Luke just gapes at me, almost like he doesn’t know who I am. I level a stare right back, my jaw clenched.
“Who did this to you, Luke?” I finally ask, deadpan. “Don’t lie to me. Don’t brush this off like every other fucking time. I need to know. Tell me the truth.”
“It wasn’t Frank,” he replies sharply.
“Yeah. So I’ve discovered.” I scoff. “It took me punching a wall to get the truth out of him, and then I look like the asshole accusing him of it.”
“Why did you go after him?”
“Why wouldn’t I? Frank had motive. He had opportunity. He followed you out of the shop yesterday, and that’s the last I saw of you until you showed up looking like you got hit by a train. Come to find out, he claims all you did was talk. What could he possibly have to say?”
Luke’s face darkens. “He apologized to me,” he says quietly.
“What?” I can feel the skepticism on my face.
“He’s the one who snitched on me at the shop and got me fired,” Luke says coldly. “He said he couldn’t handle working with me anymore. It was too triggering for him. He’s been going to therapy, and he knows that it was selfish and wrong of him to do it, but he couldn’t make progress with me in his face every day. He was trying to make up for what he did to me all those years ago and even now. He apologized for all of it.”
“Hold on….” I throw a hand up, trying to process this information. Frank. In therapy?Apologizing?I never thought I’d live to see the day. No wonder he was so cagey about telling me the truth.
“Why do you always feel the need to intrude?” Luke asks seriously, and suddenly, we’re right back at the unresolved argument from yesterday. “You jump in without even thinking for one-goddamn-minute, and you make things worse.”
“You won’t talk to me, Luke!” I snap back, surprised at the level of anger in my voice. “What else did you expect? You’ve kept everything that’s been happening to you so close to your chest that I had no choice. I’ve been jumping to all kinds of conclusions these last few weeks, thinking Frank was targeting you—hurting you. And don’t try to bullshit me about walking into doors or falling down stairs. I’m not a fucking idiot. You’ve brushed it off whenever I’ve tried to talk about it. You kept me at arm’s length.”
“Because it doesn’t have anything to fucking do with you!” Luke shouts, his jaw clenched in anger. “It’s not your responsibility to fix it. It’s not your problem.”
“You showed up at my door half-dead!” I snap back. “How is that not my problem?”
“I shouldn’t have come here.” He stands up from the counter as if he’s going to leave, effectively removing himself from this argument.
“Oh, no. That’s not fair, Luke.” I laugh dryly, moving to block him. “You don’t get to decide how and when I get involved and then up and leave when it’s inconvenient. I’m already involved. I’minvested.”
“You never leave well enough alone!” Luke shakes his head. “I don’t want your help with this. I’m asking you to let me handle it on my own. Why can’t you just respect that?”
“Why are you so afraid of letting me help you?”
“I’m notafraid. Don’t be so full of yourself.”
“Who did this to you, Luke?” I demand with growing impatience. “Tell me the fuckingtruth. Who has been hurting you?”
“It wasPete!” he thunders back, his temper boiling over the edge. “Pete did this to me.”
I frown. “Your stepdad?”
“Yes! Are you fucking happy?” he screams, putting his hand to his throat as it exacerbates his injury. His voice is cracked and raspy as he continues. “He was beating the shit out of my momagain, and I stepped in to intervene, just likeI always do. He turned on me instead and nearly killed me in a drunken rage.”
I stare at Luke, my mind racing.
Pete.
The horrible stepfather Luke has hated from the very beginning.
He’sthe one responsible for all of the bruises and beatings? Why did that never cross my mind as an option? When I think back on it, it should have been obvious. All the signs were there. Whenever Luke complained about him, it was always with deep loathing, malice, and a strong desire for a hole to open in the Earth’s crust and swallow him up. You don’t get that level of hatred for another person unless they’ve given you a reason.
How many times did Luke say he wished his mom would finally wake up and leave him? How many times did he come over grumbling about his jackass stepfather and all the terrible ways he’d treated him? It was there when I picked Luke up on the side of the road all those weeks ago… The genuine fear he’s had about Misty being around him…
It all flew over my head.
I assigned all of the blame to Frank because he seemed like the obvious choice for Luke’s injuries. But Luke never once named his attacker—even last night as he was weeping on theshower floor. It was me who assumed.Mewho acted on that assumption.
