Page 12 of The Infinite Light of Dust

“No. I’m okay.”

I sighed in relief as she replied.

My brother held her closely but was inspecting her body—her cheeks, her wrists, all the go-to spots for bruising. He seemed to accept her answer as the truth, and rubbed her back as she slowly calmed down.

“I’m so sorry,” Elodie gasped into Austin’s neck.

She turned to look at me. “And Karina, I’m so sorry. This mess is my fault.”

I moved over to sit by them on the bed and ran my hand over the back of her hair.

“This isn’t your fault. This is . . . well, it’s a mess, but there’s no point in blaming yourself right now. No one knew he was going to come home like this. You didn’t have time to figure out what you were going to do or to prepare.” I looked at Austin so he would know I was speaking to them both.

After a few more minutes, Elodie gained enough strength to sit up on her own, but she stayed close to my brother. The sleeve and neck on her shirt were stretched out, like someone had yanked on them.

“What happened to your shirt?” I asked, alarming my brother.

She awkwardly tugged the fabric lightly, fingering the loose hem of the neckline first. “It’s nothing, I just—” She fumbled with a lie, her eyes darting back and forth between me and my brother. I wanted to ask him to leave and give us a second, but after last night, I realize they are closer than I imagined, closer than her and me.

Cupping her face gently like she was made of porcelain, Austin said her name slowly.

“He thought we were going to . . . he wanted to . . . you know.” She winced and my brother’s eyes nearly blew out of their sockets. He clutched my bedding with a tight fist but managed to keep his face and voice calm for Elodie.

There was a world of difference between trying to sleep with someone and getting rejected and pulling at their clothing. Did Phillips assault her? The thought made me nauseous. We should have never left her alone with him. It took everything in me not to march into the living room and knock his damn teeth out.

I could call the cops?

But what good would that do?

I hesitated, because not only had Elodie not asked me to, but they were married and this was the South; I wasn’t naïve enough to not know there was still a disgusting stigma and injustice around what terms like “rape” or “sexual assault” within a marriage looked like.

“Did he force you?” my brother asked, lips tight, jaw twitching.

“No.” Elodie shook her head. “He stopped before. He drank way too much and hasn’t been home long enough to have any sense. After he rests and sobers up, I’m going to figure out what’s next.”

There was so much weight to that, to all of the unanswered questions and chaos, but for now, I was simply going to be there for her, no matter what.

Chapter Eight

Kael

The familiar smell of Phillips’s ACU wouldn’t leave my mind as I quietly walked down the hallway to Karina’s bedroom. Flashes of bullets blasting from the barrel of an assault rifle, the screams of people on the street as guns and IEDs blasted around them, the sound of flesh being ripped apart nearly knocked me to my knees. A few more steps and I would see her face, and the memories would fade.

With a shaking hand I opened the bedroom door and the three of them stiffened, immediately locking their eyes on me. Fischer moved between the bed and the door, then relaxed as he realized it was me and not Phillips. Elodie lay back against the headboard, her face red and blotchy, her eyes nearly swollen shut.

“Can I come in?” I asked, still in the doorway. Elodie and Karina nodded in unison and Fischer sat down, notably still blocking Elodie from the doorway.

“I took Phillips to my place,” I explained. No one said anything, but the relief among them was palpable.

My mind quieted as I moved toward Karina. I sat next to her on the edge of the bed and she nearly collapsed into me, leaning her entire body against me. Her hand found mine and I squeezed it.

“You should sleep while he does,” Karina advised Elodie.

“We’re not ever leaving her alone with him,” Fischer said, his chest out and the most serious look I’d ever seen in his usually carefree eyes.

“What’s the plan? Technically, he doesn’t have anywhere to go. They’re still on the waiting list for housing. Is it possible for him to go to a barracks room for now even though he’s married?” Karina asked me.

I shook my head. “We would have to have a really good reason, one that would likely get him in trouble, for them to give him a barracks room alone. It’s complicated, and unless he did something that you want to report”—I looked at Elodie, who was clearly miserable beyond words—“then there’s nothing we can do unless he wants to go somewhere.”

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