da trying to justify it.
I close my eyes because, of course, he did. There's always a reason, always an explanation, but never an apology.
When I open my eyes again, Lorenzo is watching me carefully. "Then what happened?"
His jaw tightens. "I broke his hand."
I stare at him, the bluntness of it shouldn't surprise me, yet somehow it still does. "You actually broke it?"
"Yes."
"Jesus."
"He should consider himself lucky."
I don't know whether to laugh or be horrified, possibly both.
"And Mam?"
Something dark flashes across his face, the humor disappears immediately.
"You hit her," I whisper, not horrified, just still in shock that he did it.
"I did."
I stare at him.
My entire life, Mam has been untouchable, because nobody ever challenged her.
Nobody ever stood in front of her and said enough. Not for me, never for me. And yet this man had walked into my childhood home and done exactly that.
Why? Why had he cared enough to do it?
The question must show on my face because something shifts in Lorenzo's expression.
He looks away first. "I should have—" He stops and drags a hand across his jaw. "There are a lot of things I should have done differently. The list is long. I'm aware of it."
My chest tightens.
He holds my gaze. "I'm not going to sit here and make you listen to me catalogue my mistakes. That helps me, not you." His voice is quieter now. "But I want you to know that I know them."
I look at him for a long moment. "I kept waiting for you to stop believing me," I say. The words come out softer than I intended.
He holds my gaze. "I'm not making that mistake again."
I breathe. Something in my chest does a slow complicated thing that I let happen without trying to name it.
"Thank you," I say. "For today. For my brothers coming. I think you had something to do with that."
"Daithí said he was coming regardless."
