Chapter Eighteen #2
She pulled her phone out in one last effort.
Ava: Are you okay? Please let me know you’re alright.
She willed him to answer her, and her heart almost stopped when she saw the three dots pop up.
Jay: yeah
Ava: The meeting…what happened? I’ve been so worried.
Jay: it’s done. i’m out.
Ava: Out? It’s official?
Jay: yeah
Ava: Jay, talk to me. What’s going on?
Jay: just need some space. tired.
Space. He never needed space.
The last time Jay had been like this was right before their breakup five years ago.
And now she knew he was drinking again and knew he was lying about being fine.
Ava pocketed the phone and took a breath. Then another.
She couldn’t fall apart right now. Not when Mira was in that room and needed her to be okay.
She straightened her spine and walked toward the nurses station.
One problem at a time. One crisis at a time.
She’d figure out what to do about Jay later.
Almost twenty-four hours later, Ava handed Mira a plate of steaming lasagna as Binx burrowed into her lap. He was extremely pleased with his new roommate and the fleece blanket draped over her.
“Sure you don’t need anything else?”
Mira shook her head, balancing the plate with one hand and scratching the cat’s head with the other. His purrs rumbled through the quiet apartment.
“I can also move Binx if he gets to be too much,” Ava said, nodding to the happy feline.
“Nah, I like him. He’s like a little heating pad.”
She looked better tonight, even if her bruises were now a deep purple beneath the splint stretched across her nose. The CT scan had come back clear—no internal bleeding, no organ damage. Only the fractured nose. Mira had gotten lucky.
Before bringing her here from the hospital, Ava had made sure Mira understood the risks of strangulation, the delayed complications that could show up days later.
She’d handed her a prescription for ibuprofen 800 and a small stack of pamphlets: domestic-violence hotlines, safety-planning guides, legal resources.
“Just…in case,” Ava said softly. “You don’t have to do anything with them right now. Just keep them close.”
Mira had nodded, her fingers fidgeting with the edges of the papers as she’d gathered her things.
Now, as Mira recovered and Binx purred, Ava’s phone sat silent on the coffee table. Jay still hadn’t called. Still hadn’t texted beyond those one-word responses about being out of the band.
Every time she’d opened her mouth to ask Mira what else Riley had said about that meeting, she’d stopped herself. Mira needed to heal, not worry about Ava’s spiral.
In an attempt at normalcy, she curled up at the other end of the couch, her own plate of lasagna in hand, and tried to focus on the person in front of her.
Mira barely touched the food, pushing it around with her fork. She seemed lost in thought until she looked up at Ava with a sad smile.
“Thanks again for taking me in.”
“Of course. Anytime you need me, I’m here. Always have been.”
Mira’s eyes drifted to the coffee table where her phone buzzed, the screen lighting up with Riley’s name. This had to be the seventh call in the last hour.
Ava had watched this pattern all afternoon. Riley called every few minutes, and Mira would stare at her phone like it was a live grenade. She would never answer, but she would never block him either.
“You don’t owe him anything, you know.”
Mira tore her eyes from her phone and sniffed. “I know…but why do I feel bad ignoring him?”
Ava set their plates on the coffee table. Food could wait.
“You feel bad because you care about him.”
“But why do I care?” She leaned down to wrap her arms around Binx, who was surprisingly patient with his new friend and allowed it. “After everything…why?”
“You said there was a time he didn’t treat you like this.”
Mira nodded, her fingers swirling through Binx’s fur. “He gave me everything: a safe place to live, food, peace of mind, love and attention…” She took in a breath. “I’ve known for a while I should leave, but it’s not that easy.”
Ava’s chest tightened. She thought about Jay and how she’d stayed even when things got hard—when he drank too much, when his moods swung. But that had been different. Jay had never hurt her, and he’d left specifically to avoid hurting her. What Mira was describing was something else entirely.
“How did it start?” Ava asked carefully. “You and Riley?”
Mira pulled her knees carefully to her chest. For a moment she didn’t say anything, just worked her fingers through Binx’s fur.
“Riley’s been around forever, you know. Since I was little.
” She paused. “He didn’t—it wasn’t like he came out of nowhere.
He was always...around. Jay and Ari’s friend.
” Her jaw tightened. “I wanted to learn guitar. Jay kept saying he’d teach me, but he never made time for it.
And one night Riley—he saw me messing around with Jay’s guitar after rehearsal and he sat down and showed me some stuff. ”
She stopped.
“He was good at that. Noticing things.” Her voice went flat. “My brothers never noticed anything.”
Ava stayed quiet, letting her find the thread again.
“Back then they’d be gone for days at a time.
And it didn’t matter if they were back in town because I still wouldn’t see them.
They had the same schedules as Riley—same band, same everything—but Riley would come check on me.
” She shook her head slowly. “I was alone with Dad a lot. And Dad was...” She didn’t finish that sentence.
“Riley would just show up. Bring food. Sometimes he’d take me for a drive because I needed to get out of the house. ”
She laughed quietly, but there was nothing happy in it.
“He gave me a key to his apartment. Said I could come over whenever. And I did. All the time.” A pause.
“He gave me his bed. Slept on the couch. Helped me with homework. When things got really bad at home he’d give me weed to take the edge off.
” Her fingers stilled in Binx’s fur. “My own brothers were in the same fucking band as him. Same schedules. They just...didn’t. ”
“Mira—”
“I know.” Her voice sharpened, defensive. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.”
Mira looked at her sidelong, unconvinced.
Then her shoulders dropped. “It wasn’t all bad.
I need you to understand that. For a long time it was—he was good to me.
He was really good to me.” She swallowed.
“He helped me with the paperwork to get away from Dad when I turned seventeen. Got me my first phone. My first car. Helped pay my tuition.” She took in a breath. “I mean. I know how that sounds now.”
She picked at a loose thread on the blanket.
“He’d always say—he still says—that Jay and Ari chose the band over me.
Chose getting high over me. But he stayed.
” Her voice cracked on the last word. “And I fell in love with him. Of course I did. How was I supposed to not?” She wiped at her face carefully, avoiding her nose. “He was the only person who stayed.”
She went quiet, staring down.
“Sometimes I think he saw a dumb kid in a bad situation.” Her voice dropped to almost nothing. “Easy to take advantage of.”
“You’re not dumb,” Ava said. “You were a child.”
Mira didn’t answer. She pulled Binx into her, burying her face briefly in his fur.
Ava moved closer, placing her hand on Mira’s knee. “You did what you had to do to stay safe when you were a kid, but you’re not a kid anymore. You don’t have to keep surviving like this.”
“Then what do I do?” Mira finally looked at Ava, her eyes desperate. “He knows where the condo is. He knows where I go to school. He’s already called Maya a bunch asking about me. I have so much stuff at our place. My whole life is tangled up with him.”
“First, we document everything: every call and every text. Then we talk about a restraining order, and then we can figure out how to get your things safely.”
“Jay’s going to lose his mind when he finds out.” Mira sighed. “He already beat Riley up at the meeting. If he knows Riley did this again…”
Ava’s chest felt heavy again. She needed to see Jay—needed to understand what was happening, why he was drinking, and why he was shutting her out. But Mira was here, bruised and scared, and leaving her alone wasn’t an option. Neither was dragging her into whatever spiral Jay was in the middle of.
“You can’t tell him about this.” Mira reached out and gripped her hand. “Please, Ava. Promise me.”
Ava wanted to argue. Jay deserved to know his sister had been hurt, but Mira was looking at her with such fear and desperation that Ava heard herself say, “I promise.”
Mira’s phone began buzzing again.
“You should block his number.”
Mira stared at her phone. “He’ll call from another number. He always does.”
“Then we document that too. Every number he uses. Every time he tries to get around your boundaries.” Ava stood, pulling Mira up with her and earning a tiny, unhappy sound from Binx. “Come on. Let’s start a paper trail, even if you’re not ready to file a report yet.”
They spent the next hour going through Mira’s phone, screenshotting calls and texts. By the time they finished, Mira looked like she’d run a marathon, her movements slow and pained despite the medication.
“You should rest,” Ava said, guiding her toward the bedroom. “I’ll take the couch again tonight.”
“Ava—”
“Non-negotiable. You need actual sleep.”
Mira nodded, too tired to argue. As Ava turned to leave, Mira’s voice stopped her.
“You know, for an only child, you make a pretty great big sister.”
Ava’s throat tightened. “Get some sleep, Mir.”
She closed the bedroom door and stood in the living room, finally alone with her thoughts.
Settling onto the couch, she picked up her phone and pulled up Jay’s contact. She stared at the call button before opening their text thread instead.
Ava: I’m coming over tomorrow. We need to talk.
She hit send before she could second-guess herself.
Three dots appeared immediately. Then disappeared. Then appeared again.
Jay: ok
Not “I can’t wait to see you.” Not “I miss you.” Not even “what time?”
Just “ok.”
Ava set the phone down and sank further into the couch, Binx immediately jumping into her lap.
Tomorrow. She’d see him tomorrow and figure out what the hell was going on.
She hoped she’d be ready for whatever she found.