Page 97 of The Moment Promised

“The back of my head slammed into the wall faster than I could register what was happening to me. What was being done to me.” She backs up, resting her body against a pillar, like the words are just too much to be able to hold herself up on her own.

“I didn’t feel anything though, I guess my body had enough adrenaline and self-preservation to shield me the only way it could.” Her back slides down the pillar and she sinks into the ground. I can tell that’s where she would rather be right now.

I should do something, say something. But what?

“He said he wanted to put a baby in me—” Her voice comes out so high pitched it stings my ear drums and I flinch.

“He said I’d never be able to leave him if I was carrying his child. He ripped off my jeans and—” She disintegrates right before my eyes.

“Oh my god.” I cover my mouth and run to the bushes.

I vomit everything in my stomach, and rest there for a second. I finally gain the strength to stand up and then I hold my mother and promise to myself that I’ll never let go again.

If there’s one thing I know, it’s that Jason can’t get away with this. I won’t let him.

I quietly walk into Finn’s bedroom in a daze. I feel a wave of relief when I see him sitting at his desk. He types away on his laptop. “Hey, love. How did it go—” He turns his head, and his eyes go wide. “Shh, it’s okay.” He rushes to me.

I look at him, puzzled. Then I feel water drip onto my neck, I glance up. No leaks in the ceiling. I touch my cheek and realize I have been crying.

We sit on his bed, everything that just happened pours out of me. I give Finn the short version quietly, trying not to let my emotions take over. My mom wanted to sleep the rest of the day. She rests only a few doors down on an air mattress in the Walkers’ home gym.

“I just don’t get it,” I say. “How can somebody do that to another person? How can anyone treat someone so cruelly and feel no remorse? How could Jason look into my mother’s eyes and hurt her in such unthinkable ways? I just—” I stumble overmy words, “I can’t fathom it.” I laugh without humor, “I have no words to describe how much I…what Ifeeltoward him.”

“Oh, I can think of some words.” Finn finally breaks his far away glare. His knuckles are white, gripping the blue comforter we sit on. “It’s not about me, though.”

For some reason, his words jolt me a little. “Tell me,” I urge him. “I think it would help me to hear.”

“There’s not a single word in the English dictionary to describe just how much I loathe that man.” He spits the words out.

“Why?” For some reason, I want to hear Finn get angry about Jason. It feels righteous to hear someone speak thoughts I’ve left buried deep inside myself for myentirelife.

“Why? Where do I even start?” I can tell by the way he speaks so swiftly this is something he’s thought about before. Something he’s gotten angry about in the past. “He’s the worst kind of person, Adeline. The only thing he gives to the people around him is pain and trauma. A true man doesn’t have to make himself frightening and inflict pain onto his wife andfuckingdaughter. It’s pathetic.” He inhales slowly.

I watch, mesmerized at the way he calmly collects himself, despite the rage I can clearly see burning him up.

My dad probably would’ve thrown something by now.

“I saw what you went through, Adeline. He had a tight hold on your well-being for so long. He hurt you on such a cellular level, and I wanted to fight it. For you.” He grabs my hand and squeezes it.

“I always felt like I had to be the knight in shining armor. To protect your heart from his abuse, but then as I got older, I realized how stupid that was. For me to think you needed me for protection. I watched in fucking awe as you fought back.”

Fought back? I didn’t, though. I was scared and I hid. I would let him yell at me and then walk away like his words didn’t break me in half.

“You did,” he says, so confidently. He must see the confusion on my face. “Adeline, he tried to kill your spirit and you did the complete opposite. You kept smiling. You kept laughing, and most of all, you kept loving. You aregood, my love. You spread your light everywhere you go, that’s how you fought.” He tips my chin up so I meet his eyes. “That’s how you won.”

I grab his face with urgency and press my lips into his. It’s sloppy and uncoordinated, and it burns every inch of me with passion. I am so fucking in love with this man. He’s everything Jason isn’t, and I am so thankful I went down a different path than my mother. I could’ve so easily fallen into the wrong type of love, finding someone just like my dad and feeling comfortable in the familiarity.

As Finn pulls me onto his lap, warmth fills me from head to toe. I know this is what love should feel like. And I deserve the real thing.

I have since I was a little girl.

So does my mom, and I hope that one day she will find it.

“This doesn’t feel right,” I say from Finn’s passenger seat.

“Adeline, if we let every bad thing that happens in the world keep us from having fun, we are never going to live the life we deserve.” He puts on a pair of aviator sunglasses, then looks at me.

I see my disheveled hair and shallow eyes in the reflection. I bring my hand up to smooth my hair. “But my mom?—”

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