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I’m sitting on the edge of the bed in a pair of comfortable pants and a long-sleeve top, and a flush of anxious heat spreads through my body.
Levi drops to his knees, pulling my hair gently, and I focus on the slight sting of pain.
“Baby… where do you want to go? You can live with me in my apartment, or—” Levi looks like he's had a light bulb moment, and bites his lip. “You said you wanted to connect with your brother, right? What if you stayed with him, Chastity?”
“Jacob? Why would he let me stay with him?” I scoff, shaking my head. “He hates me, Levi. I’m a burden and a curse in our family. I don’t think that’s going to work.”
Growling, Levi mutters, “You are no such fucking thing. You take that back right now. You’re beautiful, smart, and have so much integrity. Baby, he would love to have you. Jacob helped me find information to help keep you at Holy Cross.”
Levi buries his face in my hair and inhales, causing me to shiver. “I’ll stay with you, Chastity, if you want, but it’ll give you some much needed time to hear the truth from your brother. He’s sorry about a lot of what happened in your past, and there’s so much he didn’t know your parents were doing. Just consider it. Okay?”
I stare at Levi, thinking about what he said. I have nightmares about the night I had Angel. Jacob looking helplessly on as they ripped her from my arms. I don’t know if I can believe he didn’t know what Isabella and my father were doing.
How could he not?
“Chastity, I see you’re ready to go,” my grandmother says with a too wide smile as she walks in, taking in Levi and I. “Why are you on the floor, Father Levi? You look ridiculous. It’s time to head back to the Academy. I’m moving your things back into my apartment until the wedding. I won’t have you two living in sin.”
Squeezing Levi’s hand, I blurt out, “I’m not returning to the Academy, Grandmother.”
“Nonsense, where else would you go?” she splutters.
“My brother’s home. I’m staying with Jacob for… a week,” I hastily tell her.
Jacob owes me… he’s going to have to agree.
Levi hides his smile from my grandmother as the frown lifts from her face. “Oh, Jacob. I think he’ll love this. You two haven’t spent nearly enough time together, and I think this is wonderful. Let me go call him and make sure he knows all about your medications and medical needs,” my grandmother says, turning away.
“Text Jacob and tell him I’m staying with him,” I hiss under my breath, and Levi’s shoulders shake as he hides his amusement.
“You’re so much fun when you’re standing on your own two feet, Little Sinner. This is a good look for you,” he murmurs as he texts my brother quickly.
Jacob: I’ll gladly be a port in the storm, Levi. I wish I had been able to offer this earlier, and should have thought to ask if she wanted to stay with me.
Levi shows me the text, and a tendril of anxiety that he would be angry with me eases.
Kissing my forehead, Levi gets off the floor, taking the wheelchair from the nurse as she walks in. It’s hospital procedure to be wheeled out upon discharge, and I’m glad for it because standing up to my grandmother has left me shaking.
She’s so much larger than life, severe in all of her interactions, and scares me to death.
“Take a breath, Chastity,” Levi murmurs under his breath as he wheels me out. “You’re doing so good, Baby. We’re almost out of here and I’ll drive you to Jacob’s. Do you want me to stay with you, or will you be alright in his guest room?”
Chewing on my inner bottom lip, I think about this. “Will you stay with me, please? I haven’t spent very much time with him in years. He moved out the moment he could, and I spent a lot of lonely years in that home. I don’t blame him in a way, because my father and Isabella aren’t pleasant people, but he was never really around. My most recent memories of him all revolve around my worst memories.”
Levi grunts under his breath. “I want to beat the shit out of him for that, but I can’t.”
I don’t think he meant for me to hear that, but it nonetheless makes me smile slightly. I want to fight my own battles, but it’s nice that Levi is willing and wants to fight them with me. God, we’ve come such a long way from him taunting me in class about how I didn’t know the answers.
It feels like a lifetime ago.
Levi helps me into his car as Grandmother watches. “Jacob has agreed to let you stay with him, but he’s an important man, Chastity. He won’t be able to hold your hand for everything. You must allow him to continue his work and not get in the way. Is that understood?”
I feel like I’m a child when she speaks to me, instead of a soon to be twenty-year-old woman. God, why can’t she just treat me like a person?
There’s so much I want to say, but I don’t want to push my luck until I’m married to Levi and she can’t intervene in my life as much.
Instead, I wave, lips tightly pressed to keep in all of the things that I want to say.
Don’t say it. Keep quiet…
