Page 104 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bride

It was a shitshow.

Even I can admit that.

I had no business trying to raise a child when I was still one myself. Despite legally being an adult, I was drifting, trying to find my place in the world, attempting to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Because it sure as hell wasn’t waitressing.

But Mom’s death changed everything.

It shifted my priorities.

What I wanted and dreamed of didn’t matter anymore—all that did was that little boy who had lost his mom and only had me.

Silas watches me expectantly, waiting for me to continue. “What happened, Lyla?”

My body starts trembling, and I wrap my arms around my knees. Whiskey shifts up and rests his head across my arm, looking at me like he can sense the anxiety building up by having to talk about this.

“About a year ago, I got him a job part-time at the restaurant I worked at. I waitressed. I bartended. I did whatever they needed me to do. He bussed tables and helped back in the kitchen with some food prep stuff.” I look up at him. “He’s a good kid, Silas.Really.”

“So, how did he end up with murder charges?”

I squeeze my eyes closed and drop my forehead onto my knees, the memory of that night so vivid, it threatens to steal my breath the same way Marty’s inquisition did in that conference room. “It was close to closing time. We were both working the late shift. Only the two of us were left, and a handful of customers. One of them was a regular…a guy I was friendly with…”

Reluctantly, I lift my head and find Silas watching me carefully, the tension returned to his body.

“I don’t normally drink during work hours. But that night…”—I suck in a deep breath and release it—“he asked me to have one with him at the end of my shift.”

If only I had said no.

If only I had been smart enough to see what was happening.

“I did.” The feeling that overtook me that night hits me again, making the room spin around me. “After a little while, I got a little dizzy. By then, the other patrons left, so it was just me andhim,and my brother was in the back. He…shit…”

I clench my eyes closed and shake my head, my body trembling.

“He tried to grab me. I managed to scream for Joey, and he came out of the kitchen. I could barely keep my eyes open…the room was spinning. I knew he had slipped something into my drink, but I couldn’t tell him what was happening.”

The sheer terror I felt that night hits me full-force, making me almost double over on the bed, pressed up against Whiskey. “Joey hit him over the head with a glass bottle from the bar, and the guy took a swing at him. But Joey punched him, and he fell back and smacked his head against the bar.”

Silas winces.

“When I came to, Joey was sitting on the floor, crying, and the other guy was dead. Police were all around us. I didn’t remember the fight. I didn’t actuallyseeit, or if I did, the drugs wiped my memory of it. I couldn’t back up anything Joey told them…”

“There were no cameras?”

I shake my head. “The place was a dive, old school. They didn’t have anything like that.”

Silas approaches the bed slowly. “So, they arrested him and charged him with the guy’s death?”

Tears stream down my face, that same feeling of helplessness I had then overtaking me now. A sob escapes my throat, and I nod. “They said it was murder, but he was just protecting me.”

I try to take a deep breath, but all I can do is gasp helplessly, unable to draw enough air into my lungs. Silas closes the distance to the bed and sits next to me, pulling me into his arms.

His familiar scent that somehow still clings to him, despite the fact that we aren’t on the mountain, fills my breaths and helps relieve some of the panic starting to overcome me.

He rubs his hand along my spine. “When was this?”

“A few weeks ago. It took them a while to assign him a public defender. He’s only seventeen, but that makes him an adult for criminal charges. He could go to prison for the rest of his life. I met with his court-appointed attorney once, a few days after he was arrested, and the guy said it was a slam dunk case for the state because all the evidence showed he had attacked the guy. There were no signs of self-defense—”

Silas stiffens. “What about the fact that you were drugged?”

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