“I don’t know,” he lets me go and shoves a hand through his hair, “I cleared the footage. No one saw it.”
“He broke your window.” I blink quickly to clear the water rising in my eyes.
“Fuck the window,” he growls. “He will not get anywhere near you.”
I’m quietly thankful that the kids aren’t here to see this. It’s one thing that he was here taunting me all those weeks ago; it’s another that he’s damaged their home and has pictures like this of me. What is he going to do with them? Who is he going to show?
“I shouldn’t have stayed,” I swallow thickly, the words burning as they come out.
“Don’t say that,” Silas snaps angrily, his tone making me flinch. I watch his whole body crumble when he sees it, his hands immediately going up. “I’m sorry, Honeybee, I didn’t—I shouldn’t have raised my voice.”
“I’m okay,” I whisper. I know it’s because I’m spooked and not because of him. I’d be angry too if someone had just damaged my home.
Thisismy home.
A tear spills over and slips down my cheek.
“I did this, Silas,” I hiccup, “This is my fault. If I hadn’t come here, he never would have either.”
“Juni, baby,” Silas steps up, slow and cautious, and when I don’t bolt, he pulls me into him. “When I told you I loved you, that meant all of you. Your past. Your present and whatever comes in the future.”
“What if Rosie and Caleb were here?” I shake my head, swatting at the tears, hating that he’s the cause of them,again.
“They weren’t,” he says, “We’re not doing what-ifs, Juni. They weren’t here and you’re not leaving. I have you. I won’t leave you.”
My forehead hits his chest, and his arms come around me, so tight as if to hold all those broken pieces together.
“A deputy will be here soon. We need to provide this as evidence, but I’m going to remove the photo, okay?”
“Don’t they need it?” I mumble.
“Fuck no,” he growls. “And even if they did, they can manage without it.”
“Okay.”
“I’m sorry,” he sighs, “I never should have done that in the tack room. It was careless.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Silas ushers me out of the room and into his, settling me on his bed before he heads back across the hall to grab me the clothes I’d initially gone in there for. When he returns, he places them down and then goes into the bathroom to get the shower started.
“I’ll handle it,” he promises me, leaving me to shower and change. I hear a car pull up outside, but I don’t go to see who it is and instead strip down and lock myself in the bathroom.
I don’t understand how he was allowed bail orwhowould bail him out. I suppose he could have calledon his family, though they spoke little. A sigh leaves me as the water runs over my head, wetting my hair, but I just let it run down my face, not moving to wash it or my body. It’s cleansing, and I pretend it’s enough, just for the moment to wash away how sick I feel. Calvin completely shattered all boundaries; he’s invaded my privacy, exposed me in the most vulnerable position. How many times did he look at that image?
I am disgusted.
I don’t know how long I remain in the shower, but when I come out, pink-skinned and tired, Silas is sitting on the edge of the bed, his forearms resting on his thighs as his head hangs between his shoulders.
When he looks up at me, I see the torture right there in his eyes. He’s hurting.
Forgetting my own pain, I rush to him, dropping to my knees between his feet and grasp his hands.
“Please don’t leave,” his voice scratches from his throat, his eyes glazed when they meet mine.
I feel my lower lip wobble. “I don’t know if I could even if I wanted to, and maybe that’s selfish of me.”
“Be selfish,” he begs, “Please.”
