AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lucas studies himself in the hand mirror I had given him. “I think I’d look pretty sexy in an eye patch.”
“Well, at least you’re modest,” I deadpan as he leaves.
I’m about to settle in to finish my work but it’s hard to concentrate with what I’ve just overheard. My mind is a bundle of confusion, nothing makes sense, my own conflicted feelings about this man who has been nothing but kind, who pushes against my barriers, who is insufferably arrogant, making matters worse.
Resentment rises in me.
How dare you?!
How dare you get in my head and feel, things I never wanted to feel!
My mug crashes against the wall, the remaining coffee splatters on the beige-colored plaster, before I realize that I’ve just thrown my mug against the wall.
I stare at the shattered pieces, furious with myself for being such an idiot.
“He’s started to rub off on you.”
I look up in shock to see Lana standing at the
door, her eyes on the shattered mug.
“Miss Hill.” Seeing her reminds me of last week, of what she’s seen, of what she’s probably told Caleb. “Mr. Starr’s left for the day.”
“I know,” Lana says evenly. “I came to see you. And stop calling me Miss Hill. I’m married.” She walks over to the visitor’s chair and sits down. “The appropriate title would be Mrs. Thornton, although I prefer Lana.”
“Okay.”
When she sees I’m not going to elaborate, she says, “I heard Caleb gave Lucas a black eye.”
“Did he?” I respond vaguely. “I thought Lucas slipped.”
Lana raises a brow and she almost seems pleased by my response. “Lucas always was careless.”
“I wouldn’t know.” I don’t want to talk to her. I want her to leave me alone.
“I didn’t tell Caleb about the scars on your back,” she admits, quietly, her eyes fixed on me.
Ok, so that gets my interest. I still, disbelief and relief flooding into me simultaneously, “You didn’t?”
“No, but I do want to know what happened to you.” She leans forward in her chair.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I purse my lips together.
Lana doesn’t seem bothered by my refusal. She just sits there, watching me. “Well, I want to know. Look, ever since you came here, the fact that Caleb was determined to…” She shakes her head. “The point is that I misjudged you. Your work under Caleb has been nothing short of exemplary and I want to apologize for my behavior and being so rude to you. I was the one who asked Elise to accompany you to the shopping thing. I’m just trying to befriend you. I saw the scars and it’s just… they shocked me.”
It takes guts to apologize and I stare at the paper in front of me, before opening my mouth to say, “When I was in the home, a few days before I was supposed to be released from there, my friend, who had gotten knocked up, her boyfriend came looking for her. He wasn’t a very good person, roughly speaking. He wanted her to come live with him but Tra—my friend knew he was abusive.” I swallow, remembering the night when Tracy hadn’t come home from school and how I had gone looking for her. “It was pretty late. She hadn’t come back and I went looking for her. The guy, her kid’s dad, he owned a garage near our high school. I armed myself with a wrench I found at home and I went looking for her there.”
It’s not easy to tell this woman before me of the violence I had faced in there which had gone above and beyond anything I had ever faced in my life.
“He was beating her, and I attacked him. He threatened to strip my skin off and I hit him in the jaw with the wrench.”
Lana’s face is now paling.
I continue, “Tr—she ran for it to get help, but he came to pretty quickly and his friends arrived. They held me down and he kept true to his promise.”
Lana’s eyes are wide in her face, horror written all over it.
I finish with, “The police arrived. I was taken to a hospital. The guy got away and well, they stitched me up, but the scars won’t go away.” I glance at Lana now. “I don’t want your pity. I walked into that situation with my eyes open.”
