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With quick goodbyes, I hustle outside, making my way into the living room, grabbing my bags, and hustle out to my car.
I’m shutting the passenger door when I find Hank standing next to my front end. I sigh and cross my arms over my chest. “What do you want?” I step closer to the driver’s side door, but so does he.
“Are you sure you’re ready to go back to school?” He’s so close that I can smell that familiar woodsy scent of his.
I nod. “I want to go back—I need to.”
Hank nods slowly, and he doesn’t look thrilled. “One of the boys will be at the school at all times.” I open my mouth to object, but he stops me. “They won’t be visible, and they’ll switch off. The school security guard is aware of the situation and will be watchful too.”
“T-Thanks. I appreciate you all helping out.” I avoid his eyes as I say it.
Hank opens my door for me and shuts it once I’m inside. Before I back out of the driveway, I awkwardly wave in his direction, and he knocks on my hood. I feel his eyes on me the whole time and even as I begin driving down the street.
“Thank God,” I whisper to myself. I’m relieved to be away from him and will be able to avoid him a lot easier if I was not staying with his parents.
When I get to the school, it’s still early, but I wanted to get situated and settled before my kids came. In my classroom, I see cards and flowers covering my desk. Tears burn my eyes when I see some of the cards were handmade by the kids.
I take the time to read each one, hugging them to my chest when I’m all done reading them. The flowers are from some of the other classrooms. They think I was in an accident, and are cards from some of the teachers—I don’t know what they think happened.
I sit at my desk and get ready for the day—happy to get things back to normal.
***
I stare at the ceiling—unable to find sleep and watching the shadows dance across the walls. Every time I close my eyes, I can see the look in Austin’s eyes right before I blacked out.
Sometimes, it is images of the morning I found Hank in bed with the skank whore at the clubhouse. My stomach turns as images assail me of that terrible fucking morning.
We’d been fighting for two days prior. I was buried in grief and lashing out at him because I didn’t know where else to direct my feelings. He’d been drinking a lot, self-medicating. Instead of getting help like everyone suggested, we let ourselves become buried in our shared grief.
The night before, our fight had been bad, and he’d stormed out. When I’d woken in the morning and realized he didn’t come home, nausea plagued me. I felt terrible about the way I treated him.
I’d realized I needed help—we needed help—I went to the clubhouse and made my way down the hall to our room. When I unlocked and opened the door, I froze. Hank was asleep, naked, with the blonde skank that had been flirting with him like crazy every time we came to parties—right in front of me, no less.
Tears started to fall when she pushed herself up, exposing her naked body to me. I stood frozen in place as she bent down, kissing his back. That woke him up and when he saw her, he flew out of bed, and that’s when he spotted me.
He claimed he didn’t remember anything and that he wouldn’t do that to me. I’d run out of there crying. We started therapy, and we were trying to work it out, but then the skank whoreturned up pregnant, and that was the end of Hank and Brooke, forever.
I’d thrown all of Hank’s stuff into the yard and had the locks changed. I know they were never a couple, but Hank moved in with her to be there for the baby. While I began to spiral, especially when I’d learned that Hank had, had a son.
I eventually got my shit together, went back to school, and became a teacher. It took three years before I began to date again, but to say I was gun shy was an understatement.
Ugh, I need to stop thinking about it. I wipe the few stray tears that fell and roll to my side. Finally, my eyes start to feel heavy, and I fall into a fitful sleep.
Chapter Six
Hank
I take my seat to the left of my father and glance around at the men who are family, not by blood, but by heart.
Derrick takes his seat next to mine. He slaps me on the back, and I give him a chin lift. Dad knocks his gavel on the table, calling our meeting to order.
“Do we have any word on the man who beat my daughter?” He looks to our brother, Snoop, who is our computer guy that can get us information that we potentially have trouble getting.
He shakes his head. “Nothing we don’t already know. The guy has become vapor—he’s just gone.”
Dad stands up, placing his hands on the table. “I want you focused completely on trying to find that piece of shit. He’s going to spend a little time with us before we send him to the police station.”
My hands clenched into fists on top of the table. I take a deep breath and focus back on what he’s saying.
