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I clung to him, sniffling against his chest, trying to take strength from him like I’d done with Gideon what seemed ages ago. My heart broke all over again, ached for Gideon to be brought back to me. I’d wanted him gone for so long…
I’d been wrong. So terribly wrong.
“The sheriff said Gideon threatened to kill him,” he stated quietly, squeezing me tighter.
Gideon had done so dozens of times in school—but he hadn’t truly meant it, He’d simply been watching out for me. Thinking he kept me safe.
“You have to help him,” I cried, stepping away to peer up into Lloyd’s dark eyes. “You have to do something!”
“Oh, I will, sweetheart.” He shouldn’t have smiled. Shouldn’t have had a gleam in his gaze over what had transpired. “I promise, in time.” The squeeze of his hand on my hip caused ice to rush through my veins.
Lloyd shouldn’t have been happy over his son’s arrest, but I swore that was the emotion I read on his face.
A shiver slid down my spine like a droplet of cold water. I pulled away to sprint into the house on wobbly legs.
“Addilyn!” Mother called after me from the parlor door, but I ignored her, stumbling up the stairs badly enough to bash my shin against a tread.
“Let her go, darling,” Lloyd murmured to Mother behind me. “Everything is going to be fine.”
I didn’t believe him. Not one damn bit.
“Addilyn Jane!” Mother’s shriek rose from the first floor, and I curled into a ball on my bed.
She knew.
Lloyd must have told her the truth.
She called twice more, but I didn’t move.
My bedroom door slammed open, but I couldn’t stop my tears in order to sit up and face her like she’d expect me to do.
“You lied to me! I trusted you! Your desire to stay pure…yet you snuck out of Jenny’s house?” Her voice rang like a shrill fire alarm, making my eardrums bleed. “How dare you! I taught you better than this, Addilyn. You know the consequences for lying, for getting involved with boys—”
“Darling.”
Lloyd had arrived.
“No!” Mother shrieked. “I won’t be coddled by you, Lloyd. I won’t allow you to side with my daughter over me! She’s lied, and she’s going to suffer the full consequences this time. None of this taking it easy on her bullshit!”
He murmured a few things as I pulled my pillow over my head, but I peeled my eyelids open to watch them from beneath the inch between my mattress and soft feathers atop my head.
Lloyd peered at me from over Mother’s shoulder while speaking quietly against her ear, his hands running up and down her arms. Whatever he said to her loosened her rigid stance, and she eventually nodded, turning from the room. Shoulders slumped. Head hanging.
The man must have magic words…or something. The Mother Whisperer. A damn godsend, I realized and chose to ignore the strange reaction I’d seen outside. Perhaps I’d been so caught up in my own shame and grief that I’d misread Lloyd’s actions and words. Perhaps he’d simply been trying to soothe me, feign a positive attitude to boost my own spirits rather than happy about his son’s arrest.
He shut the door behind Mother and crossed the room to sit on the edge of my bed. “Addilyn.”
I moved the pillow enough to better see him. “What,” I rasped, swiping at the wetness on my cheeks.
Lloyd pushed the pillow completely off my head and smoothed back my hair.
Shivers wracked through me, but not the lustful ones Gideon induced. More tears spilled down my cheeks.
“Shh, sweetheart.” He rubbed his hand over my back. “I promise I’m going to make things right. Don’t I always?”
“Yes,” I whispered. I had to trust him. I didn’t have anyone else.
“I have to contact a lawyer, figure out what we need to do to get your Gideon home, okay?”
Lips tight to keep from sobbing, I nodded.
Lloyd leaned down and brushed his mouth over my forehead, his heavy inhale fluttering my hair. “Rest, sweetheart. We can talk more once I know what we’re up against.”
