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She didn’t stir, just kept on crying, and those tears fucking broke me. They wrecked something inside me that had never been touched before, and I knew this was the moment where I had to step up—no longer was I just the man dating her foster mom, I was more than that.
Because I wasn’t simply dating Star—I was engaged to her.
Star was my forever. My fucking everything. And that meant Kat was too.
Feeling awkward about entering her bedroom, I shuffled over to the bed and cleared my throat.
That didn’t work.
I reached down and gently cupped her shoulder which was trembling. Ren meowed at me, but I ignored the kitten to whisper, “Kat. You’re safe, sweetheart. You need to wake up because you’re dreaming. Whatever you’re seeing isn’t real. It’s just a dream.”
I crooned the words to her, hoping she’d hear them, but if she did, she merged from sleeping to waking in increments.
Taking a seat at her bedside, I gently stroked her hair, doing what I guessed I wished Ma had done to me when I’d had nightmares.
When Da had stopped her from comforting me because I needed to man up.
The thought had a frown puckering my mouth as I did what I could to soothe her until, out of nowhere, her arms were sliding around my waist and she was sobbing, “Why won’t they stop, Conor? Why won’t they stop?”
My throat felt thick with emotions I didn’t know how to express, probably couldn’t express because I’d been stunted in that sense when I was her age.
“I wish I knew why, sweetheart. I wish I knew.” I sucked in a breath. “What did you dream of? Do you want to talk about it?”
“He was hurting her again.”
“Is this the first time you remembered?”
“No,” she whispered as if it were a secret.
“You remembered before but didn’t tell Star?”
“I didn’t want to upset her.” She sniffled. “She’s worried about me.”
“I am too,” I reassured.
“I know but you’re different.”
“I am?”
She hitched a shoulder. “I don’t know why, but you are.”
Deciding to take that as a positive if it meant she’d open up to someone, I said, “I used to have bad dreams when I was your age.”
“What did you dream of?”
“A man who used to hurt me.”
“Why did he hurt you?”
“Because he could.” My throat bobbed. “Did your father hurt you, Kat?”
“No.” She had no idea how goddamn relieved I was. “He used to hurt Leo though. His daddy didn’t protect him. He said he needed to make him into a man but he was only little. How could he make him into a man by hurting him, Conor?”
Leo.
Her cousin.
“My da used to think like that, Kat. When I was your age and I had nightmares, my ma wasn’t allowed to come and help me get back to sleep.”
