“He’s the cop who helped me get out.”
Westley’s eyebrows furrow. “Like witness protection?”
“I could have done it that way.” I nod. “But because of my age, I risked being separated from my sister. So Royal offered to help me off record. It was harder, but it kept us together. He made sure I had a job so I could keep us fed and clothed, with a place to sleep. He looked out for us. ”
“Your sister?”
“My parents should never have been parents. They spent their entire adult life ruled by their addiction. I was an accident.” I shrug. There’s no denying it, I wasn’t planned and I didn’t fit into their life once I arrived. “A dispensable one, if the years I spent scared, hungry, and unloved are any indication. When I was sixteen, I realised I didn’t have to be stuck in a life I didn’t want with people who didn’t want me. I got a job, and I planned to spend the next year saving everything I could to get myself out of there. I made it three hundred and sixty days. I was soclose.” I heave out the word as my eyes fall closed, taking me back to the night where it all changed. “I came home and found a pregnancy test in the kitchen bin. It was my mum’s. The onlyreason she thought to take a test was that she’d been throwing up for three days and managed to get sober enough to think straight. I had to make a split decision: help Mum get through it or watch the damage she’d inflict on a helpless baby.” Westley reaches a hand over, stopping my fingers where they spin over my bangles. I hadn’t even realised I’d started fiddling with them, but he alwaysseesme. He links his fingers through mine, offering me an encouraging smile before I continue.
“I wasn’t going to watch her mistreat another child. I took two weeks off work to get her through a detox. Thankfully, my boss had experience of his own with that sort of stuff. He was on some kind of list that employed people fresh out of rehab or on probation. He wanted to help me, so once I got Mum sober and told her we had to keep her clean for the baby, she came and worked with me. I barely slept for those eight months before Tallie was born, afraid Mum would relapse. But with every week, she seemed to get better and better. It was the longest I’d seen her clean since I could remember. Dad kept his distance, was barely home, out who knows where. He was starting to get in real deep with his dealer around that time.
“When my sister was born, I stayed home with Mum just to make sure she was handling everything okay. Dad was almost entirely out of the picture by then. Tallie slept in my room, and she was always a good sleeper, so I switched to nightshifts at the warehouse. I dipped into the money I’d be saving to get this fancy baby monitor that connected to my phone, so I could check her throughout my shifts. I’d give her a bottle before I left, and then she’d sleep a solid six hours. I’d started to convince myself everything was going well until Tallie was around nine weeks old. I unplugged the baby monitor earlier in the day to charge my phone and forgot to plug it back in, and it died while I was at work. I came home and could hear Tallie crying, guys shouting in another room, and Mum was passed out on the couch, a line of some shit crushed up on the coffee table. I ran straight to myroom, but before I made it there, Dad and another guy came out of Mum’s bedroom covered in blood. I could see someone lying on the floor behind them. The guy started freaking out, and I had never felt so scared in my life. I begged and pleaded to go check on my sister. In the end, Dad said I needed toshut the babyupbefore someone called the cops. His friend agreed and let me go. Tallie looked unharmed, but I needed to get us out of there. While I settled her, I packed a bag with some clothes and the rest of the cash I’d saved, and climbed out the window. I left my car, not wanting them to realise I left. It took me almost an hour to walk to the hospital. The doctors checked my sister thoroughly, said she was completely fine, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t go back there. I was certain they’d killed someone. What if it were me next because I was a witness? What would happen to Tallie without me there to protect her?
“I was pacing the corridor with Tallie while I waited for the nurse to finish some paperwork, when I heard them whispering about child services. I couldn’t let them take my sister. I started to have a panic attack when Royal saw me. He asked me what was wrong, and it all just spilled out. When he showed me his badge, I freaked out even more. I thought he was going to take her, but he told me not to worry, that he was going to take care of everything. And he did. After he helped me leave an anonymous tip about what I’d seen, he organised fake IDs. Got me a job in another city, told me what to do to stay under the radar. No social media, don’t tell anyone about my past. It didn’t exist anymore.
“About four months after we left home, I was in the next state when I recognised someone who used to hang out with my dad. I figured he was just passing through, so I’d just lie low for a few days. I didn’t think he’d recognise me, but I wasn’t going to chance it. I hadn’t seen him again and thought we were in the clear when, a few days later, my mum showed up. She saw me as I was leaving a grocery store with Tallie, took one look at us, and started coming over. I got in the car and drove for seventeenhours straight. I called Royal, told him what happened, asked him where I should go, and he came through for me again. Ever since then, he’s kept an eye on my parents, and on me.”
Westley stares at me in disbelief. I don’t know what he’s thinking, or how he’s going to react, all I know is the feeling of dread and heaviness has lifted off my chest. It’s relief. Maybe because I do trust West with my secrets and burdens. His hand holds mine, so tight and unshakable, and I lean into that strength because I know he’ll keep them safe. All those worries and doubts. He’ll carry them so they aren’t just mine.
“Wait, so what happened to Tallie?”
“You mean Aurora? She’s not my daughter, she’s my sister.”
42
I knew Maevyn’s past was going to be more troubled than my own, full of heaviness, but I could never have imagined this. The things she’s been through from such a young age, the loneliness and fear, were all she had known for so long before she clawed herself out of it with a bravery that astounds me.
“I think that’s why I’ve always let people’s judgement get to me. When they looked at me, I knew what they were thinking: she’s so young, she’s on her own, she couldn’t possibly know what she’s doing. Those were already things I was stressing over. Because they were right—I was young, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I wasn’t ready to be a mum. Not then. It wasn’t until I met Presley that I learnt how to cut out the noise and pretend it didn’t matter to me. But deep down, I just wanted someone to come along and make me feel less alone. Less like the entire world was on my shoulders. Less afraid.”
I tug on her hand, pulling her onto my lap and cupping her cheek. “You’re not alone, Maevyn. Not anymore.”
“Crystal,” she murmurs.
I tilt my head in question.
“My real name is Crystal Holt. My parents are Helene and Russell, and I grew up in the Cliffside trailer park in Port Yarra.” She huffs out a little laugh, finger tracing circles over my chest.
My arms wrap around her tight, holding until I’m certain she can’t feel the weight of her anguish anymore.
“I’m scared of how Aurora will react,” she says quietly, the warmth of her breath tickling my neck as her head rests on my shoulder. “She doesn’t know I’m her sister, and I know I need to tell her. I convinced myself I was waiting until she was old enough to handle it, but in reality, I’m just so terrified of her being mad at me for taking a decision away from her. I don’t want her to try to find them. For years, I wondered if what I did was the right thing. I don’t want her to tell me I was wrong.”
“It’s not possible, baby.” With a hand on her chin, I guide her eyes to mine. “She loves you more than anything. She’s going to be so grateful that you loved her enough to do everything in your power to protect her and give her a better life.”
She sighs, her weight sinking into me as the tension bleeds out. “You really think so?”
I nod, placing a kiss on the tip of her nose. “If you want, I can be there with you when you do.”
Her fingertips trail up and down my forearm.
“Mae, I swear to you. I will never let anything happen to you. I will spend my life making sure you never spend another second knowing what it’s like to feel scared, alone, or unloved.”
“And I’ll never be convinced that I didn’t somehow look at the stars every night wishing for something better, and every time, they only moved me closer to you. You’re my biggest dream come true, Westley Andrews.”
Cupping her cheek in my palm, I pull her lips to mine, hoping she can feel all the ways I’m so grateful for her, but also how devoted I am to her. I’ll never give her a chance to know what it’s like to walk through life alone again.
I pull back, nipping her lips once more before I settle into holding her, wrapping her tight in my arms, where I always want to keep her.
“I’m tired of being scared, West,” she says, the earlier heaviness replaced with something more resolute. “It’s exhausting feeling like you’re constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, like you can never stop to catch your breath.”
