I follow her line of sight. “What?”
She folds her arms tightly across herself. “Callum.”
Ice floods my bloodstream.
She takes a deep, sobering breath. “He’d back me into the wall. I was always cornered.”
I stare at the exact spot she’s looking at, and suddenly?—
The tile, the angle, the floor beneath us.
Recognition hits me so hard I feel nauseous. This is where the photographs were taken.
My stomach turns. “Pfeiffer… Do you remember being drugged?”
Her brows pull together slowly. “No.”
Fuck.She doesn’t remember all the things he did to her. There’s no wonder her mind shut down. All she ever knew were fragments and shame she carried alone while we, meanwhile, had sharpened her into a villain.
I set the coffee down before I drop it.
“I’m sorry.”
She says nothing but a thick tear tracks all the way down her cheek.
“I’m sorry,” I repeat, harsher this time. “For all of it. For what he did to you, for blaming you all these years. I’m sorry I took my hurt out on you—you didn’t deserve that.”
My throat burns with shame.
“I’m sorry I turned you away tonight. I didn’t want to. I…don’twant to.”
She gnaws on her lips, still staring at the same spot on the wall.
“I made a huge mistake, Pfeiffer.”
She wipes the back of her hand over her cheek, like she’s almost angry at herself for getting upset.
“I fucking love you, Pfeiffer. I’ve loved you for years. Even before you knew I existed, I loved you. I never stopped.”
She goes completely still, then she cries into her hands, her shoulders heaving harshly.
I don’t know what to do. I want to go to her and put my arms around her, but I don’t want to invade her space after I’ve hurt her so badly.
Streetlight from the window illuminates the tears cascading down over her fingers and I feel them like knives twisting into my gut.
I can only pray I’m not too late.
Eventually, she removes her hands and wipes away the last of the tears.
“You have no idea how badly I wanted to hear that,” she whispers.
Hope dares to crawl back into my veins.
She wraps her arms around herself tighter.
“It wasn’t until you walked away that I understood what we had.” Her voice shakes now. “What I lost.”
“Pfeiffer—”
