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“I’m not. I feel like I failed Tara. Like how you felt when you couldn’t help Mom.”
“I’ve worked through that shit. I don’t feel that way anymore. I was just a kid. It wasn’t my job to save her from Dad. Jake, I know you wanted to help Tara, but going after Troy wasn’t the way to do it. Guys like him don’t change from a fight. Even if you’d beat him up bad enough to put him in the hospital, nothing would’ve changed. He’d still be an abuser. He won’t change unless he wants to, and there’s nothing you can do about that.”
“Where is he? Did they arrest him?”
“Nobody can find him. He took off after it happened. And the cops can’t prove he was involved so they can’t charge him with anything. We were waiting for you to wake up so you could tell the cops what happened.”
“Did they talk to Troy’s uncle?”
“Yeah. Since it happened at his garage, Troy’s uncle was called in for questioning. He told the cops he was at a bar when it happened, which was confirmed by the bar owner. The windows at the garage were broken so Troy’s uncle made up this story about someone breaking in, seeing you there, and stabbing you.”
“That’s not what happened. Troy broke the windows. I heard him do it before he left. He must’ve been trying to make it look like a break-in so the cops wouldn’t think he did it.”
“Now that you’re awake, you can tell the police what happened and they can start looking for Troy. Do you have any idea where he might’ve gone?”
“No, but Sean might.”
Brook comes into the room, holding two coffee cups. “Jake! You woke up!” She hurries over to me, setting the cups down on the table.
“He’s been up for a few minutes now,” Dean says. “He was just telling me what happened.”
I explain everything to Brook, and by the time I’m done, I can barely keep my eyes open. A nurse comes in and that’s the last thing I remember before falling asleep.
30
JAKE
When I wake up,it’s late afternoon. Sean is there, sitting in a chair by my bed, looking at his phone.
“Hey,” I say, getting his attention.
He glances at me and sees I’m awake. “Jake!” He sets his phone down. “What do you need? Should I get a nurse?”
“No, I’m sick of nurses.”
He smiles. “The one who just started her shift is young. And really hot. I think you’re gonna like her.”
“Not when she’s sticking needles in me.”
He laughs. “It’s good seeing you awake. How are you feeling?”
“Like someone stabbed me.”
It was a joke, but Sean doesn’t laugh. “I can’t believe he did that.”
“I can. Troy hates me. He always has.”
“Troy hates everyone, even me.”
“Then why are you still friends with him?”
“We’re not really friends. We just let him hang out with us. But not anymore. I’m done with him. So is Leo. We knew Troy had a bad temper, but we didn’t think he’d take it this far. And Iswear, we didn’t know he was doing that stuff to Tara. We knew they fought a lot, but we didn’t know he was hitting her.”
“Have you seen her since this happened?”
“Yeah, she was here with us when they brought you in yesterday. I called and told her what happened. She left work and came here, but they wouldn’t let us see you until a few hours later. And then they only let us stay a few minutes, but we hung out in the waiting area. Danny’s parents were there too. His mom brought us food.”
Danny’s parents live a few blocks away from Sean. They’ve known him since he was really young. They know most all the kids in the neighborhood because their kids were always bringing other kids over to their house to eat or play in the yard.
