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"I think you're right."

With that somewhat cryptic reassurance, she gently clapped me on the shoulder and walked away, passing Detective Will Dodd in the doorway. He gave her a quizzical look, but she didn't say a word, just smiled and headed back to her desk or wherever officers hung out when not on the job.

My moment of stolen peace dissipated the instant Will approached me and I remembered exactly why I was here. My stomach clenched, and for a moment, I thought I was going to throw up all over his shoes.

"Hi, Quinn. Officer Lawrence said you wanted to talk to me? Is everything alright?"

His gentle concern was nearly my undoing. I glanced back toward the door, but it was too late to back out. If I didn't do this now, I never would, and I'd never forgive myself.

"Can we talk in private? I'd… I'd like to press charges against someone." The words stuck in my throat and my voice cracked, but I powered through.

"Of course. Come with me." Will gestured for me to follow him, and he guided me through the small department. Warm sunshine peeked through the windows, but it did nothing to melt the core of ice building in my stomach.

We ended up in what must be his and Donovan's shared office, though Donovan was nowhere to be seen. With two desks crammed into the room, there was hardly space left to maneuver, but Will did it with ease. He commandeered the chair from the second desk and pulled it around to the side for me to sit, then closed the door and sat down in the one remaining seat.

"Alright. Can you tell me what happened?"

Could I? Lain knew the story because he'd been there for the aftermath, but I'd never sat down and told anyone what had happened. The first and only time I'd tried had ended in disaster, but Will Dodd was nothing like the man I'd spoken to before. Like his sister Camille, Will had an aura that promised safety. I knew without a doubt that he wouldn't judge me. That didn't make this any easier, though.

"I looked it up online, and it said I could still make a report even if it's been a few years," I blurted out. I clenched my hands together in my lap to stop them shaking, for all the good that did.

"That's generally true," Will agreed. "The statute of limitations varies based on what happened, but I'll do my best to help."

He didn't push for more, instead giving me space to tell the story. The lump in my throat eased, but it still took a minute to bolster my faltering courage enough to go on, and when I did, I couldn't look at him. I found a spot on the boring beige wall just over his shoulder and latched onto it, staring at it as I told the whole sordid tale.

"My… my ex-boyfriend assaulted me. He r-raped me." I could barely get the words out. I'd never said that word before, not in relation to what'd happened to me. Will shifted like he was going to speak, but now that I'd started, I had to see it through.

"It happened five years ago," I hurried on. Instead of interrupting, Will pulled out a notepad and started writing. The scratch of his pen on the paper was oddly hypnotic, and the wall in front of me fell out of focus as I forced myself to dive back into the memories of that night.

I don't know how long I talked, only that Will never once interrupted. For the first time, it all came out. All my secrets lay bare in the light, from the first time he hit me and I forgave him to the night he nearly killed me.

"I'd been dating Aaron Dalton for about two years before all this. It didn't get really bad until after I lost my first business. He hated when I took over Marnie's old shop. Said I was never home enough, that he felt like I was ignoring him. We started fighting all the time, but he never took it too far. I was stressed and exhausted, and he knew it. I was working ten-hour days or more, usually at least six days a week, trying to make enough money to make up for Marnie being gone. He got under my skin, into my head. He convinced me to work less, promised he'd pick up the slack, until I was down to four days a week, but even that didn't stop the fights."

Looking back, I couldn't believe I'd let myself be manipulated by him, but at the time, when I was nearly out of my mind with anxiety and a bone-deep weariness, Aaron's honeyed words had made sense. With me working less, though, the bills piled up, and when I got to the point that I couldn't afford to buy another gallon of shampoo, I knew I was sunk.

Watching the 'For Lease' sign go up on Marnie's shop broke me, and unfortunately, Aaron was there to pick up the pieces and put them back together however he liked.

"After I lost the business, he was happier for awhile. He paid all our bills, and all he asked me to do was handle the cooking and cleaning. The fights stopped, and everything was calm. He'd bring me flowers, and we'd go out on date nights, and everything was fine."

My voice cracked and I swallowed back the ache. I'd let myself believe it would be okay. I wanted to believe it so badly that I tried to will it to be so.

"Here," Will murmured, passing me a water bottle plucked from a desk drawer. It was warm, but it was better than nothing, and taking a sip gave me a moment to gather my thoughts.

"Thanks."

"We can stop or take a break any time you need."

"I appreciate it. I think it'll be easier if I just power through, though. If I stop, I don't know if I'll be able to start again."

Will nodded as if he understood, and maybe he did. I didn't know him well. He'd only moved to Lowery's Crossing a few years ago, following his sister after she'd met Raina and settled down in town. Aside from their jobs and general disposition, I knew practically nothing about the Dodd twins. In a way, that made this easier for me. I don't think I would have been able to tell this story to someone who'd known me since I was a kid.

"You probably know what happened next," I continued. My eyes went back to boring a hole into the drywall, anything to avoid meeting his eyes. "After a few months, he started nitpicking. The house was never clean enough, the food was never good enough. He'd criticize me, asking how I could be so bad at such simple things when all I did was sit around the house all day. He was the one making all the money, after all. The fights started up again, and they were nasty."

Back then, I'd still had the audacity to stand up for myself. I tried finding a part-time job, anything to help bring in money, but it was difficult to find anything when Aaron wanted me home when he got off work.

"The first time he hit me, I swore I was done. I told him I was moving out on the spot." I realized too late that telling him first was a mistake.

"I assume he didn't take that well?" Will asked.