8. Dominic #2
“I don’t know how to do that,” I admitted, the confession feeling like failure.
“I don’t know how to be supportive without being possessive.
I don’t know how to protect her without claiming ownership.
I don’t know how to love her without needing to control every aspect of her life to keep her safe. ”
“Then you figure it out. You learn. You grow. You become the person she needs you to be instead of the person your instincts are telling you to be.” Josh’s voice was gentle now, understanding.
“She needs support, Dom. She needs someone who will stand beside her while she deals with this, not someone who will take over and handle it for her. Can you be that person?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then you need to figure it out fast, because she’s going to need you tomorrow. She’s going to need you to be calm and supportive and rational, not possessive and violent and obsessed with retribution. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try.”
“Trying isn’t good enough. You need to actually do it.
” Josh paused, and I heard the sound of keys jingling.
“I’m coming to the arena. You shouldn’t be alone right now, and you definitely shouldn’t be making any decisions about what to do next without someone there to talk you down from doing something stupid. ”
“You don’t need to…”
“I’m already in my car. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t leave. Don’t do anything except skate and think about how you’re going to be there for Elena tomorrow without being the possessive asshole she was afraid you’d become.”
He hung up before I could argue.
I put my phone away and continued skating, Josh’s words echoing in my mind with uncomfortable accuracy.
Elena had been afraid of my reaction, afraid that my possessiveness would escalate into something dangerous.
She’d been right. My first instinct upon discovering the photographs had been violence, retribution, exactly the kind of response that would prove I was as dangerous as she’d feared.
I needed to be better than that.
I needed to be the person she could trust with the truth, the person who would support her through this without taking over, the person who could love her without needing to control every aspect of her life.
I didn’t know if I was capable of being that person.
Josh arrived exactly ten minutes later, still in sweatpants and a t-shirt, his expression a mixture of concern and determination. He didn’t say anything, just laced up his skates and joined me on the ice, skating beside me in silence.
We skated for an hour, the physical exertion gradually dulling the sharp edges of my rage. When we finally stopped, exhausted and breathing hard, Josh turned to me with the kind of serious expression that meant he was about to say something I didn’t want to hear.
“You need to decide what kind of man you want to be,” he said. “You can be the possessive asshole who proves Elena was right to be afraid of you, or you can be the supportive partner who helps her through this without making it about your own need for control. You can’t be both.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because from where I’m standing, you’re about two seconds away from hunting down this Marcus guy and doing something that will destroy everything you’ve built with Elena.
You need to choose, Dom. Right now. Before you see her tomorrow.
Are you going to be the man she needs, or are you going to be the man your instincts are telling you to be? ”
The question was simple, direct, devastating in its clarity.
I thought about Elena, about her grace, her strength, her vulnerability. I thought about the way she’d looked at me tonight, desperate and frightened and needing comfort. I thought about the photographs, the violation, the eight months she’d carried this burden alone.
She’d been right to be afraid.
I needed to prove she was wrong to stay afraid.
“I’ll be the man she needs,” I said finally, the words feeling like a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. “I’ll be supportive, not possessive. I’ll help her through this without taking over. I’ll be better than my instincts.”
“Good.” Josh clapped me on the shoulder, his expression softening slightly. “Now let’s get out of here. You need sleep, and you need to figure out what you’re going to say to her tomorrow when you go back.”
We left the arena together, the early morning air cold and clarifying. I drove home with Josh’s words echoing in my mind, trying to figure out how to be the person Elena needed me to be instead of the person I’d always been.
The photographs were still burned into my memory.
Elena and me together, intimate and vulnerable, documented by someone who had no right to witness those moments.
The violation demanded retribution, demanded consequences, demanded that I find Marcus and make him understand that Elena was mine and that watching her was a mistake he would regret.
I couldn’t do any of those things.
I had to be better than that.
I had to be the man Elena needed, not the man my possessiveness was demanding I become.
Tomorrow, I would go back to her apartment.
I would apologize for walking out. I would support her through the police investigation, the restraining order, whatever came next.
I would prove that I could love her without needing to control her, that I could protect her without claiming ownership, that I could be the partner she deserved instead of the obsessive asshole she’d been afraid I would become.
Tonight, I would try to sleep and fail, haunted by images of Elena and the violation that I hadn’t been able to prevent because she’d been too afraid to tell me the truth.
The irony was devastating.
She’d been afraid of my possessiveness, afraid that telling me about Marcus would transform me into something dangerous.
She’d been right. But her silence had allowed the violation to continue, had given Marcus access to moments that should have been private, had resulted in exactly the kind of escalation she’d been trying to prevent.
We’d both made mistakes. Tomorrow, we would figure out how to move forward despite them. Tonight, I would lie awake and plan how to be better, how to prove that I was worth the trust she’d been too afraid to give me.
The photographs were still out there, evidence of Marcus’s obsession and our violation.
The police would collect them, build a case, pursue charges.
The legal system would handle Marcus while I figured out how to handle myself, how to be the man Elena needed instead of the man my instincts demanded I become.
It should have felt like victory.
Instead, it felt like the beginning of something much more complicated, much more difficult, much more necessary than anything I’d faced before. I fell asleep as the sun was rising, exhausted and haunted and determined to be better tomorrow than I’d been tonight.