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I feel cold sweats breaking out all over my body as I’m about to ask the worst question I could think of.
“Has he ever…” I have to pause, not finding the courage to say it out loud.
“No. Only bruises. Always my arms and my stomach or my back. The rest has only ever been promises and threats.” She laughs again. “The fucker actually believes that it’s fine if he waits for marriage. He’s forcing himself to wait until I’m eighteen.”
I choke on air as I try to take a deep breath. This can’t be possible. Not here, not in this day and age. I feel like I’ve lived in a fairytale my whole life and Rose’s experience is shattering it all.
I think she hears me sob because she squeezes my hand again. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“It won’t happen though,” she reassures me. She must sense my confusion and she keeps going after a brief pause. “I’ll be gone before he can put his plan in action.”
“Gone?” I ask. “What do you mean?”
She ignores my question and I feel her shifting until her head rests on my chest.
“You smell like Jake,” she giggles like a little girl and it sounds nothing like her. She never sounds like a little girl because she never got to be one. Bianco stole her childhood from her.
I understand that this topic is over and when she says Jake’s name, my heart picks up. I wonder if she can hear it with an ear so close to it.
“Jamie, what I just told you,” she shifts in awkwardness, “I’ve never told anyone.”
“No one? Not even Chris?”
“No one. Not Chris, not even Jake. If you say anything, I’ll deny it.” Her words sadden me even deeper. She’s never shared her pain with anyone.
“We’ll find a way. I won’t let you go through this,” I promise her.
She chuckles and I know she doesn’t believe me, but I do.
“He’s fine by the way,” she admits. I can’t help the sigh that leaves me. “He was already awake when I arrived. He broke a finger. Out of everything, all he had was a minor concussion, a broken thumb, and a couple of fractured ribs. Can you fucking believe it? His nose is bad, but not broken. He’ll be out before the morning.”
“Is that why you left? Because he was fine?” I know that’s not why, but I would like to hear the real reason.
She grabs my hand and puts it on her head, making me understand she wants me to stroke her hair. I do so before she starts talking again.
“He was so mad because I signed. He didn’t want to see me. He asked me to leave the papers with him and leave him alone.”
“What is he going to do?”
I feel her shoulders shrugging close to my ribs and I don’t ask for more. Jake is fine. I can talk to him tomorrow.
Tomorrow, I’m going to see Jake, we’re going to destroy the paperwork, burn Rose’s signature. We’re going to talk to someone about this, maybe not the police but at least the Murrays. Rose might not want to talk to anyone about what Mateo does to her, but I can still try to help in other ways. Tomorrow, we’ll find a solution to all of this. For now, we need rest and Rose’s even breathing on my body is lulling me to sleep.
I startle awake at the sound of the pool house door closing. Rose wakes up slowly as we hear Chris and Luke’s voices in the living room.
“Shit,” she mumbles.
She gets up in a rush and grabs an oversized sweater from a chair. I had completely forgotten I fell asleep with her half-naked body on mine. She groans when she opens the curtains and the light hits. “Fucking…fuck.”
“Are you okay?” I ask. I can’t help my gaze from going to her bruises again.
“I’m fine,” she huffs as she puts the sweater on. She catches me watching. “As long as you don’t repeat whatever bullshit I said to you yesterday. It’s blurry but it was probably a lie, I do that a lot.”
I nod to reassure her. It almost makes me smile to hear Rose being back to her rude self. I will never forget what she told me yesterday and I know it was the truth no matter what she says now. Her opening up to me was the first step toward getting both her and Jake out of trouble.
She heads out of the room and I follow. When I walk into the living room, she’s already explaining what happened to Chris and Luke.
“Jake called me from the hospital,” Chris explains. “He said he was on his way back and to not worry about him, but that was two hours ago.”
