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“He made me believe I was worthless. That I was lucky he’d even given me a chance and that I didn’t deserve him or anyone. The things he would call me, words he still uses—they’re horrific.”
“Baby …” I pressed my forehead against hers, stroking my thumbs over the corners of her mouth, thinking of how I was going to wrap her up and take her straight back to bed the moment this conversation was over. How I wasn’t leaving her side until she was due to fly again with the Daltons.
The executive team could wait to hear the Edinburgh news. Lily needed me more.
I carefully pulled back, still keeping our faces close. “How did you get out?”
“I had to outsmart him, which was so difficult, given how much access he had to me.” She put her hand on top of mine. “I had to move quickly, leaving when he was out on a job, renting the first apartment I found, getting my job back at the airline. I was in the air the next day.”
“When he figured out you were gone, he blew the fuck up, didn’t he?”
She sighed. “Within a week, he found out where I lived and would bang on my door for hours. I’d destroy my phone and get a new one, and like I told you, he’d somehow get the number. But that’s not all …” Her exhale this time was labored. “He’d show up at the airport and at my favorite coffee shop. Wherever I was, he was there, too, trying to bully me into being with him, ridiculing me for the decision I’d made.” She paused to catch her breath.
“When I couldn’t take it anymore, I moved into a hotel. At least there, he couldn’t knock for hours without getting kicked out. The knocking did stop when I relocated to the hotel, but he would still wait for me in the lobby and follow me to the elevator.”
“When Aubrey told me she was going on maternity leave and that the Daltons were looking to hire a temporary flight attendant, I literally jumped at the opportunity.”
With every description she gave, I hurt even more for her.
This wasn’t a way to live.
And that was the whole thing—she hadn’t been living. She’d been surviving because this motherfucker wouldn’t stop punishing her.
“How long has this been going on?”
“A little over a year.”
My brows shot up. “You’re fucking kidding me …”
“Twelve-plus months, and he’s still texting and calling, screaming when I don’t answer, tossing every accusation my way.”
“Verbally abusing you.”
Fat tears immediately filled her eyes. “I hate that I have to admit that, that it even happened to me, that I allowed it.”
The pieces were finally fitting together.
“Now, I know why my assistant couldn’t find you online,” I told her. “If you had a social media presence, who knows what he’d do?”
She nodded.
He had ruined her life for long enough.
As of today, that was coming to an end.
I wasn’t a perfect man. Shit, I was so fucking far from that. But I could give her two things that she hadn’t had in over a year.
Or possibly ever.
The first was love.
I didn’t exactly know what that was, what it entailed, what it even meant, but the way I felt about her, the way I wanted to protect her, the things I wanted to give her, the amount of time I wanted to spend with her was different than I’d ever felt before.
That had to be love.
The second was freedom. She didn’t have to worry about him showing up wherever she was, her phone filled with texts and voice mails of his abuse. She was going to live her life and experience the things she’d missed out on because of him.
That I would guarantee.
