AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Everything’s locked up, and a few of the workers are going to stay in the bunkhouse tonight.” He placed something along the top of the hutch next to the front door, a place Day couldn’t reach even if he used a stool, and I knew in my soul it was a handgun. “George is staying up to keep an eye on things. We should get some rest.”
I nodded, slowly slipping out from beneath Day and laying his head on the couch cushion. Jenny was curled up over his legs, but her eyes were open and her ears were perked up, listening to every sound in the house.
Maybe she could sense the fear coursing through my body. Maybe she knew Day and I were in danger.
I reached out and scratched her behind the ears, silently thanking her for watching over him.
I followed Grant upstairs and into his bedroom. He started to shed his dirty clothes, tossing them into a laundry basket. He was in nothing but boxers now, and in any other situation I would have been practically drooling over his rigid muscles and build, but… all I saw now was a man who could break someone in half.
A protector, something I’d never had before.
I sat on the edge of his bed and knitted my hands in my lap, trying to steady my breathing as Grant got into the shower. I gave myself a moment to gather my thoughts, to try and remember every detail of the last nine or ten years of my life, because he’d want to know. He needed to know. And I had no choice but to tell him.
How will he feel about me when he knows the truth?
“Moira,” he said softly as he came out of the bathroom rubbing moisture from his hair with a thick towel. He was dressed in a tee shirt and shorts, and he looked exhausted.
A pang of regret tightened my chest as I crossed my legs and hugged my knee, finding it impossible to swallow.
“I don’t know where to begin,” I whispered, unable to hide the chuckling lacing the words. “This has been nearly a decade in the making, Grant.”
“Then start at the beginning.” He sat down next to me, his hand coming to rest on my thigh. His touch was calming and warm, and I sighed as I looked up into his eyes.
“You’ll hate me—”
“I could never.”
I took a deep breath, then I told him everything.
I met Kirk at a party off campus one night during my junior year at Washington State. He was everything I thought I wanted, and radiated that bad-boy energy that I loved, or thought I loved. He told me he was a fellow student, and I’d been too lovesick to question his age or background at first. Six months passed in relative calm passed before things went south, and they went south fast.
“He started isolating me my senior year of college,” I said. “I just thought he was protective, and in love. I liked that possessiveness because it made me feel like his world revolved around me, and at first, maybe it did. But I didn’t go out with my friends anymore. I couldn’t even go to class or the library without him asking where I was, who I was with, and then accusing me of lying. The first time he hit me was when I was paired up with another student for my last lab of my college career, a male student. He found out and slapped me across the face.”
And he’d dropped to his knees and begged me for forgiveness, telling me it would never happen again. I believed him.
“I needed to get a new IUD,” I said shamefully, swallowing hard before continuing, “but he locked me in our apartment and made me miss my appointment. I fought with him about it, trying to convince him that I needed to be on birth control. He accused me of not wanting him, of not wanting his kids. I was only twenty, Grant. I hadn’t even thought about it.”
I ran my hands over my face as I thought of that night, what had happened, and what had come of it.
“He hurt me badly that night. I don’t think I can talk about it, honestly. But I found out I was pregnant with Day two months later and… I tried to leave him. My parents were living in Florida at the time. I got a ticket but didn’t tell them I was coming. I couldn’t explain what was happening. He showed up at the airport and threatened me, and I felt like I had no choice but to go with him.”
Grant was rigid beside me, but his hand was still soft and relaxed on my thigh.
“Things were fine for a while. I graduated and he immediately moved us to the East Coast for what he said was work. I was excited because we’d be closer to my parents but he continued to isolate me. I hadn’t seen them for a year before Day was born. Every time I talked with them on the phone, Kirk would be behind me, listening to everything that was said.”
“Did they know you were pregnant?”
I shook my head, fighting back tears. “No.”
Grant let out a breath, nodding. I glanced up at him and noticed his gaze was fixed on the far wall, his jaw tight with tension.
“We got into a fight when I was eight months pregnant that landed me in the hospital. The nurses there knew something was going on, tried to call the police, but I just couldn’t… I was in too deep by then. I didn’t know how to get out. He had me convinced my parents wouldn’t help, that they wouldn’t accept me or my child if I ever tried to leave him. I didn’t know where to go, so after Day was born, I went home, with him.”
I straightened up, the memories of the first year of Day’s life clawing at my mind.
“He left me alone for a while. He was busy at work, he said. I took care of Day on my own. He’d come home and make demands of me, I’d do them. I just retreated into myself for a year, unable to process what was happening. He wanted to have another baby but I’d secretly gotten another IUD. He… found out. It was a day before Day’s first birthday, and I spent that night on the kitchen floor, too hurt to move. Kirk just left. A neighbor called the cops because they heard a baby crying for almost two hours and the cops came and found me. Found us.”
Grant stood up, running his hands through his hair. I started to cry, unable to stop myself.
