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“I want to open my own call center, but I need help with all the legal stuff,” I said, finally telling him my reason for meeting with him. “I want to move back to Port Lucia and open the center here.”
“I’ll call a meeting with your Uncle Ace, and then we can see what all we need to do to make that happen.”
“I have the money-”
He threw his hand up to stop me. “It’ll be a non-profit, Posie,” he said. “While you have money, it’s not endless, and I’m assuming that you’ll want to be involved with the calls more so than with the business side of things, yes?” I nodded. “Let us do this for you, Posie.”
Suddenly, a wave of tears erupted, and Uncle Ramsey didn’t do anything but take me up in his arms and let me cry out the past few weeks.
Chapter 30
Killian~
My sister was looking at me knowingly, and it was hard not to squirm under her scrutiny. Nevertheless, I needed some serious advice, and she was the only person that could help me.
“So, let me get this straight,” Ellie drawled out carefully. “You knew that she’d been attacked in college, but didn’t tell her that you knew before starting a relationship with her?”
“Correct.”
“You also didn’t tell her that you had a sister that had also been attacked in college, or that you are friends with the Benettis?”
“Correct.”
Ellie leaned back against the couch. “What the hell, Kill?”
“I know, I know,” I quickly rushed out. “But…it wasn’t like I could just say, oh, hey, by the way, I know all about what happened to you in college, and I understand because my sister went through something similar. Still, if you want to vent, I happen to be friends with the Mob, so I can help you with that, too.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Killian,” Ellie chided.
“Besides, your story is not mine to tell, Ellie,” I pointed out. “Something as private as what happened to you is not fodder for discussion.”
“Yet, you didn’t safeguard Posie’s story,” she fired back, and it was hard not to feel wretched under the truth. “Why is safeguarding my experience more precious to you than safeguarding hers?”
“I wasn’t trying to betray her secrets-”
“Good intentions are the worst kind of motivation, Kill,” she said, interrupting. “You should have told her.”
“If I had, then she never would have been with me,” I argued.
“Maybe,” she conceded. “But by not telling her, you took away her choice in the matter, and the very last thing that you can do with a rape victim is take away their choices in anything.”
As much as I hated to hear the truth, I needed Ellie’s brutal honesty. It was why I had decided to visit her after Posie had walked out of my office yesterday. I was too close to the situation to see straight, and I was man enough to admit that I had no idea how to fix things between us. Women were complicated enough as it was, a woman that’s gone through what Posie had more so.
“Look, I don’t need a recap of all the ways that I fucked up, El,” I told her. “I know that I fucked up. I know it more than you can possibly know. I need to know how to make it right. I need to know how to fix this shit before I lose my goddamn mind.”
Ellie’s head jerked back. “Jesus, you really do love her, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure how it happened or why it happened so fast, but I do,” I answered. “I don’t care that she’s got this horrible past that’s always going to be there. I don’t care if she can’t love me like I love her. I don’t care about all the steps backwards that we’re going to have to take as we figure this thing out. I don’t care about any of it, Ellie. I just want Posie with me. Like a pauper begging for scraps, I’ll take whatever she can or wants to give me. As long as she’s mine, the tiny bits and pieces are fine for now. I’ve got the rest of my life to work on the other stuff.”
She reached out and squeezed my leg. “I wish…I wish I had something concrete to give you, Kill, but…well, I don’t know this woman,” she said. “It’s hard to give you advice on someone that I’ve never met. Add in the fact that she’s been…add everything that she’s been through, there’s no way to say if she can forgive you or not. Trauma affects everyone differently.”
“But you and Jamie are happy, right? I mean, you guys managed it.”
Ellie gave me a tender smile. “Yes, Killian, me and Jamie are happy. To be honest, happier than I ever thought we’d be.” She shrugged a dainty shoulder. “But Jamie and I already had love and trust between us before my attack. Plus, he was there every step of the way.”
“Every step?”
“I…we don’t talk about it, but I think he suspects that…well, we all know it can’t just be coincidence that Trent disappeared right afterwards.” Ellie grimaced a bit. “Jamie accepts my friendships, even if they do come with some secrets better left alone.”
