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“I need to know if my mother knew this,” he told her. “I need to know if she knew he was so out of his element as a father, he was drowning in it, and she not only didn’t pick up the slack, she shoved his head under.”
She pulled her head out of his chest and looked up at him.
Yeah.
There was his girl.
“Are you going to talk to her?” she asked.
“Only if you’ll get on my plane tomorrow and come with me. After that, we’ll go to Chloe’s wedding.”
The tears came back.
He wanted to do something about them, but he had to make sure she got it.
“I love you, Elsa. So fucking much, I couldn’t admit how much I felt for you because it terrified me. And then I didn’t protect you. It triggered me, baby. I felt like a loaded gun in our relationship. Any second, I’d do something like my dad did to my mom, and I’d obliterate you. I walked into that bathroom and there you were, covered in blood, fighting for your life while I was shooting the shit with Blake in a ballroom.”
She lifted her bandaged hand to smooth his hair and he flinched when he saw it.
That didn’t stop her.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she stated.
“I know, but do you get why that would trigger me?”
“Yes, yes, totally. Now that you’ve explained it, yes.”
“I have no idea what kind of woman my mom was before Dad did what he did to her. Genny said she was sweet and funny and smart. But I didn’t get any of that. I got the bitter and twisted. He didn’t know how to love me. She simply refused to do it.”
Her face got hard.
“Don’t blame her,” Hale said quickly.
“Uh…sorry, my prerogative,” she snapped.
He almost smiled.
Fuck, for the first time in days, he almost smiled. For good reasons.
He didn’t.
He said, “Let’s give her the opportunity to explain herself.”
She looked to the street and rested her head on his chest again, muttering, “Whatever.”
That made his lips curve, it wasn’t a full-blown smile, but it felt good.
“Will you come with me?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said immediately.
He sucked in breath through his nose.
Then he asked, “Do you forgive me?”
“Yes,” she said, again immediately.
Okay, fuck.
