Page 14 of Forbidden Heart

I can barely make him out through the tears, but I nod just before another sob escapes. “I couldn’t stand it anymore. So I ran away.”

“And that’s when I found you,” Tate, who’s on the couch to my left, finishes for me. He pulls me protectively into his side, and as his warmth envelops me, I feel safe.

“The bruises on your arm,” Charles presses. “He did that?”

I nod, my hand instinctively going to my bicep, where Father had grabbed my arm and dug his fingers into my skin to stop me from singing.

“Why didn’t you just tell the doctor?” Tate demands.

You can’t do anything right, Father’s words bounce around in my head.

I let out a sob.

“Tate,” Charles snaps in warning and pulls me closer.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Roonie,” Tate tells me.

“We need to call the police,” JJ adds. He’s sitting on the coffee table in front of me, his elbows on his knees, his eyes level on mine. His usual flirty expression is completely gone, and I can hear the judgment in his tone. The criticism.

“Don’t, please,” I cry. “It wasn’t his fault.”

“The fuck it wasn’t his fault,” JJ shouts.

“I say we march over there right now,” Charles growls. “Give that man a little taste of his own medicine.”

I feel a wave of fear. Not fear of Charles, even when he looks more beastly than ever. Fear for him. Fear of Father.

“Charles, don’t!” I grab his arm. Even though he could easily pull away, he freezes. It’s almost like my touch somehow tames him. His entire body vibrates with tension, but he doesn’t move a muscle while I keep my hand on his.

“You’d protect him, after what he did to you?” Charles asks, his voice a low growl.

“N-no, I just...” I don’t know how to explain. Don’t know how to make the guys understand.

“He’s your father. He had no right to hit you. He had no right to do this to you!” Charles pulls his hand away from me, and I grab for it again.

“Charles, please. If you hurt him, you’ll get in trouble. Or... or... what if he comes looking for me?”

“We won’t let him come after you,” JJ says resolutely.

“We need to call the police,” Tate repeats JJ’s words from earlier.

“You can’t.” I shake my head vehemently. “They’d never believe me. And then everyone would know, and Father would hate me. And it was all my fault, and...”

“It was not your fault, Roo Roo!” Tate cries.

“No matter what happened,” Charles adds, “it was never your fault.”

“You weren’t there,” I whisper, even though there’s a truth in Charles’s voice that speaks to me. Even though a part of me knows that he’s right, and Father should never have hit me. Not even if I was annoying and I couldn’t stop humming and I could never do my chores right.

“Roo Roo, it was not your fault,” Tate repeats, more gently this time. “And if you went to the police, Dr. MacAulay would be a witness.”

“The campus doctor?”

“She asked me if I suspected someone was hurting you,” Tate says softly.

“Was that when she asked to talk to you in private?”

Tate nods.