My brows shot up. “What?”
Addie’s furrowed. “You don’t remember?”
I shook my head, waiting to hear the story he’d come up with.
It didn’t surprise me that my father had offered them an alternate version of events to cover his tracks. He’d never admit how oftenhe’dleft me for dead.
Addie gnawed on her lower lip, guilt sneaking in at the edges of her expression. “After Adam told me what happened at the party, we went to get you…to bring you home with us.”
My chest tightened at her words, but I didn’t interrupt.
“By the time we got back, Travis and his friends were gone, and someone told us they saw you head down the street. We couldn’t find you anywhere on the roads, and then Adam recognized the neighborhood. I think we drove past all the houses twice before he remembered which one was yours. It had been so long since he’d been there, but we finally found it.”
My lip curled, and Addie gave me a sad smile.
“When we pulled into the driveway, the front door was open. We ran inside and found you on the floor, bleeding while your dad tried to help you up.”
I shuddered lightly, hating the thought of him being that close to her. Being that close to either of them. If I had it my way, the Barrows would be the one thing my father never touched.
He wouldn’t take them from me.
Sympathy flashed across Addie’s face at whatever she saw on mine, but she didn’t understand what caused my reaction. Since I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that yet, I forced a smile, encouraging her to keep telling me what happened.
“Adam got you to your feet, but you were barely conscious. When I asked if your dad had called 911, he yelled at us, asking what we’d done at the party—whatyou’ddone—like whatever happened must’ve been your fault. Then you croaked out the word ‘kicked,’ and your dad told us about the guys attacking you.”
Fury at the wrong people flooded her cheeks with heat, and I brought her hand down to my chest. It beat steadily beneath her palm, assuring her I was alright.
“He kept asking us who had done that to you. He wanted to go after them, but he hadn’t even called for help. When I pointed that out, he said you’d shown up a few minutes before and then…” Her jaw tightened. “He said we could deal with you since we’d gotten you that far.”
Her eyes dropped to my hand, where it clutched hers to my chest. I followed her gaze to the rapid rise and fall of it. My breathing had grown significantly tighter, my heartbeat more pronounced than it had been a minute ago. It thundered beneath her palm.
She’d questioned him. Stood up to him, and I?—
“Blake, what’s wrong?”
“You know that’s bullshit, right?”
She drew her shoulders up, her eyes intent on my face. A hint of recognition sparked in her gaze, but she still questioned me. “What do you mean?”
Because I’d never told them.
I’d never told anyone what he was like, sure that if anyone saw the truth, they’d either say I deserved it or see him in me.
But Addie and Adam had seen me at my worst that night, and they’d still come into my father’s house last night to bring me here.
Sometimes, I wondered how much they’d already picked up on, regardless of how I tried to hide it.
But if they saw the truth, they’d never let me go back there.
I believed that, even though my father’s lies worked well to plant seeds of doubt. He teased the line between fiction and reality, tiptoeing over it so carefully, even I struggled to separate the two in his words.
Each time they bled into my subconscious, picking at my deepest fears and turning the blame back onto me, I believed the worst of it.
How I deserved it—his fists—but not his love.
How I wasn’t good enough for anyone to give me that.
But Addie and Adam? They were proof he was wrong, and I wouldn’t let him take them from me. Not with the truth or his lies.
