AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Some even looked sepia-toned with torn edges. Like she was walking through a living, breathing print photo from decades past.
“Eesh.”
Fingers pressed into her upper arm, bringing her to an abrupt stop. She’d quickly and distractedly tossed on the clothes she had on before, but the sweater was backward, cutting across the base of her neck. One bra strap was twisted, and remnants of their lovemaking dampened the middle of their panties.
“Eesh, where are you going?”
She looked up. “What?”
“Where are you going?” Joel repeated.
She didn’t know, but she needed to get out of there, get some distance from him.
She wasn’t upset with him—not for the reasons he probably assumed. She needed space to think, air to breathe. She needed to leave before she lashed out at him for letting her learn the truth about what he’d so expertly concealed until now. Had he tried harder to keep it from her, she would have never known. She would have been able to go to her grave, convinced she’d been a good mother once upon a time.
“Talk to me,” he said, naked except for a pair of boxer briefs. “Remember how we talked about communicating? About not shutting each other out?”
The voice that left her was someone else’s. Some broken,brokenperson.
“The drawings were real.”
He slowly nodded. “Yes.”
“A real person. A man.”
“I’m sorry for not telling you.”
“Was he in the house?”
“Ayesha—”
“Okay, so he was.” She nibbled on her bottom lip, peeling the skin with her teeth until the flesh was raw and tender. “Was he in Theo’s room?”
“This isn’t your f—”
“Okay, so he was.”
“This wasn’t your fault,” Joel said, and she didn’t know why he was wasting his precious breath on useless attempts at reassurance. “The guy who did this isn’t someone you had a chance with. He—”
“What’s ‘this’?” she asked. “What did he do to Theo?”
Joel’s chest deflated, causing his shoulders to fall. He was making himself smaller, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to prepare her for news that would scare her enough on its own.
“Ayesha—”
“Just tell me!”She dragged away from his hold and took a few steps back. “Don’t sugarcoat it. Don’t hide it. Tell me what I let him do to my child. You didn’t mention this ‘Mr. Veeny’ to me for a reason. It’s bad. I know it’s bad.”
He reached for her again.
She increased the space between them. “Joel, don’t touch me. Don’t comfort me.”
What had made her think she could have successfully been a widow and single mother before the age of twenty-six? What had made her believe that she would, all of a sudden, know what she was doing when Theo came along? She’d barely known what she was doing with Josiah. Initially, she’d even tried to refuse the money the guys had sent her directly after first refusing to access the trust Curtis had set up—with a little boy and another one in her belly to take care of. Children her dead husband had trusted her to take care of.
Honor Curtis for once in your life.
Bring his child home.
Stupid woman.
