Page 194 of Chasing Hope

No fucking way in hell am I letting Serena put this on Evie.

I don’t care if they track us down. I fuckinghopethey do. They can come to my door and I’ll tell them.

Because there is no more covering this up.

The genie is out of the bottle, and nothing will ever be the same again.

Nothing ever should be.

Evie was right about that. Once it came out, everyone’s lives would change.

Moving for my girl, she falls in my arms, and without another word, I lead her toward the parking lot. We should stay and speak with the officers but quite frankly, Evie has seen enough,and all I care about is getting her to safety and away from that despicable monster.

I hope with every shred of my heart and soul that I can help her come back from this, that I can help her come back to herself. But I don’t know if I can.

Buckling Evie into the car, I see Kieran try and wrangle an incoherent, sobbing Caleb into his car down at the other end of the parking lot, Grayson hot on his heels carrying Evie’s purse. Shutting my car door, I walk to the back where Evie can’t see me, bend over, and vomit for the third time tonight.

Her father.

No matter how many times those two words flash through my mind, it still doesn’t help my mind comprehend the utter betrayal.

The terror that clutches me, though…that’s all for Evie. Now I understand why she hasn’t been herself and why she feared she never would be again.

How do you recover from something like this?

How do you move on?

How do you look back on your childhood and still see any goodness in it?

How can we ever repair what can’t be fixed?

Chapter 56

Matteo

*20 Unread Text Messages*

My head won’t stop spinning.

My heart won’t stop hurting.

My hands won’t stop clenching.

Because all I can think about is what he did to her.

All I can picture is me asleep down the hall while she was tortured.

All I can imagine is the love of my life screaming and crying, begging someone to help her…and no one ever hearing her call for help.

Now all I want to do is murder the man who brutally tortured her.

Because no justice will ever be enough. I want him buried six feet under for harming her. I want Marcusdead.

My mind is still trying to wrap around it, still trying to merge the image that I’ve had of him for over twenty years with…this.

How could the man who was so kind, patient, and gentle toward everyone have done something sovile?

How could the man who practically raised me, the one who showed me how to respect women, turn around and do what he did?