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She snorts. “Dude, it’s your house.”
For some reason, that makes me pause. Slowly, a smile creeps over my face. It’s not just that she’s technically right: this is “my” house because I live here, and I happen to be married to Gabriel.
It’s that it really does feel like I belong here now. It’s not just a technicality anymore.
Something’s changed in the last two weeks, ever since the night Maeve and her friends stayed over and I slept in Gabriel’s room. He and I never talked about it, but after that night, I just…never moved back into the guest room.
The next night, I slept in his bed. And the night after that. The third day, I came home from work to find all my things removed from the guest room and sorted neatly into his master bedroom and walk-in closet.
No words exchanged. No big talks. Just our new reality.
And I like that. A lot.
There’s a knock at the front door.
“I’ll get it,” Maeve chirps, skipping out of the room. I hear her open the front door, then a cheery, familiar greeting. A second later, she walks back into the kitchen with Taylor and Meredith in tow.
“Hey—I was just about to head into…”
I trail off, my stomach dropping when I see the grim expressions on their faces.
“Um… What’s going on?”
Maeve is filled with the righteous indignation only attainable by an outraged eighteen-year-old. “He can’t just…just…hold him there!” she spits, after Taylor and Meredith fill us in on what’s going on with Gabriel.
I blink, my throat dry. It was incredibly reckless of Gabriel to barge into Preston Hall’s office like that. But what really has my pulse thudding in my chest is that I know why he did it.
Me.
That’s why Gabriel stormed into the Governor’s office, fists up and swinging. And it’s also why he’s sitting in a holding cell with building security for the next twenty-four hours.
“They can, actually,” I mutter, glancing at Maeve. “They’ve got until tomorrow to either charge him or let him go.”
Maeve glowers. “Will they just let him go?”
Taylor purses her lips. “Would you, if your primary political opponent walked into your office and decked you?”
Maeve angrily shakes her head. “But why… Why the hell would he do that?!”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Meredith groans, tapping furiously at her tablet.
I look past her, catching Taylor’s eye. “Can I…talk to you for a second?”
Taylor follows me out the kitchen door and into the back garden of Gabriel’s townhouse so we’re alone.
I tell her everything. The campaign I worked on. Staying at the office late with Hall, and all his special attention on me. When I get to the night he drugged and assaulted me, her face goes downright livid. Then she’s blinking back tears as she grabs me and hugs me fiercely.
“I’m so, so fucking sorry, Fumi,” she says quietly as I hug her back.
“It’s…” I shake my head, squeezing my eyes shut. “It’s in the past. I’m…fine.”
A small, private smile twists my lips.
Because I am fine, actually. I mean, it’s a scar that’ll always be there. And I’ve told myself I’m “fine” for years now.
But for the first time, finally, I know I’m not lying to myself when I say it.
It’s Gabriel who’s pulled me out of that place and allowed me to heal. He and “his monster”, as he calls it. His darkness. He’s allowed me to explore that part of myself, and those needs, while knowing there is always a way out.
