Page 138 of Bound By Words

“But he was—he is—my brother. He hurt you, and I couldn’t protect you.” Trent’s actions weren’t mine, but I didn’t want it to be something that drove a wedge between us.

“Your brother needs help. And we’re going to make sure he gets it. You were both damaged by your father, and I know you don’t think I should forgive him. But he has felt alone his entire life because of your father’s actions, and we need to step up and show him he doesn’t have to keep lashing out. I’m not saying we need to keep in contact with him. I don’t think I’ll ever want to see him again. But we need to make sure he gets the help he needs.”

“I still think you should press charges for everything.” I traced the bandages on Kelly’s head. “He could have killed you, and he broke into your apartment. He needs to go to prison for this.”

The police had come to speak to Kelly’s parents right before they left last night. Trent had confessed everything once he’d awoken attached to a hospital bed downstairs with handcuffs, hoping for a lighter sentencing.

“And I think that’s the last thing he needs. He needs help. He needs you to show him that not everyone in his life abandons him. You’ve both let your childhood trauma define you for too long, and it’s time to stop letting it. You help family when they need it, and Trent…Bradley needs help, not another family member casting him aside.”

“I don’t know if I can ever forgive him for this. If Deacon and that security guard hadn’t shown up, he could have…” He could have done so many terrible things to her. We were lucky it hadn’t come to that. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to help him.

“I don’t think he wanted to hurt me. He just felt desperate. He’s ill, and I think…”

“Stop making excuses for him,” I barked, pulling my hand out of hers. She needed to hold him accountable for what he’d done to her.

“I’m not making excuses, I promise, but I think he just needed to feel in control of something. What he did was terrible, and I agree with your anger, but he’s so broken. I want to make sure someone helps him. I’d be happy if I never have to see him ever again, and I don’t think you need to repair your relationship with him, but it doesn’t feel right to throw him in jail and write him off.”

Her kind heart was both an asset and a curse, it seemed. “You’re a better person than I am.”

“Well, yeah,” she smiled sadly. “But seriously. We need to make sure he goes somewhere he can get help. And sitting in some prison for years without anyone making sure his mental health is addressed isn’t the answer. If you don’t try to help him, we’re reinforcing that your family hates him. While you were a teenager feeling like your family fell apart overnight, he was just a toddler who lost his parents and felt like his entire family resented his existence. I think us being together and him putting together the connection pushed him over the edge. It doesn’t excuse what he did to me, but I don’t think he acted rationally.”

“You’re pressing charges,” I told her, unwilling to let him off that easily. He committed assault, stalking, breaking and entering, and intimidation. He was a criminal.

“I will. I think he needs to pay for his decisions and what he did to me, but I want to propose that part of his sentencing involves getting help at a psychiatric facility.”

“He needs to go to jail. He’s dangerous. He was preying on women, and he assaulted you.”

She sighed, rubbing her thumb across my beard. It started filling in again since I hadn’t shaved after she left to return to Chicago. “I don’t want to let him off easy, but I want to make sure he gets the help he needs, too. You don’t think he deserves it, but he’s your family. Your grandfather wouldn’t want you to abandon him. Maybe it’s time to start healing some of the wounds from the past.”

I nodded, clenching my jaw, knowing she was stubborn and wouldn’t give in. She let me stew in my anger quietly, and I hated that she was making sense, but maybe rotting in prison wasn’t the right place for him.

“So, Boston?” she asked a few minutes later, a smirk on her lips. Kelly knew exactly what she was doing. Getting me agitated with the mention of what she’d been through to make her move not seem like such a big step.

“You know you’ve always got a home with me,” I told her, placing my hand over hers and feeling calmer at her touch. She was a little banged up but safe, and that was all I wanted. “If you want to move to Boston, you know I’ll support you.”

We’d have to figure out all the details if she was coming back with me, and the selfish part of me didn’t want to press her about it being the right decision anymore. I wanted her with me. We were bound together now, and I would never willingly release those ties.

“You just had to get yourself put in the hospital the same week as Nana, didn’t you?” Kristine asked as she marched into Kelly’s hospital room the second day after she’d been admitted. Her concussion symptoms had greatly diminished, but she was having a lot of issues with balance and sleeping. The doctors said it was normal, so I tried not to worry too much. She was scheduled to be released in the morning, and I think both of us were ready to leave the hospital, even if it meant we had to return to reality.

“Yes, because I clearly did this to inconvenience you,” Kelly scoffed as she tried to turn herself to climb out of the hospital bed. She hated being confined to it and the walker they had been making her use even more, but I wasn’t willing to risk anything. The second set of CT scans didn’t show any additional swelling or bleeding on the brain, but she’d still been knocked around quite a bit and was fragile. Her bruises were angry looking—dark purple with yellow smudges around the edges. It made my blood pressure rise every time I saw the outline of Trent’s fingerprints on her neck and upper arm.

“No, don’t get up.” Kristine waved as she approached the bed, Sam following close behind. He looked concerned for Kelly, and I appreciated that they had done all they could to watch out for her. It really did come down to shitty timing. Trent had shown up at the wrong time and none of us could protect her. As much as I wanted to place additional blame, mostly on myself, it was all his fault. The best way to avoid being assaulted was for the person perpetrating the assault not to be a gigantic fuckwad, not anything else.

“How’re you feeling?” Sam asked quietly as he sat in the chair beside the window overlooking the parking lot. Kelly had joked that she had the typical Chicago deluxe view, but I knew she was done with hospitals for a while.

“I’ve been better,” Kelly smiled as she motioned to the bruises that still littered the side of her face and neck. “But nothing that I can’t handle.”

“We’re sorry we weren’t there,” Kristine sighed, her face pinched with worry.

“You didn’t know he’d come after me like he did. I don’t think anyone expected this to be his next step.”

“But we were supposed to be there.” Kristine frowned as she reached down to grasp Kelly’s hand. She still had an IV for anti-nausea medicine and to keep her hydrated. She’d been tapering herself off the pain medication.

“How’s Nana?” Kelly asked, clearly wanting to change the subject. She’d been trying to deflect the conversation from herself today, hating that her parents and I had been hovering. They were just scared for her, as was I, but her attacker was still in jail, having been denied bail until he was arraigned. Apparently, he was considered a flight risk when they found out he’d recently been in Connecticut. We couldn’t prove anything yet, but it looked like he was the vandal who’d broken into the workshop. It didn’t seem so random anymore.

When Kelly told me what he’d said to her in the parking garage, finding out about us seemed to escalate his behavior. I knew she was right, and he needed help, but it made me sick to my stomach that he’d attacked her because being with me had triggered him.

“She’s alright. Driving Piet insane with trying to bribe nurses into breaking her out of the hospital, but her hip surgery went well. She’ll be okay after a few months of physical therapy. Nothing is going to slow Nana down. Mason showed up once she was out of surgery, and she asked to be transferred to a private suite that doesn’t allow unapproved visitors—her son included—when my mother tried to sneak in with him.”

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