Page 117 of You Saw the Best In Me

If confessing her situation and concerns brought back some of the life in her, I’m happy she felt safe enough with me to do so.

It will be a long road ahead, but I’m with her every step of the way.

KARINA

The hours passed like days while waiting for Mav to get here. I wanted to scream, kicking out every person who tapped on my door that wasn’t him.

Instead, I obliged every one of their demands.

Blood work, swabs of Asher’s blood on my body, photos of every injury down to the rash on my wrists and ankles from the zip ties.

Detectives wanted my statement over and over again. They questioned me as if they didn’t believe me, as if I made up this elaborate story just to kill my ex.

“You have my police report from home in your hands! You see that he was arrested with things that suspiciously looked like kidnapping tools. Why don’t you believe me?” I begged the female detective, and finally, she let up on the victim-blaming narrative.

After the pieces they stole from me satisfied them, I was free from visitors. Stewing in my recollection of events, I was forced to overthink every. tiny. detail.

Maybe I didn’t need to make him think I wanted sex from him. I could’ve used a different approach.

Maybe I shouldn’t have kissed his neck, and Maverick will probably think I crossed a line.

I probably didn’t have to distract him that way.

These scenarios swirled in my mind, numbing my entire body until I could barely breathe. A full-on panic attack crept in, and a nurse offered to take me outside for fresh air.

Bailee, the nurse, was the only one who treated me like a human since I’ve been here.

Everyone else saw me as a victim, a patient, or a lunatic. But Bailee understood how scared I was and how I just wanted Maverick.

“Come on, sweet girl. Let’s go in the courtyard and get your breathing right,” she had said, leading me onto the elevator.

I sobbed in her arms, finally feeling like someone cared about me.

Then, every emotion — good and bad — flooded me when I saw him standing in the waiting room. Instantly, I panicked again. Terrified to tell him what I did, how I survived.

Of course, my anxiety was for nothing.

He was proud of me and didn’t care what I had to do. He only cares that I’m alive.

All the fears I had that he’d love me less, or even leave me, were cast aside and burned at the stake.

Maverick Carter is by my side no matter what, and I couldn’t feel anything more comforting than his body pressed against mine.

His touch heals the parts of me that feel broken on the inside, but I can see the pain in his eyes when he sees the injuries on my body.

I’m scared of everything right now, practically trembling as we walk down the hallway together, but I know he’ll let me work it out at my pace.

That’s why he’s my guardian Angel. If he’d never shown up in my life, I wouldn’t have been able to escape Asher.

I wouldn't have the strength in my soul that I only get from fiercely loving and being loved by Maverick Carter.

“Are you sure about this? I can tell them to leave, trust me,” he laughs, and I tell him it’s okay.

Seeing people from home will be nice, and I want to talk to the girls.

Hunter and Adam stand when they see us coming, and their faces are plagued with sympathy.

“Thanks for hanging around,” Mav says to them, and they all bro-hug.