Page 46 of Always My Love

“This isn’t some ploy to get me to stay the night, is it?” she asked, the glass to her lips.

“Would it work?” he asked.

She smiled before she took a sip. “Maybe.” Then her smile slipped, and he knew she was thinking about her sister.

“Just what do you expect you could do to protect her that she can’t do herself?” he asked as they ate. “If you’re really worried, the two of you can stay here. I have three other bedrooms in this home and three fully working bathrooms.”

She sighed and shook her head. “No, Hailey has made it very clear to me that she won’t run and hide any longer.”

“From?” he asked, taking a sip of his own wine.

He didn’t think Harper was going to answer him at first. She took her time sipping her wine before answering. “My mother’s boyfriend. Fred.”

“Not your father?” he asked, noticing she hadn’t touched her food yet.

Harper shook her head. “We… never knew who our fathers were.”

“Fathers?” he asked. “Plural?”

“We assume. There are differences. My darker hair and eyes, Hailey’s blue eyes and skin tone. I burn at the first sign of sunlight, while she turns a toasty brown.”

“Okay.” He figured there were probably other reasons besides looks that made them think they had different fathers, but he didn’t think it was important at the moment.

“Fred started seeing my mother nine years ago. He was her dealer of this new drug she was into. It took her away from us physically and mentally, and led her down a spiral of addiction stronger than anything she’d been into before.” Harper took another sip of her wine.

Her voice had taken on an automatic quality, as if she were telling a story that had happened to someone else. Maybe that allowed her to get through it. He’d seen it before in victims and knew better than to interrupt the disassociations. So, as she told her story, he sat quietly and listened to every word.

“We’d been attending school during the day when Fred first started hanging around. Then summer came and we were stuck with him for hours and hours during the day while he and Heidi got high. We escaped like we normally did when Heidi was vacant.” She glanced in his direction. “That’s the term we used for when she was high.” He nodded his understanding. “Fred didn’t do the same drugs he gave to Heidi. He stayed lucid most of the time. Smoked weed mainly. He didn’t like us being too far from the house and, after the first few days of summer, he demanded we stay close.” She took several more sips of wine before she started talking again. All the while he waited. Their food went untouched as she talked. “He started hitting me at first.” She glanced in his direction for any reaction from him. He remained still.

He’d known it was something bad. He wanted to kill Fred. If the man ever came within arm’s reach, he probably would. Still, he made a point not to react.

Harper picked up her wine glass again and rolled it slowly from side to side instead of taking another sip.

“Then he started sleeping over and things changed.” She set her glass down and reached over to take his hand. He’d been gripping his steak knife so hard that his knuckles were turning white. Seeing this, he released his hold and flipped his fingers over to interlock them with hers. “I’ve never told anyone what I’m about to say. I’m not ashamed. I’m no longer a victim.” She locked eyes with him.

He nodded again, not wanting to speak.

He knew she needed him to remain strong through the next part.

“That first night, I thought I’d done something wrong.” She looked down at their hands. “The second and the many nights after, I knew without a doubt it wasn’t my fault. Then six years ago”—her eyes jerked up to his—“he didn’t come to my bed one night. When I woke up, Hailey was on my floor, crying.”

His fingers jerked in her hands, and he walked over to the kitchen sink and stared blankly outside, unseeing.

Harper’s arms wrapped around his waist. “I wanted to kill him,” she said softly.

“Tell me you did kill him.” He turned and wrapped his arms around her. “Tell me the bastard is dead.”