Page 87 of My Vows Are Sealed

She gave me a tight squeeze, and Ashton walked in and locked the door behind them before joining in on the hug, wrapping their arms around both of us.

“We’ve got you, honey,” they whispered. “You’re gonna be okay.”

“And, even better, we’ve got cookies,” Kate chuckled weakly. “My mom made a batch of snickerdoodles yesterday. I’m not even kidding.”

I couldn’t help it. I snorted.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yep. Breakfast of champions,” Ashton teased. “Your man have any coffee in this place?”

“I think so?” I said, like it was a question. I honestly had no idea.

They squeezed my arm. “Take care of our girl, sunshine. I’ll go dig through the cupboards and see what I can find.”

“Come on, hon. Let’s go sit,” Kate said, pulling out of the hug and leading me toward the couch.

I sat down, hugging my knees and resting my chin on them as I tried to stop the tears. And Kate didn’t say a single word. She just sat down next to me and wrapped her arms around me, letting me cry.

God, why couldn’t I stop crying? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about what my dad had done? Why couldn’t I forget the way he’d looked at me like I was a piece of meat while I was cowering on the floor without a stitch of clothing on, or the tone of his voice as he whispered that Bible verse to me? Or how dirty and wrong I’d felt as his arousal pressed against my stomach? Why couldn’t I shake the fear that he’d break that door down at any minute and drag me out of here by my hair just so he could do God knew what to me when we got back home?

“You’re safe, Darla,” Kate whispered. “Even if he comes barging through that door right now, he’ll have to get through both of us to get to you. And we both know Ash can throw down. You know, now that they’re a black belt.”

I turned to look at Ashton, who was starting a pot of coffee in the kitchen. “I’m so sad I missed your ceremony yesterday, Ash.”

“It’s okay, honey,” they said. “The important thing is, I’ll knock that motherfucker into the next millennium before he even lays a finger on you ever again.”

That just made me start crying all over again. Strangely, that was almost the worst part out of all of this. The fact that my dadhadn’tphysically hurt me this time. It was literally just my word against his. I wished I could call the police about this, but I couldn’t. At least not until I was eighteen and Brendan and I were married, so he’d have no more power over me. After that, I’d tell them everything and let them figure out what they could still charge him with.

“What happened, hon?” Kate asked quietly. “I hate not knowing how to help you.”

“Give her a minute, sweetheart.” Ashton somehow managed to carry all three mugs of coffee into the living room and set them on the coffee table, then grabbed a Ziplock bag of cookies out of Kate’s bag, sat on my other side, and hugged the arm that was closest to them. “Just let her breathe.”

“No, it’s okay. It’ll just be harder the longer I wait,” I sniffled as I grabbed a cookie out of the bag and started to nibble at it.

I took a shaky breath and started talking. It was a little easier to talk about with them than it was with Brendan. Even though he was the only one I’d wanted last night and I’d known I had to tell him about this, talking to him about what my father had done was still one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. But at least, unlike Brendan, these two never had the potential of seeing me naked. That made it a little less awkward.

“Can I kill him? Please?” Ashton asked when I was done talking.

“I can’t afford to bail you out of jail, Ash,” Kate chuckled humorlessly. “And besides, the borderline incestuous psycho is the one who belongs in jail, not you. Which brings me tomyquestion. Will youpleaselet us help you report this to the police, Darla?”

“And tell them what?” I wiped my tears away. “He didn’t hurt me. I’veneverbeen that scared of him before, but I don’t have a single mark to show for it. And even if he did give my mom a black eye when he hit her, she’d never admit that he was the one who caused her injuries. She’s too dependent on him. She basically told me to stay away from the house because she knows it’s not safe for me to go back there. So I know she’d tell the cops I made it all up and she just tripped and fell or something. I’m just staying here until Brendan and I can figure out what to do.”

“Honey, I hate to point this out, but you can’t shack up with your man forever,” Ashton sighed. “Your dad might not know that you and Brendan are a couple, but he knows you guys are friends. This is going to be one of the first places he looks. I’d say you can come home with me, but we don’t have the space.”

“You’re coming home with me,” Kate said, like it was a done deal. “We’ve got a spare bedroom that’s going unused, and my mom doesn’t know a lot about your home life, but she knows enough that she’ll be willing to help you. It’s completely up to you how much you tell her.”

“She’s never even met me,” I sniffled. “I can’t ask to crash in her spare bedroom for three months when she’s never met me before.”

“She loves you already, just because she knows how important you are to me,” she insisted. “I’m not taking no for an answer, hon.”

Why did my heart squeeze a little at the thought of leaving this apartment? At the thought of going to sleep without my boyfriend next to me tonight? He’d been my rock yesterday, and now I had to leave him. I knew it was for the best, and I’d known all along that I couldn’t stay at this apartment forever, but it didn’t make it any easier.

“Is it stupid that I’m scared of what I’ll see if I close my eyes and Brendan’s not holding me?” I asked, feeling myself flush a little.

“Oh, honey,” Ashton murmured, pulling me back into a hug. “No, it’s not stupid. Wait. You actually slept in the same bed last night? He didn’t take the couch?”

I couldn’t help it. I turned the color of a lobster as I thought about what else we’d done in that bed.

---