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I’ve known Jess since she first moved to Maple Ridge. The woman in the chair isn’t the same one I met at the lake. That woman was terrified. This Jessica has a resilience about her that didn’t exist then. She’s scared, no doubt about that after everything she’s gone through. But there’s still a strength to her words, even with her body trembling. Strength and a hint of trust that wasn’t there before.
Another bark comes from the laundry room. Shit, I’d forgotten all about Bailey. I catch Kellan’s eye and nod for him to get her.
He pushes himself to his feet and heads for the laundry room.
“Just so you know,” I say, lightly stroking Jess’s bruised face. “Katelyn lied about everything. I never had sex with her. I was only at the wedding as her date because she promised to talk to her father about the festival sponsorship if I went with her. We were never actually dating.”
Bailey comes bounding into the living room and jumps her paws onto Jess’s lap. Jess throws her arms around Bailey, and I can’t deny the flash of jealousy that Bailey’s the one she hugged first and not me.
I stomp down the emotion. I should be happy she even wants me to stay with her tonight after everything she’s been through. But it won’t only be tonight that she’ll be staying with me. Wilson is a threat. A threat that won’t go away until he’s locked behind bars.
“I still need to help Violet and Sophie.” Jess looks between Kellan and me, determination stamped on her face, the bruises unable to hide it. “As long as they’re with him, they’re not safe. I can’t let Violet lose her daughter like I lost mine. There’s got to be something I can do to help her. To help them both without her husband revealing my real identity.” A small sob escapes her.
Most of what she said is lost on me. Only one word repeats in my head like a never ending echo. “Daughter?”
Pain and heartbreak fill Jess’s eyes, and she nods. “I have a daughter. Or I did. Those photos…those photos you found in my nightstand…I told you she was my niece. She isn’t. Not biologically. She’s my daughter. But she’s not mine anymore.” The last part comes out as a strained whisper.
The sound of her voice, of how much she’s hurting, guts me. I wish I knew how to erase her pain.
“What do you mean she’s not yours anymore?” I ask. Kellan’s confused expression tells me this is also news to him. He sits on the couch opposite her. I take the chair next to hers.
“Legally, she belongs to one of my husband’s brothers and his wife. Craig was estranged from my husband. He believed me when I first told the cops that my husband had been abusing me.” Jess explains how her husband had used their daughter to keep Jess from leaving him, how he planted safeguards to paint her in a bad light, to make it look like she had postpartum depression and was a risk to her daughter’s safety. She explains how her brother-in-law had arranged for her to come to Maple Ridge, how Craig and his wife had been her daughter’s guardians and Jess had given away her rights to Amelia. The intense pain and devastation on Jess’s face rips at my heart.
Tears stream down her face again, and she tries to wipe them away. “I’m hoping that eventually I’ll be able to turn my life around, and Craig and Grace will let me be part of my daughter’s life. Even if it’s just as a family friend. That’s why I was so excited to decorate the second bedroom upstairs. Why I want to build the window seat. It’s for her. For Amelia.”
“Does anyone else know she’s your daughter?”
“I told Avery, Simone, and Zara. Beyond that…” Jess shrugs, the lift of her shoulders weighted and slow. “The media knew I had a daughter, but she’s a minor so they can’t talk about her. It’s why I didn’t want you to google my name. I wasn’t ready to tell you about her.”
Christ, Jess sacrificed her happiness and freedom so she could protect her daughter and not lose her. But that’s exactly what happened in the end. No wonder she’s so determined to save Violet and Sophie.
I move off the chair and sink to my knees in front of her. I take her hand, needing to fix, rebuild, and fortify the trust between us. Jess had her reasons for keeping me in the dark, reasons I hadn’t given her much choice in. If I hadn’t overreacted and shoved Wilson, she might not have felt like she had to keep the truth about Violet and Sophie from me.
“Whatever you want to do when it comes to Violet and Sophie,” I tell her, “I’ll help you. I don’t know yet how we’re going to do that, but we will get her out of her situation. I promise.”
53
Troy
August, Present Day
Maple Ridge
* * *
I help Jess pack her belongings to bring to my house, along with Bailey’s supplies. Wilson gave me the perfect excuse to keep Jess at my place with his fake story about someone breaking into her home.
He might have warned her not to tell me what happened, but he can’t complain that her boyfriend wants to protect her after someone destroyed her sense of security.
In her bedroom, I shut the flap on the cardboard box. Kellan left ten minutes ago. “Just so we have this clear, I still want to be your boyfriend.” I still love you. “That never changed.” I step closer to her but don’t touch her. I want to, but now’s not the time for that. “And I’m sorry you felt like I was being manipulative just to get what I wanted. I hadn’t meant for you to feel that way. I should have been honest about who was paying for your therapy and about Bailey from the start. I just wanted to help you, but it was wrong of me to not be straight with you.”
I’m not thrilled she broke up with me and put her life in danger, but I do get why she ended things between us. I was the one who screwed up, shoving Wilson the way I did. I didn’t leave her much choice if she wanted to help her friend.
“The fact that you’re here—with me—and not rushing off to push Chief Wilson around…that’s big,” Jess says and then narrows her eyes. “You’re not going to retaliate, are you?”
I inwardly flinch at how much of her trust I need to regain. “No. As angry as I am at what he did to you, going after him won’t solve anything.”
She nods. “Good. As for the manipulation part, promise me you won’t do that again. I need to make my own decisions and not have them made for me. Despite what my late husband thought, I am a capable adult.”
