Page 9 of Her Wicker Guardian

“He ever put his hands on you?” Shannon asks.

I think about wrists held too tightly. A hand around my upper arm when I tried to walk past him. Trent standing in a doorway blocking my exit because he wasn’t finished talking yet.

“Not like that.”

Blair exhales slowly. “Rachel.”

“That’s what he always said. ‘I never hit you,’ like that settled the matter.”

The silence crawls under my skin and I worry at the rim of my cup with my thumb. “Can everybody stop looking at me like that?”

Shannon lowers her eyes first. “We knew something was wrong.”

I look at her.

“With Trent,” she says. “Last year. Sometimes when he called, you changed.”

My stomach turns over.

Blair shakes her head. “You never told us it got that bad.”

“No.” I take another drink. “I was pretty good at making sure you didn’t get the full picture.”

Laura’s expression softens, but she doesn’t argue.

My attention shifts toward the cottage.

Dad installed the cameras and motion lights the weekend I moved in.

Six weeks later, Trent found out where I lived. He came after dark.

I watched him on the camera as he walked up to the front door. Then the pounding started, hard enough to shake the door in its frame.

“Rachel. Open the door.”

His fist struck it again.

“Rachel.”

I stood on the other side without answering, my phone in my hand and 911 ready to dial. He stayed there long enough that I stopped knowing whether the next sound would be another blow against the door or the wood giving way.

Dad came back the next morning. There are four locks on both doors into the cottage now. A week later, I took a firearms safety class and bought the handgun I keep in my bedroom.

Nobody has ever asked why four locks on each door feels reasonable to me. I don’t think I need to explain it now.

I sit a little straighter, my voice steadier than I feel. “My lamp is going to be really fucking red.”

Shannon snorts.

“Good,” Laura says.

“I hope aircraft can see it,” Shannon adds.

“That may violate county ordinances,” Blair says.

“I have counsel.”

“Not for free.”