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Only this time, it made little difference to me.
I finally knew where my home was—and she was down the hall in the kitchen with my aunt.
“This is your final decision?” his strained voice asked.
“There was never a decision to make. Not this time,” I replied.
My uncle turned to me and gave me an apologetic smile.
It changed his whole face, and for the first time, I felt sure I was seeing a glimpse of the man my aunt talked of so fondly.
“You have my blessing,” he said. “I will handle Brittany. We have lots to discuss, but that can wait for now.”
Just like that, it was back to business, and I knew my uncle was referring to my revelations about Derek Freeman.
“Thank you,” I said, rising, the burdens I’d carried for the last four years melting away. “In a strange way, I understand why you did it. You were trying to protect me. Protect your family. I get it, I do. But I’m not Mom, and history is not repeating itself.”
With that, I turned and left the room, laying to rest my past and moving into my future.
In less than five months, my uncle’s legal team at West Lake and Associates had collected enough evidence and tracked down enough witness testimonials that they were confident Derek Freeman would be locked away behind bars for a very long time.
Surprisingly, my uncle also managed to talk Penny into giving a witness statement.
She had been adamant that she didn’t want to dredge up the past—not since everything in her life was finally on the upswing—but Anthony Weston didn’t work in shades of gray.
To him, Derek Freeman had committed a crime, exploiting and abusing the young people in his care, and he needed to be brought to justice.
They had eight cases of sexual misconduct with a minor against Freeman, including Amy, the girl who had lived with us. It was going to be harder to prosecute Marie with neglect, but the team was working their asses off to make it happen.
I reached over the stick shift and brushed Penny’s hand with my fingers, coaxing her back to me. The looming pressure of the court date weighed heavily on her. I saw it in her eyes, the way she’d started wrapping her arms around her waist again as if she might fall apart.
“Hey, Penny, babe, come back to me.”
She settled back into the leather seat and sighed. That one sound could bring me to my knees every damn time. I hated that the past still had such a hold on her—that even with things between us better and stronger than ever, she still had demons preventing her from moving forward.
“I’m okay, really,” she said.
“You don’t need to put on a brave face for me. You can crumple and break down, and I will always be here to catch you.”
Always.
She had to know that I would walk to the ends of the earth for her.
Penny intertwined her fingers with mine. “I know.”
The trees lining the road grew familiar, and before long, the dense green walls thinned out.
Camp Chance’s freshly painted sign welcomed us, and I couldn’t help the grin tugging at my mouth. I loved this place. For so long, it was the only place I felt free.
Since moving in with Penny, waking up next to her every morning had earned my top spot, but driving through the gates of the camp still came in at a close second.
“You love it out here, don’t you?” Penny asked, and I turned to her; it wasn’t as if I didn’t have the road into camp memorized. “Almost as much as I do you.”
She blushed, an adorable shade of pink spreading across her neck and into her cheeks.
Almost a year together, and I still had that effect on her. I never wanted it to end—I wanted a lifetime of these moments.
The Prius rolled to a stop, and I put it in Park. Reaching over, I pulled Penny to me, my hands buried deep in her hair as my lips captured hers. She fisted her hands in my hoodie, holding on for life, letting me explore her mouth. By the time we came up for air, our chests heaved between us as our breaths came in short, shallow bursts.
