Page 91 of Daddy's Little Survivor

Monroe turned toward her Daddy and held her arms open. She just wanted to be held again right now. All the guilt was building up inside of her. She was trying to wrack her brain to figure out how she could have kept this from happening.

“It's okay. I'm fine,” Ezra said as she hugged her Daddy. “I'm glad Jared's dead so you're safe now. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning.”

Everything wasn't fine. He had gotten hurt because of her. And the thought of her being safe was foreign. She didn't exactly feel safe. Something in the back of her mind was telling her something else had happened and she wasn't safe.

“No thinking that way,” Daddy said. “It's not your fault.”

She snuggled into his embrace as he held her.

“I love you,” Daddy said.

Monroe pulled away from him slightly and opened her mouth.

“I told you I was going to tell you every day that I loved you. I meant it. And I'll say it every day until you say it back or until you tell me you don't want this anymore. My feelings aren't going to change,” he said. “And I don't ever want to make you feel like me telling you every day makes you have to love me back.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered.

A look of shock fell over his face when she said those words. One of the things she did remember was that she was going to tell him she loved him on the phone but never got the chance.

“And I want to tell you something I was going to tell you when we were supposed to meet up for lunch,” she said.

“What is it, Little Bunny?” he asked.

“I didn’t fall in love with you because of the way you looked. I didn’t fall in love with you because of your eyes or your smile or the way your body looks,” Monroe said. “I fell in love with you because when I met you, I was at my worst point. My lowest, darkest, place and you brought so much light into my world.”

Michael squeezed her hands as she took a deep breath.

“You became the northern star in my universe. When we met, I was so scared, but you took your time to calm me down and make me feel comfortable. I fell in love with you because you were so patient with me through the ups and downs and made me feel like I was on top of the world.”

Monroe had tears streaming down her face as she continued to talk. “You put back so many pieces of a shattered heart that you didn’t need to because you never shattered that heart. But you decided to be that glue the moment you met me and put all of that heart back together.

“I fell in love with you because for the first time in forever, I found my genuine smile, my happiness, my drive to do things in life. I started to find goals again to better myself and be who I truly am and not what other people want me to be. You made me realize that everyone before you didn’t care about me, but you do. You care so much that you took your time to make me feel comfortable around you and helped me in so many ways.”

She could see the tears that formed in his eyes and how he blinked several times trying to get rid of them.

“I'm glad I could be there for you. I'm glad I could be your northern star in the universe that you needed. I would put you back together again in a heartbeat and you never have to ask. I'll always be your glue and when you need it, I'll be there for you,” he said, bending down and kissing her.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

MONROE

Monroe sat up quickly, screams echoing in the room. Her heart was pounding against her chest as vivid memories of what Jared had done to her in the past flashed through her mind.

Arms wrapped around her and she screamed again, throwing her arms around to get them off her. She didn't want Jared on her. She needed to get away from him.

“You're okay,” Daddy's voice filtered in through her screaming.

Sobs racked her body as she let out all her emotions. The fear she felt when she watched Jared hit her, hit after hit, was replaying in her mind.

“He's dead. He can't hurt you anymore,” Daddy whispered into her ear as he held her close.

She kept chanting that in her head. Jared was dead now and she didn't have to worry, but it didn't feel like he was. It felt like for the past couple of nights, he was haunting her like he did when he was alive.

This was her third night waking up in the middle of the night, screaming for Jared to not touch her. And each night, Daddy told her he was dead and she didn't have anything to worry about. She believed him but deep down, she felt like he really wasn't dead.

She hadn't seen the body and she was worried Daddy was just telling her that so she would move on with life. But he had promised her and showed her the death certificate showing he was truly dead.

It had also been all over the news. Several people were shocked he had died. Someone had let it leak that it was a single bullet wound to the head and she didn't understand how.

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