Page 91 of It Was Always You

"Hi, sweetie." Mom's voice came out all raspy. She held out a hand and Brielle immediately ran to her side, wrapping her little arms around her.

My mom groaned at Brielle's not-so-gentle embrace,but after the look of pain crested over her features, she replaced it with a smile.

"You don't need to look so worried about me, Noah," my mom said, her sad eyes inspecting my face. "I'm going to be okay."

"You shouldn't even be here, Mom." I shook my head, feeling my throat constrict. "You need to leave him. You need to never go back to him again."

She pressed her dry lips together and nodded slowly, her eyes falling closed for a moment. "I know."

But where would we go?

I could only think of one option. And it would take a lot of pride-sucking to ask.

Once Brielle had had her long hug from Mom, she held her arms open for me.

I only attacked her with slightly less force than Brielle had. And before I knew it, I was sobbing. "I thought I was going to lose you, Mom," I said through my tears as the image of her broken body on the living room floor came to mind. "I thought for a few minutes that I was going to have to raise Brielle by myself."

My mom shushed me and patted the back of my head gently—the way she had done when I was a kid. "It's going to be okay, Noah. I'm okay. Just some bruising. A couple broken ribs. But everything is going to be okay."

The hospital wantedto keep my mom there overnight to monitor her—worried about some slight head trauma. They tried to tell me it was just a precaution, that they hadn't seen anything when they'd done the scan. I just hoped they were right.

But it was a safe place to stay, so I would try to be grateful for that, at least.

The police and CPS came in later and asked all kinds of questions. And as far as anyone knew, Paul was still roaming wherever he pleased. Which meant he could come home at any time, and who knew what he might do next.

I needed to find somewhere safe for us to stay until my mom was able to help me figure it out. So once Mom was asleep and Brielle was curled up on the chair next to her, I left the hospital to go to the only place I could think of.

The two-story brick home was dark when I got there, and I knew the inhabitants would probably be annoyed at me for coming there so late and waking up the whole household. But for once, I didn't care if they tried to send me away. I was going to do this. My mom needed me to do this.

So I knocked on the door and hoped I wouldn't have to ring the doorbell.

A light turned on in the house, and then another onein the hall. I heard the deadbolt turn, and a moment later, the door creaked open.

My mouth was dry and my hands were trembling as I tried to force some courage into my tired body to face the only person I had left who could help me.

“Noah?”

"Dad, I need your help."

33

LEXI

My dad tookthe doors off my bedroom, and closet the next day with the words, "Privacy is a privilege." And then he told me I would be volunteering to help Mrs. Vincenzo from down the street with her newborn twins for the next week to remind me of how much work babies really are.

"I was there for Grant, Dad. I remember things with him pretty clearly."

My dad just shrugged. "It's always good to have a refresher. Maybe I should recommend the same punishment to Noah's parents."

"Oh my heck, Dad! You saw us kiss one time. We were not making a baby." Just saying that last sentence made me squirm. I hated that I even had to say that to my dad.

"Kissing in your bedroom is where it all starts."

"The door was open."

"Yes, but it was not open those two nights Noah slept in your closet."

I sighed. He had me there.

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