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I paused as a wave of pain went through me. “He was really nice,” I whispered. “Eric had hit me the night before so he saw the black eye and asked me about it. I told him what I’d told everyone else…that I’d taken up a self-defense course and had gotten hit while sparring with a partner, but I knew he didn’t believe me. I could see it in his eyes. He told me he could help me if I just told him the truth. I denied it a first, but he kept telling me it wasn’t my fault…that Eric was sick in the head and he’d help me get out of the situation and he’d make it so Eric could never hurt me again.” I felt tears sting my eyes as I softly said, “So I told him. Everything.”
“Did he tell Eric?” Ronan asked.
I shook my head. “No, not like you’re thinking,” I said when I heard the anger in the man’s voice. “He tried to keep his promise.”
“What happened, Ethan?” I heard Cain ask, his voice gentle, like it’d been in the shower when he’d held me.
“He was killed in a home invasion two nights later. His wife too. I saw it on the news.” I wiped away the tears that started to fall. “I didn’t know the truth until Eric came to see me the next day.”
“Eric killed them,” Ronan offered.
I nodded even as fresh tears fell. “Eric told me they were dead because of me. That if I’d just kept my mouth shut, their daughter wouldn’t be an orphan…she was sleeping at a friend’s house that night.” My voice broke as I said, “She was only twelve years old.”
“It’s not your fault,” I heard Ronan say. A fresh tissue was thrust into my hand, but I had no clue who put it there. I didn’t bother correcting Ronan.
It was absolutely my fault.
“He beat me so bad I could barely walk.”
“What about his admission?” Cain asked. “Did your digital recorder capture it?”
I shook my head. “No, I’d taken it to work that day to get the recordings transferred and left it in my locker.”
“I went back to work about a week later after telling my boss a family member had died and I needed some time off. I was working my regular shift when this girl showed up in the ER complaining of stomach pains. I knew she was faking right away because her symptoms made no sense. I thought maybe she’d been assaulted or something and was making up the stomach pains as a way to work up to admitting to what had really happened to her.”
“Lucy,” Cain murmured.
I nodded. “I didn’t know that’s who she was though. She’d given a fake name at the check-in desk. When she wouldn’t tell me what she was really there for, I told her I’d have to call children’s services since the number she’d given us for her parents was fake too. That’s when she told me who she was and that she knew who I was.”
“How’d she find out about you?” Ronan asked.
“She’d heard her mother and Eric fighting. Her mother had accused Eric of cheating, though she’d had no clue he was cheating with a man apparently. I guess Lucy’s mom was threatening to divorce Eric, but he’d threatened to expose her drinking problem which would have ruined her career. And since he’d adopted Lucy, he could have fought for custody if they separated. Lucy hated Eric…had from the moment her mother met him. So she started following Eric – one of her friends was old enough to drive – in the hopes that she could catch him in the act and give the information to her mom for the divorce.”
“And Eric led her to you,” Ronan offered.
“Yeah. The day she saw me was the day after Eric had beaten me for telling his partner about what he was doing to me. Lucy saw him grab me through the window. Later, after Eric had left, I’d gone outside to get my mail and she saw the bruises. I think that’s why she didn’t go to her mom right away.”
“So she came to see you in the ER so she could talk to you?” Cain asked.
“I think she just wanted to feel me out at first. You know, decide if I was a bad guy or not. I told her she needed to stay out of it. I was terrified what would happen if she confronted Eric. I made her promise me she wouldn’t. But she kept coming back to the hospital to see me. I think…I think she needed someone to talk to.”
“Did Eric ever hurt Lucy or her mother?” Ronan asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “She said Eric mostly ignored her and the fights with her mother were loud, but he never laid a hand on her.”
