Chapter 9 #2
I wanted to sidestep the question, but she deserved to know the truth. “I’m not going to uncover all the details, but Stella, your sister, was the one who finally destroyed him.”
She sat back, shocked by my admission. “Why . . . you know, maybe it’s better I don’t know all the details.”
“You deserve to know the truth, but I don’t want you to think your siblings are bad people. They each have justifiable reasons for the decisions they’ve made, and I swear to you, they are good people who made tough choices for the right reasons.”
“I just wish I could figure out how my mother met him.”
“Your Granny never told you about him?” I asked, and she shook her head.
“Give me a minute, would you?” she asked as she went to stand.
I stood with her and stopped her from leaving by pulling her into my arms and hugging her close to me. Kissing the top of her head, I felt her relax into the hug as she draped her arms around my waist and pressed her head to my chest.
“I know you and I are brand new, but I need you to trust that I would never let anything else happen to you. No matter who agreed what to whom, you’re mine, and no one gets to hurt you and live.”
She leaned back and looked up at me as she asked, “You mean that, don’t you? You’d kill someone for me.”
Worried she feared the demons I fought to keep locked up, I cautiously inquired, “Is that a bad thing?”
She placed her head back against my chest as she responded, “It’s the best thing ever.”
I squeezed her, realizing I’d been falling in love with her for months, and it was that exact moment I recognized it.
Not wanting to scare her away with talk of love and forever, I kissed her again and said, “Take care of what you need to while I make us fresh cups of coffee and grab something from my truck.”
She nodded against my chest before I reluctantly released my hold on her and followed her inside.
She walked into the bedroom while I placed a cup under the machine, replaced the pod with a new one, and pressed the button.
Leaving the machine to do its thing, I grabbed my keys, unlocked the front door, and walked outside to my vehicle.
There was a small baggie in the center console, and after slipping it into my pocket, I walked back inside, securing the door behind me.
I switched the cups out in the kitchen and waited for the second one to finish as I watched her carry a small box and some files to the back porch. After sweetening the coffees with the creamer she had in the fridge, I walked outside and placed her cup down as I retook my seat.
Hannah was busy going through the box, lifting out single pieces of paper, scanning them quickly, and repeating the process until she found what she was looking for. She handed me a few papers and sat back while I looked over them.
One was a letter from her Granny that I assumed she’d received after her death, and in it, the old lady outlined how her daughter left, tried to return, and then disappeared again. Looking over the paper, I asked, “So, your Granny wasn’t aware of you until after your mother left?”
Hannah shook her head. “She assumed my mother was lying about me until the state let her know I was in the system. The birth certificate we found at the courthouse had a name listed for my father, but I’m not sure he’s even a real person.”
“Do you have a copy of it?”
She nodded, reached into the box, and pulled out her birth certificate. Skimming it, I didn’t see anything out of sorts, but it was a photocopy, so the original needed to be inspected.
Another paper she handed me was a handwritten letter. The more I read, the angrier I got. I turned it over to hide the words as I stroked her cheek softly. “I’m so sorry you had to live through that. I just wish we could’ve gotten there sooner to stop it from happening.”
The letter was her account of what she’d experienced while she was in the house we rescued her from. It included small things she noticed, conversations she overheard, names of people she’d encountered, and physical descriptions of them filled the page.
“My therapist said writing down what I remembered would help, but truthfully, I felt worse afterward,” Hannah admitted, swiping under her eyes to remove the tears that fell.
Reaching into my pocket, I knew this was the right time for what I’d retrieved, so I pulled out the baggie and handed it to her. She looked at it and back to me before asking, “Is that a joint?”
“Yes, and unless you’re completely against using it, I’d like for you to see if it helps calm you down.
There are some difficult things we need to talk about, and I don’t want to upset you any more than I already have.
” I paused before adding, “And I need for you to explain why you think you’re no good for me, because I heard your admission last night as you were falling asleep. ”
Hannah shook her head and took the joint from me before lighting the end. She inhaled and blew the smoke into the air as she said something that made me want to kill the fucker who hurt her and destroy anyone connected.
“You deserve someone who isn’t a slut.”
“Who called you a slut?” I roared at an elevated tone before lowering my voice and asking nicely, “Who said that to you? Because they’re a dead man.”
“The man who . . . he said I was a slut because . . .”
“Why, baby? Please tell me,” I whispered as I left my chair and kneeled next to hers.
She looked out at the empty yard instead of at me as she softly replied. “I . . . finished . . . during . . . I didn’t want to, but it happened.”
She didn’t need to say anything else. I pulled her into my arms and hugged her close to me as she began to cry.
As she purged the pain from her soul, I whispered words of how strong she was, how she did nothing wrong, and how she couldn’t let his words affect her.
She couldn’t help the physiological reactions her body had to her attack, and if it was the last thing I did, I was going to wipe every memory of that stupid fucker from her mind and replace them with memories of me worshipping her.
And I would make sure the next time she finished, it would be with my tongue between her legs.