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“Yes, I forgot you had a meeting. It’s about—” She pauses, her eyes drop, and she seems to pale.
“Rose?”
She smiles. It’s forced. “It can wait. I’m sorry for disturbing you.” The door is quickly closed, and I look at Danny. His frown is as big as mine.
“I’ll be in touch,” he says to Sandy, his eyes not leaving the door. “Len will see you out.”
45
DANNY
I let Len take over at the door and run up the stairs two at a time. I saw her face. Everyone in that office saw her face. What the fuck’s going on? I steam down the corridor, my walk fast and determined, and push my way into our bedroom. “Rose?” I call, listening.
I hear a noise in the bathroom. I try the handle. Locked. My chest starts to pump. “Rose,” I call through the wood, my ear pressed against it, listening.
“Coming,” she squeaks.
I look at the door incredulously. “Open the fucking door.”
“I’m fine.”
“Open the fucking door, Rose,” I bellow, stress taking over. She’s fucking insulting me. I look over my shoulder when I hear movement, seeing Brad and James in the room with me. “She’s locked herself in the fucking bathroom,” I tell them, banging my fist into the wood. “Open the fucking door!”
“Danny,” Brad says, pacifying, coming to me, leaving James to follow at a slower pace, as a horrible feeling creeps into my bones.
“What’s going on?” Beau bursts into the room, looking between us all. “Where’s Rose?”
“She’s in there.” I smack the door again. “You saw, didn’t you?” I look at Brad. “Her face. You saw it, didn’t you?”
“She looked...” Brad glances at James for help. He can’t help him. James saw her face too. It was haunted.
“Is it the baby?” Beau asks, her hand over her mouth. My stress skyrockets as Beau comes to the door too, knocking a little more gently than me. “Rose, come on,” she pleads. “Open the door.”
I’m quickly picking Beau up and placing her to the side, and then I shoulder barge the wood. It pings open on a brief scream of protest and reveals Rose. Sitting in the corner, curled up, her face in her knees.Oh Jesus.My eyes naturally fall to the tile, searching for blood. Not from cuts, but from—
I can’t say it. I rush over and crouch, trying to pull her hands from her face. She’s rocking back and forth, her back hitting the wall constantly. “Rose, baby, please.” I force her hands away. There are no tears. There’s... nothing, actually. No expression. Nothing.
It throws me. It throws us all, the room silent as I hold her hands away from her face, searching for something.Anythingto tell me what I’m dealing with. “Rose, baby, please talk to me.”
She inhales, so calmly. “That man,” she says quietly, pushing the tension in the room up to unbearable levels, as well as the stress already boiling over. Her eyes are empty as she stares at her knees. Her face expressionless. Her body hard, like a barrier has come up. Then she looks at me, and I recoil. “He raped me when I was fourteen.”
I fall to my arse as everyone’s inhales of shock seems to suck all the air from the bathroom, making it impossible to breathe. “No,” I whisper, scrambling back, trying to put distance between us.
Beau fills that space where I’m not capable, falling to her knees and taking Rose’s hands. Rose looks at her blankly. “He did, Beau,” she says, on autopilot. “He came to my room.” Her eyes close tightly. She’s trying to hold off the flashbacks. I scramble to my feet, sweat pouring from my brow.
“Danny,” Brad says calmly, holding my arm. I shrug him off, looking at my wife on the floor fighting back her past. I have to know. Ihaveto know. I go to her, crouching, but I don’t touch her. I can’t. My hands are only capable of murder right now. Not softness.
“Could he be Daniel’s father?” I ask, cold.
Beau swings a stunned look my way as Rose opens her eyes and gazes at me. She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t need to.
I slowly stand, every muscle involuntarily flexing, the monster inside rising. She doesn’t even bother telling me to not go. I turn and walk away, burning from the inside out, my vision hazy with the rage consuming me. And Rose doesn’t try to stop me.
“Danny.” James reaches for me. Pointless. A cyclone couldn’t stop me, let alone The Enigma at half fucking strength.
“James,” Beau says, warning him.
I know he won’t listen.
