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“You have a sister?”
Why had she even mentioned this? “Yes. She’s four years older than me.” Addisyn gripped her handlebars a little more tightly. “We don’t talk anymore.”
“Oh.” The air felt awkward. Finally Darius spoke, a bit lamely. “That’s too bad.”
“Yes.” Addisyn let out a deep breath. Suddenly the sun seemed less bright, the sky a darker blue. Or maybe it was her mood that was turning bluer. “I wish things were different.”
“I’m sure. That’s rough.” Darius was giving her space, allowing her thoughts to unwind. They continued onto Disco Boy Trail. The terrain became a bit bumpier, with roots wiggling across the path.
“What did your dad do for a living?” Darius’s question broke the silence. Glancing at him, Addisyn realized that he genuinely cared, that he wasn’t asking to be polite or to make small talk but because he wanted a look inside her world.
“He was a research psychiatrist.” Addisyn felt the familiar churning in her gut begin—the same kind of nausea that swept over her whenever she considered her past. Which was as infrequently as possible. “Some kind of elite in his field. He’d go to his conferences and rotary club meetings and community functions, and everybody thought we were the perfect little family. ‘Oh look,’ everybody would say. ‘There goes Dr. Miles with his sweet little wife and his cute daughters.’” The irony almost choked her.
“But he wasn’t really like that.” Darius’s words weren’t a question.
“No.” Addisyn could still feel the frustration of those days, watching her father smile and shake hands with friends while she wore a long-sleeved shirt to cover the bruises on her arms. “He would scream and yell at us all. Horrible things. All the time. And he could get physical too, sometimes.”
She could see how this roused all of Darius’s protective nature. “He hurt you?”
Addisyn gave a wry smile. “Bruises and black eyes, from time to time. Nothing serious, as my mother would say.”
“Your mother said that?”
Addisyn shrugged. “Perfect doormat. She never defended us. Instead, she was always making excuses for him. He was tired or he was stressed or we were being difficult.”
Darius frowned. “There’s never an excuse for a man to bully a woman. Ever.”
Addisyn took a moment to sneak an admiring glance at him. The respect he showed others was just one of the things she appreciated about him.
“I’m sorry.” Suddenly the moment felt uncomfortable. Why was she telling him all this? Maybe because he made her feel completely accepted, as if nothing she said would shock or rebuff him. The security was something she’d never experienced from anyone—not her father, not Brian, and certainly not Avery.
“Hey, don’t be. Always good to get stuff off your chest.” Darius coasted for a moment, standing on his pedals. “So—how did you get away? From your dad?”
Addisyn paused. This was the most bizarre part of the story—and the part she was least willing to share. But she couldn’t turn back now. “Well—it happened when I had just turned fourteen. Thanks to Avery.”
“Avery?”
“My sister.”
The words seemed to hang in the air. The veil between the life Addisyn led now and the life she had once called hers was fluttering in the wind of too many memories. “Avery...she saved me.” The words came slowly. “She took me away with her.”
Darius’s front wheel swerved sharply. “What? Just like that?”
“Yeah...just like that.” Addisyn’s mind flew back to that night, the night that everything had changed. “She took me away from our father. Drove us to New York City.” She leaned into a sharp turn, shifting her body weight. “In fact, she raised me from that point on.”
“Wow. That was pretty brave of your sister.” Darius ramped off a root, but Addisyn could tell he was listening intently.
“Yes.” She checked the name of the next trail as they came to an intersection. Torture Never Stops. How true. “In many ways, things were worse for her than they had been before. She wasn’t a big fan of the city. And she had to work a lot.” Addisyn tossed a lopsided grin toward Darius. “Also, believe it or not, I wasn’t always the easiest kid to raise.”
“Now I would have never guessed that.” Darius’s laugh mingled with her own. His face grew serious again. “Your sister sounds like a great person. I mean, I’m sure that was super hard for her. But seeing the kind of person you are today—” he seemed to study her as they rode. “Whatever things are like between you, I know she’s got to be proud.”
Proud.
Shame squished Addisyn’s soul. She couldn’t tell him that of all the emotions she might evoke in her older sister, pride was most definitely not one of them.
“THAT’S A PRETTYamazing story.” Darius wasn’t going to push Addisyn. If she didn’t want to tell him something, he wasn’t going to drag it out of her. But there was one piece of the puzzle that made no sense at all. “So...even after all you two went through together...you don’t talk?”
Addisyn took a deep breath, then let it out. “It’s—complicated.”
