Page 85 of The Marine

I thought I was getting her back. I wasn’t guilty. I wasn’t going to be charged. The end, thank god. I was fucking angry with Mrs. Sutton for using me as a scapegoat instead of facing her shit. And for successfully tearing Briar and me apart.

But I loved Briar. I had to put us back together again. Despite everything.

What I’d learned since that fateful night was that she’d been a victim of abuse her whole life. Her mother hadn’t tried to stop it, instead teaching Briar how to lie and cover for her father’s aggression. And that she owed her mother.

Fucking bullshit.

Every message from Briar had echoed her mother’s words.You hit my father, Aidan. He’s now dead. I’m grieving. I’m confused.

I don’t know what to think.

I just can’t see you.

She’d been told what to think, unknowingly following her mom’s instructions.

It’s hard to break through to victims of abuse who aren’t empowered to think or speak up for themselves. This is what creates that fucking endless cycle.

But theydohave a choice, even if they can’t see it, and that day I’d planned to confront Briar and give her the opportunity to break the cycle, break away from her mother’s control—different from her father’s, but it’s still control—and be with me.

She’d need to make hard decisionsandtake action.

I knew I was going to ask her that day to defy her mother and all she’d been led to believe. To step into the unknown with me. It was going to take faith, courage, and strength.

She could have leaned on me for as long as she needed.

Briar was my priority.

Nothing worth it is ever easy in life, but if someone is abusing you—mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually—you leave that fucking place.

You step into the dark void and face the fear. Life will always guide you if you’ll listen.

Faith.

Whatever you believe in. God, the universe, fuck, even just in yourself. It is always better than the place you are being harmed.

Day by day.

Step by step.

Choice by choice.

I was going to hold her hand while she healed and found herself becoming whole.

What the hell else was I going to do? Stand back and let her mother brainwash her further?

No.

This was the woman I loved.

I couldn’t change what happened that night with her father, and I would do it again. It wasn’t in me to walk away when an innocent person was being harmed.

Especially Briar.

If I’d woken up and learned he’d taken her last breath, then yeah, I probably would have killed the fucking cunt.

Not fucking sorry.

So I headed to the park. And everything changed in an instant for me. I knew I couldn’t take another step as I watched her smiling and laughing with some guy, playing with his puppy.

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