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Shit. Shit shit shit.
I'd ripped off my scarf in the kitchen.
And the bruises were in no way better after another full day. If anything, they almost looked worse.
"Rome, I..."
"Is this why you were wearing that scarf the other night?" he asked, his hand settling on the side of my neck as his brown eyes that I always found sweet looked almost... devastated. His other hand went around my back and pulled me against his chest, holding me there tight. I felt his lips press into the side of my head. "Why didn't you tell me? Anything, Else, you can tell me anything. If some asshole did... something..."
Oh, God. No. While that would certainly be an easier thing to explain, I couldn't let him think I was assaulted like that.
"No!" I yelped as his arm squeezed me tighter. "No, it wasn't that. Rome, I promise. I was... just... mugged. It was nothing. No big deal. Ease up, I can't breathe," I said, swatting his back and letting out a fake laugh.
He released me, brows drawn down slightly. "Since when do you keep shit like that from me, Else? This is not 'no big deal'. This is a big fucking deal. Did you report it? Does your father kno..."
"Rome, I'm a big girl. I handled it." Sort-of. Really some big, arrogant, jackass of a private investigator handled it for me, but regardless, it was handled.
"Okay," he said, looking hurt again as he leaned down to retrieve the bag he dropped.
"What kind did you get? I asked, trying for lighthearted and, despite my best efforts, it came off forced.
"Salted caramel for you and..."
"Brownie swirl for you," I finished, giving him a smile that I actually did feel. It was nice to realize that, despite my entire world being turned on its axis, some things never really changed.
He gave me a tight smile that he didn't feel and moved to step inside, making me take a step back, somewhat frantically looking around to make sure Paine had disappeared. I went to the kitchen and got us towels to wrap around the ice cream tubs and spoons and walked back to the living room where Rome had already loaded the DVD into the machine and got the movie going.
He pulled the top off my gelato and handed it to me, gesturing next to him on the couch. The couch where Paine had just given me a mind-numbing orgasm with just his fingers. I sat down awkwardly, putting my legs up over his as was our usual TV-watching position, and tried to focus on the movie, not the memory of Paine's hands and mouth on me.
Two hours later, we were watching the credits, ice cream long abandoned on the coffee table. Empty, of course. What monster got a pint of gelato and didn't eat it all in one sitting?
One of Rome's hands landed on my knee and squeezed, drawing my attention. "What's going on here?" he asked, face impassive, but I knew him well enough to know there was weight behind the question.
"What do you mean?"
"Else, honey, things have been weird here," he said, gesturing to the air between us, "for a while now."
"Rome, it's just been a hell week at..."
"No," he cut me off, shaking his head. "Not just this week. This has been almost a month. Ever since Elana took off on some harebrained vacation." I closed my eyes tight at that lie and I knew my guilt was all over my face. I knew it and Rome saw it. "Is Elana not on vacation? Is she at some kind of clinic somewhere?" he asked, knowing Elana took her rebellion a bit more seriously than he and I had ever dared. It wasn't crazy to think that she had ended up at some kind of rehab.
"She's not at a clinic, Rome," I said, feeling tears well up unbidden and trying to blink them away before they were seen.
But Rome was Rome and he saw them. "Else, honey, what's going on?"
"She's missing. Not legally, but... she's missing. They wouldn't let me file a report, telling me she probably just took her money and hit a beach somewhere. But she left Alfred in her house without food, Rome. She never would have just... left him to starve to death so she could go get a tan, sip margaritas, and have sex on the beach. No way."
"Jesus Christ, Else. Why wouldn't you tell me?"
That was a good question to which I didn't have an answer. I hadn't been the one who originally fed Roman the lie about her going on vacation. That was my father spreading the information far and wide. It got back to Roman's dad, Rhett, and then that got back to Rome. Way before I had even stopped freaking out enough to tell him the truth myself. Why I hadn't corrected him, set things straight, yeah that was completely beyond me.
