Chapter Twelve
Emma
“S he’s in here,” Mom says, tone fierce and protective. “I made sure to preserve the evidence.”
Evidence?
I can’t stop crying. Shame coats me, clogging my pores and seeping into my lungs. I’m going to suffocate on it.
Where is Reid?
Why did he leave me?
A man in uniform slowly enters the bedroom. Through bleary, burning eyes, I recognize him to be a policeman.
“Emma? I’m Sheriff McMahon. You okay?”
“Okay?” Mom hisses. “That pedophile rapist was choking her to death! Look at her neck!”
I blink rapidly, sending more hot tears racing down my cheeks. Reaching up, I touch the wet streaks on my skin. Not that long ago, everything was perfect. Beautiful and wonderful and loving.
And then it all exploded in the blink of an eye.
“Ma’am,” the sheriff says gently. “Let me talk to her, please.”
Mom huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. “Just do your job.”
She’s never hateful or cruel, so her words feel foreign to me.
“Your mom said you were assaulted by her boyfriend?” Sheriff McMahon asks, squatting down in front of where I’m sitting on the end of Reid’s bed. “Are you hurt?”
Awareness trickles in and I meet his intense stare. “What? They broke up.”
“Just barely.” Mom scoffs and paces the floor near us. “Who knows how long this was going on for.” A sob rips from her. “Oh God. I was supposed to protect her and I put her in the den of a lion. It’s all my fault.”
To his credit, Sheriff McMahon ignores her theatrics, keeping his focus on me. “Tell me everything.”
“We got close and recently sort of fell into each other,” I explain, voice wobbling. “I’m eighteen. It was consensual.”
“She’s covering for him,” Mom shrieks. “Why is she covering for him?”
“I’m not,” I cry out, heart hammering in my chest. “They broke up and we hooked up. That’s it. Mom walked in on us and drew her own conclusions. I’m sorry we wasted your time when there are real emergencies going on out there.”
Sheriff rises to his feet. “That’s the truth, Miss Abrams?”
“Yes.”
Mom shakes her head in frustration. “No. Go arrest him. I know where he’s at. Your own employee—his best friend—three doors down is no doubt hiding him. We need to do the rape kit.”
“I wasn’t raped,” I blurt out, finally meeting my mom’s wild glare. “Stop with all this.”
She blinks several times and shudders. “I was supposed to protect you.”
“He did nothing wrong!” I slide off the end of the bed and push past them to my room. “I get that you love me, Mom, and want to keep me safe, but you’re the one hurting me right now.”
I ignore the gasp from her as I shoot Ava a text, asking if she can come get me.
Brayden is my friend, but he’s too close to the situation.
Literally. I need to get away from all this.
Once I confirm she’ll be here in the next fifteen minutes, I pack a bag, shoving a few nights’ worth of clothes inside.
“Where are you going?” Mom asks, voice cracking and losing the fire. “Are you coming with me?”
I yank the zipper closed and whirl on her. “No, mother. I’m getting away from you. And when things cool off, I need to find Reid and apologize to him. If I know him, he’s beating himself up over this entire ordeal.”
“As he should,” she spits out. “He’s a monster.”
Anger bursts out of me like lightning, zapping the closest person to me. Mom.
“Enough.” I storm over to her and grab hold of her shoulders. “I’m telling you woman to woman that it was one-hundred-percent consensual.”
Tears well in her eyes and she shakes her head.
“And daughter to mother, it was after you two broke up.” I chew on my bottom lip to keep the tears at bay. “I’m sorry we’ve hurt you, but I’m not sorry for loving him.”
She scoffs. “You don’t love him!”
“I love him more than you ever did,” I accuse, unable to keep from crying. “You used him, Mom. He’s a wonderful man who deserves to be taken care of and adored. You leeched onto him and took and took and took. We’re not victims in this. He’s not the bad guy.”
“Honey—”
I hug my mother, cutting off her argument. “I love you, Mom. We can talk when you’ve cooled off. Send the sheriff away, please.”
Her whole body shakes with sobs as she hugs me and then worsens when I peel myself out of her grip. Sheriff McMahon gives me a grim smile and a nod as I pass. My mom was wrong about this, and he knows it.
Outside, Ava hasn’t arrived yet, so I start down the road toward the direction where she lives. Within a few minutes, she pulls up in her shiny mom SUV and shoots me a worried look.
“I just need to get away,” I choke out. “My family just blew up.”
Ava reaches over to take my hand. “Oh, Emma. I’m so sorry.”
At least she understands the complications of loving an older man.
“You don’t have to clean,” Quinn says, frowning. “We have a person who does that.”
It’s been three days since I came to stay with Quinn and Ava. They’ve been so kind and caring. Helping cleaning up after dinner is the least I can do.
“It keeps my mind busy,” I tell him with a forced smile. “You sure you two don’t need a date night? I’ll work for free.”
“We’re good.” He scoops June out of her highchair and sits her on his hip. “Right, Ju-Ju-Bee?”
She lays her head on her daddy’s shoulder, and he pats her gently. My heart aches inside my chest. I want a family of my own. One that doesn’t involve jumping from man to man like my mom. I want love and companionship and friendship. I want a partner to build something with together.
Like Reid .
I could almost taste the future with us.
Ava hurries back into the kitchen and then shoos the rest of her family out so that it’s just the two of us. When we’re alone, she pulls me into a warm embrace. Mom was wrong. These people don’t want me beholden to them for money. They actually care about me. Ava is my friend.
“When are you going to talk to him?” Ava asks. “You know men are terrible at speaking their truths. Quinn is the worst. Sometimes you have to beat it out of them.”
I chuckle as I try to imagine sweet little Ava beating anyone, much less her gruff, old husband.
“Come on,” Ava says. “Let’s go grab an iced coffee and sit somewhere.”
We drive through one of the chain places and grab our favorites before she parks near a pond that’s busy with geese waddling around. The two of us remain in the vehicle, sipping our coffees and watching the birds do their thing. Finally, she speaks again.
“What about your mom? Have you spoken to her?”
Guilt claws at my chest. “I answered her texts, but I send her calls to voicemail. I just can’t with her right now.”
She’s quiet for a moment and then says, “I get that, but she’s still your mom. This situation between you is complicated and messy. She doesn’t seem to know how to navigate it either. Can you give her some grace?”
I’ve thought about it from my mom’s point of view a lot.
She’s worked her whole life to take care of me and see to it that my needs were met.
Reid was just another landing place in the journey that was our life.
It was different with him, though. I got attached.
And, as I became a woman myself, I fell for the man she couldn’t see who was right in front of her.
“She took him for granted,” I say bitterly. “And then blames him for us getting together. It was my fault too, you know.”
“It’s easier to blame him,” Ava agrees. “You’re always going to be her baby girl.”
My heart throbs painfully. I miss Mom. Her hugs, our shopping trips, all the fun times between us.
“Something’s going on with her.” I gulp down my coffee as I ponder the idea of it. “It’s like she put distance between us and now she’s mad I grew close to the person she left me with.”
Ava nods. “So, there’s more to this than you just having sex with her ex.”
“Yes,” I blurt out in frustration. “She left me to fend for myself. It’s fine. I’m eighteen. I’ve got this, but…”
“She was your best friend, and you felt abandoned.”
Tears blur the pond and geese scene before me. It’s the truth. When Mom started acting strangely, I naturally gravitated toward Reid. He became my person. Now she’s angry with me for sleeping with him, but she is negating everything she did that got us there.
“What about Reid?” Ava asks. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need, but you’re going to have to speak to him, too, eventually.”
This one hurts worse, I think.
We’ve both gone radio silent.
Mom continually blows up my phone and drives by Ava’s like a stalker, but Reid has essentially disappeared.
I know him. It’s because he’s eaten alive with guilt.
In his warped mind, leaving me alone to repair my relationship with my mother is more important than me being with him.
This is so him. Sacrifice his own happiness for others.
“He knows how to text or call,” I state bitterly. “Is he even concerned about how I feel?”
Ava sighs and then reaches over to touch my arm. “Reid is older than your mother. The way he thinks is going to be vastly different than how you think.”
Ouch.
So, he’s an adult and I’m the inexperienced kid.
“His savior complex is destroying his joy,” I mutter, shaking my head. “Why can’t he just be selfish and go for what he wants for a change? Why does he always have to be the martyr?”
“Because he’s a man.” Ava laughs. “Men like Reid and Quinn are wired that way. They’re protective to a fault, even if they think they’re protecting you from them. It’s a personality flaw for sure.”
We both giggle. It’s better than crying.
“Right now, you’re hurting, and I get that.
It’s warranted,” Ava says softly. “But soon, you’re going to have to put your big girl panties on and sort out your life the way you want it.
That means having difficult conversations with people you love.
It means hurting some to love others. That’s life, unfortunately.
It doesn’t mean you still can’t carve out your happily ever after, though. ”
Silence fills the vehicle again. It’s easier to hide out at Ava and Quinn’s house with their adorable children. I can pretend my life isn’t a clusterfuck. But that’s immaturity. If I want to be a grown woman who does adult things with a man like Reid, then I need to act like one.
“Ugh,” I groan. “Why do you have to be so reasonable? It’s annoying.”
She snorts out a laugh. “You’re welcome.”
Overcome with sudden emotion, I reach over the console to hug her. She holds me tight and kisses my head. I’m glad I applied for this job with them because I gained a great friend who feels like the big sister I never had.
“Thanks for everything,” I murmur.
“Of course. We’re practically family now. The kids call you Auntie Em.”
My heart swells. Her young boys adore me, and June thinks I hang the moon.
“I guess my pitiful vacation from reality is over, huh?”
She pats my head. “It was fun while it lasted. Time to be the strong, badass woman I know you are.”
Ava is right .
No more crying. No more hiding from my problems.
It’s time to fight for what I want.
What do I want?
I want my relationship back with my mother, but I also want Reid. There has to be a middle ground, and I’m determined to find it.