Page 166 of I Never Stopped Loving You

Noah places his hand on my knee and gives it a gentle squeeze.

“My dad was an abusive drunk. He would beat my mom and me whenever he drank, which was pretty much all the time. I constantly had to wear long sleeves and pants to hide the bruises and marks.”

There’s a knot growing in my throat. I still don’t remember a lot of my childhood, but I remember the rage from my father. The pain when he would hit me. And the fear of watching him hurt my mom.

“When I was eight, my mom had finally had enough. I don’t remember what happened to finally make her decide to leave, but it was the worst decision she ever made. My father caught us trying to leave in the middle of the night. I remember my mom trying to fight him off. He had her pinned to the wall by her throat…” My voice trails off as I feel the tears starting to burn my eyes.

“Jesus, Willow. I’m so sorry,” Jenna says softly.

“I tried to save her. I grabbed a knife from the dish rack and stabbed him in the back of the leg. He dropped her to the ground and she quickly picked me up and ran. We barely made it into the kitchen before he grabbed her by the ankle, and we fell. I smacked the back of my head on the floor, and they think it’s why I don’t remember much of my childhood. Over the years, I’ve gotten back bits and pieces, mainly through nightmares. Going back to the house helped me remember a lot.”

I lean against Noah for a moment, and he kisses the top of my head.

“Oh my God…” Jenna says, covering her mouth with her hand.

“I don’t remember much before I lost consciousness except for my mom trying to protect me. My dad pinned her down and stabbed her to death. He would have killed me too except she curled her body around mine blocking the stabs except for the cut on my forehead.”

I can see the tears flowing down Jenna’s cheeks. When she said she knew there was stuff in my past I kept hidden, I don’t think she thought it would have been anything close to this.

“They never caught my father. He must have taken off before the cops got there. There’s a group of people who basically help women and children escape from domestic violence. If the cases are bad enough, they basically put the victims into hiding. That’s who my mom was taking us to that night. The group still took me in, and my grandparents were actually a couple in the program who ended up adopting me and changing my last name. My information was locked away, and no one knew where I was. The world thought I was dead.”

I can feel Noah’s body tense next to me. He never thought I was dead. He always knew that one day he’d find me.

Jenna wipes her tears away as Jeremy wraps an arm around her shoulder. She leans into him and slowly shakes her head as she looks over at me.

“So…Your dad’s just out there somewhere?” she asks.

“Yeah. That’s why I never told anyone else about my past except my therapist. You’re the first person I’ve told.”

“Except Noah,” she says, sounding slightly offended.

“No. Noah already knew who I was.”

She looks at me confused before glaring at Noah.

“So you were stalking her?!” she snaps. “You motherfuck…”

She starts to stand to go toward Noah, but Jeremy stops her.

“Let them explain, Jenna,” he says as he wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her back down to the couch.

“I wasn’t stalking her. But I have been looking for her for the last fifteen years,” Noah says proudly.

“Wait…Fifteen years? No fucking way.”

Jenna’s mouth drops open as she leans back into the couch.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You just so happen to end up back in her life after she’s been gone all this time? Like fucking magic?” she says accusingly.

Her eyes are narrowed at Noah, and if Jeremy’s arm wasn’t around her right now, I swear she would’ve jumped up to gouge Noah’s eyes out.

“I call it fate,” Noah replies as he wraps an arm around my shoulder.

Jenna sits up straight, clasps her hands together, and rests her elbows on her knees. She points her clasped hands at Noah and begins her interrogation.

“Let me get this straight. So you knew her back then, but she disappeared. You had no clue where she went, but you kept looking for her even though, according to the world, she was probably dead?”

Noah nods as she pauses to take a breath before turning her focus to me.