Page 197 of On the Breakaway

“He’d go through my phone sometimes just to look for a reason to fight, I think. And if there was nothing, he’d check my location while I was out until he had a reason.”

Harper mutters, "Jesus."

“He always said if I really loved him, I wouldn’t need anyone else.”

“What the fuck?” Sloane blurts.

I stare at the floor harder. “He took my keys once.”

My stomach twists.

“Okay, it was more than once.”

That earns hard silence.

I’m too terrified to look up and see pity in their eyes, so I add, “But I got out before anything really bad happened, I promise. I knew it was wrong.

Nobody says anything for several seconds.

Then—

“Avery.” Harper’s voice cracks.

I look up to see that, despite my reassurance, everyone looks horrified.

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Avery.”

“It wasn’t.”

“It was.” Wesley’s voice is flat.

I wince.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Wesley doesn’t sound angry anymore, just defeated, as if her not knowing the situation somehow let me down.

The question hits hard because the answer feels pathetic now.

“At first, I was embarrassed because I let it happen”

“You didn’t let it happen.”

“I stayed for a year.” My voice comes out sharp. “I made excuses for him. I thought he’d change. I kept thinking that if I just stopped fighting with him, everything would be fine.”

Shame burns through me.

“So yeah. I was embarrassed.” My throat tightens. “But then so much time went by, and everyone assumed I was fine. And I wanted to be fine. I just thought if I could pretend long enough, eventually I would be. I’d forget about it. Forget about him.”

“Aves.” Sloane studies me for a long moment. “If you've spent months refusing to trust Grayson because of what he did, then you never really forgot about it at all.”

Damn it.

I hate when she’s right.

“I know.”