Chapter Fifteen #3
tell you.”
“I’m surprised my dad ran into my life like a bull in a
china shop.” She frowned. “Though I suppose I shouldn’t be.”
“He loves you.”
“And he’ll love you, too. Eventually. You know he did this
to Nicole, too. She was on the run from an abusive ex-husband, and my dad
didn’t want her getting her claws into Josh and Grim. You will note he was
happy at their wedding and paid for everything with a smile.”
He went quiet as though trying to decide what to do.
She kissed his cheek. She was content to sit here with him
while Garrett worked to get him out of this cell. She didn’t have to ask if
Garrett was trying. She knew. And she knew Keane. “You don’t have to tell me. I
don’t have to know all the facts to believe that you are a good man, a man I
want to build a future with. I didn’t let anyone tell me because this is your
story and it’s not gossip to share.”
He seemed to brace himself. “Then you should hold off on all
the pretty words because I did what they said I did. I don’t think I went in
wanting to kill him, but I would have if Garrett hadn’t been there to stop me.
I lost my head that night. I still don’t remember all of it.”
“Who were you trying to protect?” She knew that had to be
it. Deep down. He would only turn violent to protect someone else.
“Her name was Heather. She was fourteen. She acted tough,
and I suppose in some ways she was. Her parents left her with her grandma when
she was five and never came back for her. She told me once she couldn’t
remember them at all. They were old pictures her grandma cried over. After her
grandma died, they couldn’t be found and she went in. She caused a lot of
trouble, did some drugs, fought with other kids. So they put her in the group
home where everyone was older,” he explained.
Olivia couldn’t imagine it. She’d always been loved and
surrounded by family, even if they weren’t blood. If anything happened to her
parents, Uncle Julian would have stepped in. Or her sister, Lexi. She would
never have been allowed to go into foster care.
“The man who ran the home seemed kind.” There was a caution
to his words. Like he was used to not being believed about this. “His name was
Bob, and I liked him. I was wary, but he got through to me. He seemed to be one
of the good ones. Garrett didn’t. He always said there was something about Bob
that didn’t seem right to him. But Bob taught me how to fish. He would take me
out on the lake early in the morning, and he told me we didn’t have to talk. We
just needed to sit and be. I found such peace in those mornings. He seemed to
genuinely care about all of us. He would play games and make popcorn for movie
nights. For about a year, I thought it was the best place we’d ever been in.
Then Heather showed up. She wasn’t the only girl in the home, but she was the
one he… I don’t know how to put it. He picked on her. If she did the dishes, he
would point out all the flaws and make her do it again. He compared her to
everyone else. She would act out, try to run away, and the cops would bring her
back. Bob put a lock on the outside of her door and nailed her windows shut.
For her safety.”
Olivia knew it would be bad, but her gut tightened. She knew
what was coming next. “He started hitting her?”
“No. He would never do that. He would never leave a mark.
Physical violence wasn’t his thing. He appeared gentle, but you know there’s
always another side to a person. Heather had been in the house for several
months when it happened. I often wondered how long it had been going on. How
long she endured. One night I was thirsty and I got out of bed at two in the
morning and her door was slightly open. I heard something. I was worried, so I
looked in,” he said in a monotone. How many times had he been forced to tell
this story? “He was on top of her and she was crying. Our eyes met in the dim
light and she looked so hollow. Like she didn’t think anyone would help her.
She thought I would close the door and say nothing.”
She was sure that wasn’t how the story ended. “You didn’t.”
His head shook. “I did not. I pulled him off her. She said
something about not being a whore. That he thought she was a whore like her
mother. I saw red, and I don’t remember the rest until the cops came. I
remember Garrett yelling and pulling me off him and then the cops were there
and Heather wasn’t. She ran again. So there was no one to say what happened. I
dragged him out into the hall. He gave his story from his hospital room. I
attacked him when he found me with Heather. I was the one hurting her, and he
was the one trying to stop me. They believed him. The DA decided they couldn’t
get me on sexual assault since they couldn’t find Heather to testify and it
would be my word against Bob’s, but they charged me with attempted murder
because one of the other boys said he heard me telling Garrett I wanted to kill
him. He was lying, but they all loved Bob.”
How alone he must have felt. How utterly hopeless. “Did they
send you to juvie?”
“Baby, I was seventeen. They tried me as an adult. It was
funny because I had no idea why I reacted like that. Not at the time. The
public defender made me see a therapist who told me it was because I’d seen
something similar happen to my mother. Maybe more than once. I was a child then
and couldn’t help her.”
She ran her hand over his hair, a soothing gesture. “So you
were triggered. Master, I don’t care how bad it was. He deserved it all. Even
if you had killed him. She probably wasn’t his only victim. How bad was the
trial?”
“It didn’t get to a trial. I was young and scared, and they
offered me a deal. Twenty years or I risked more. I didn’t know what to do. I
took the deal because it seemed impossible. I even wondered if I saw what I saw
at one point. The prosecution had their own therapist. He asked a lot of
confusing questions. He made me think I wasn’t right in the head at that moment.”
She wanted to rip apart everyone who chose their own comfort
over his justice. “How did you get out?”
He should still be in jail.
“Heather came back. She’d cleaned herself up and been
through her own therapy. She also had a little girl with her.” He sounded so
broken it hurt. “I think that girl is what did it. She came back and told the
police what happened that night. They said she had no proof. She said she did.
DNA.”
Olivia’s eyes closed with the tragedy of it all. “Her
daughter. The bastard didn’t even protect her.”
“Needless to say, everyone wanted it cleared up quickly. For
the girl’s sake.”
“No, it was for all the adults involved who failed. They
failed. You get that, right? They railroaded you because the other choice was
far messier. They protected the system and allowed it all to continue rather
than facing the truth and cleaning it up. They swept you under the rug, and
they didn’t have to think about it again.” It made her sick, but she knew that
was how the world worked sometimes. “Did you push for a new trial?”
He seemed so weary. He was still talking, but his body had
relaxed. “Garrett was studying hard by that time. Prelaw. He knew a new trial
could take a long time, and there honestly was no guarantee. It was still
something of a he said, she said. Bob changed his story and said she came on to
him. It shouldn’t have mattered because at that time she was fifteen, but we
both know how the court looks at teen girls with records.”
She knew it all too well. “Yes. When it’s boys, the judges
don’t want to ruin their futures. When it’s girls, they’re viewed as older and
more manipulative than their years. A trial would have been hard on her, too.”
“Worse, it could have cost her custody if they decided it
was consensual no matter her age. It was a brave thing for her to come back.
She did it because she found out I was in jail. It was such a random thing. She
happened to see news of the trial on the Internet and how it ended up. She
hadn’t looked back for years, but when she found out, she stood up for me.”
How close had he come to losing everything? Some people
would say he already had, but she knew better. She knew wounds could heal. Love
could heal. It would take time, but he had a future with her and Garrett, and
she would fight for it. “I’m glad she did. How did it all work out? Is she
okay?”
His hand came up to cup the nape of her neck. He seemed to
be letting go of the horrible tension of moments before. “She’s good. The DA
came up with a deal that got me out, let Bob off, and gave Heather protected
custody of her daughter. I took what’s called an Alford Plea. It’s what they
offer when they know they got it wrong but don’t want to admit it. I was
released, and they didn’t have to worry about a lawsuit. And now I’m here
again.”
“You’re not,” she promised. “I’m going to deal with this. I
know you didn’t do it.”
“Of course I didn’t do it. I would never put you in danger
like that.” His cheek rubbed against her head. “Anything we do is just play and
consensual. Olivia…” He went quiet.
“You don’t have to say it.” The words would be hard for him.
It was enough that he showed his love through his actions. He took care of her.
He was thoughtful and always took her needs into account. She didn’t need
words.
“I love you, Olivia,” he whispered. “I don’t think I’ve said
those words since I was a kid.”
“Not even to Garrett?” Actually hearing the words was such a
revelation.
“Never to Garrett,” he replied.
She tilted her head so she could look up at him. “That
should change, Master. Both your subs need the words. And everything that comes
with them.”
He held her, and the night didn’t seem so cold.