Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
She isn’t excited to see him. She’s petrified. But Detective Pascall’s rant exposes only those who know Mara well can read her expressions. “I gave him over a decade of my life, I birthed his child and helped him set up his practice, and he repaid me by sleeping with a woman who was barely legal.”
My fists clench so fast my knuckles pop when she has the gall to sneer at Mara at the end of her sentence, but before I can add words to my nonverbal response, Mara says, “I wasn’t legal the first time he raped me. I was just a child.”
Rafael’s cuss is faint.
Mine is nowhere near as quiet.
I want to hold her again and promise I will never let anyone hurt her, but when a bull wants to charge, you must let it charge.
Mara needs this. She needs to dispel the fear, which hasn’t stopped weighing down her shoulders since she learned how close her father was to Tillie’s school, so she can start living again.
Her father was in the same town as Tillie, but he wouldn’t have gotten close to her. Darius would have never allowed that to occur, and neither the hell would have I.
“I wasn’t even the age your daughter is now.” Tears gloss Mara’s eyes as they flicker through horrid memories. “The first time they hurt me, I rode my bike to the emergency department.” I have no regrets for what I did when she whispers, “My father used the hardness of my bike seat and the length of my trip to excuse the blood in my underwear when the hospital called him to advise him that I had sought medical assistance. The second time…” I’m at her side in an instant when she chokes on her words. “He blamed the saddle on the ponies he hired for my birthday party. The th-third—”
“That’s enough. She’s been through enough.” I dance my begging eyes between Detective Pascall and Sonova. “Don’t make her go through more. Please.”
After wiping away the tears streaming down her face, Mara says, “My father had an excuse for every horrible thing that had happened to me so he could hide his own malicious crimes.” I see the train coming. I hear it clattering along the tracks. But the words leave her mouth before I can push her far enough away from the collision to stop her from getting hurt. “So when I thought he was going to do the same to my daughter, I made sure he couldn’t.”
“No!” I shout, my voice a roar. “She doesn’t understand what she’s saying. She is traumatized from me admitting to what I did.” I cup Mara’s cheeks and align our eyes. “Tell them the truth. Tell them what really happened.”
Nothing but love beams from her eyes when she whispers, “I just did.”
“No,” I shout again as Detective Sonova stands to her feet, removing her cuffs on the way. “She’s lying. She isn’t telling the truth. She is trying to protect me.” I return my eyes to Mara, wet and begging. “Please tell them the truth.” I switch tactics when I realize there’s only one person who can save her from herself. “Don’t do this to Tillie, Mara. Save her from this.”
She smiles like she didn’t just confess to murder before saying, “I don’t need to save her from this because you already did.”
As she’s cuffed and read her rights, Mara keeps her drenched eyes on me. They repeat the same three words again and again and again.
I trust you.
It is in that instance I know what I must do.
I fight, and I fight hard.
When Mara is walked out of my apartment, I bark orders like everyone in my realm is beneath me. I order Detective Sonova to keep Mara in a private cell, I tell Mara not to talk to anyone without a lawyer present, and I instruct Rafael to get me the best defense attorney in the country like he isn’t already on the phone doing precisely that.
I take control as I should have decades ago, my tirade only ending when the faintest snivel sounds through my one good ear.
Tillie’s ashen cheeks as she hides behind Mrs. Lichard’s somewhat curvy frame announces she is aware of her mother’s plan, as does the quiver of the breath she releases when she spots her father on the open screen of my laptop. She is as devastated as me but vainly trying to keep it together because she trusts that her mother would never lead her astray.
Her faith is admirable, and it has me doing something I haven’t done in years. I close my laptop screen before bobbing down and holding out my arms in offering.
She runs into my arms in an instant, almost knocking me over with the strength of her hug.
Once I have her tucked under my arm, I promise to make everything right.