Page 68 of In the Air Tonight

“Dee.”

I look up at him as he moves inside me.

“Where’d you go?”

“Nowhere.”

He tips his head as he studies me. He knows me better than anyone and is fully aware of what’s going on in my mind. “It’s you and me, sweetheart. Just you and me.”

“I know.”

“Stay with me.”

“I’m here.”

“I love you so much. You’re my whole life.”

His sweet words bring tears to my eyes. “You’re mine, too.”

“And as long as we have this, we have everything. Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t. I never could.”

He gathers me into his warm embrace as we chase the finish that doesn’t happen for me. I’m just too distracted as much as I wish I wasn’t.

After a long moment of silence as we catch our breath, I say, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, love. I know what this situation does to you, and I don’t blame you at all.”

“I’m thinking about what you said before… About not letting him get away with it.”

He gazes down at me as he brushes the hair back from my face with his index finger. “It’s totally up to you, and I’ll respect whatever decision you make.”

“I’m afraid of what it’ll do to me and us and our family. But when I think of him out there living his life—and running for office, of all things—like he’s done nothing wrong… I want justice. I want people to know what he did to me. I want them to know about the baby he left me with and how I had to suffer through losing it while he went on with his life like nothing had happened. And I want to say again, in open court, that the other boys who swore they’d slept with me were liars.”

“I’ll be right there with you, Dee. Every minute of every day for as long as it takes to get justice.”

“That’s the only reason I can do this, because we’d be doing it together.”

“Like always.”

“I’ll call Houston today.”

Chapter 15

Blaise

NOW

I shower and change into jeans and a sweater before heading out to return to my childhood home for the first time since my dad died of a heart attack seven years ago. That’s the only time I’ve been home since I left for college, a stance that’s caused significant friction in my family. They’ve asked for years why I stayed away until they quit asking and stopped reaching out. I still talk to them, but we’re not close. I have nieces and nephews I barely know. That’s how I wanted it, for reasons that made sense to me for all this time, but now… If everything comes out, will it drive us further apart or bring us closer together?

I don’t know how that’ll go, and the not knowing only adds to my anxiety as I drive across the bridge into Hope.

Every nerve in my body is on full alert as I take the familiar roads to home, traversing the same route I did on that long-ago night after witnessing the crime that changed everything.

I park behind my mother’s silver Toyota Camry and take a moment to look at the two-story Colonial home where I was raised. It’s been painted a darker shade of grey, and the shutters are now black. They were red when I lived there.

Mom comes out of the house, smiling with excitement that’s been sorely lacking in her since Dad died. She’s visited me often in the city, but I know she’s yearned for me to come home.

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