Page 115 of Injustice and Absolution

“Hmm?” Drew leans forward and drags his finger through the curtain of hair hanging in front of my face. Tucking it behind my ear, he traces his finger down my cheek, stopping at the corner of my mouth.

The same corner that burns from the pain of his backhand.

I grimace, and when he pulls his hand away, I notice a tiny red spot on his fingertip. My tongue instinctively licks along my lips, cringing at the metallic taste of blood in the crevasse where they meet.

“I shouldn’t have done that...” Drew sighs, and my head lifts in surprise. I never expected an apology from him. “Not many people get a hard-on watching a girl dance with a busted lip.”

He exhales, giving his head a slight shake as though he’s disappointed in me for bleeding. I close my eyes, and another tear rolls down my face when I realize he’s not sorry for hitting me. Not in the way I thought he was.

My father never apologized either. The similarities between him and Drew that I realized a couple days ago, but denied profusely, are resurfacing now.

I’d give anything to go back and listen to Maggie the day I moved out. To go back to when Royce came here to check on me and asked me to come home. He wouldn’t have to ask. This time, I would beg him to take me.

Thinking back to our conversation, I recall how worried he was about me. At the time, I thought it was all related to the attack at the store, but now... It feels like there’s more he wasn’t telling me.

Why?

If he knew something about Drew, why didn’t he mention it?

Briefly, I wonder where he is and what he’s doing.

Does he still want me to return?

Is he glad I stayed behind that night?

God, what I said to him … and how I said it. I remember the hurt in his eyes as I turned away from him for the last time.

Drew fists my hair unexpectedly and forces my attention back on him. Apparently, he’d been talking, but I’d let thoughts of Royce consume me deeply the way they once did and tuned Drew out.

“Earth to Delilah... Do I have your attention now?” He squeezes harder, ripping a painful gasp from me.

“Yes!” I cry out, hands flying to my head. My fingers trying desperately—and failing—to dig beneath his to loosen his grasp.

“You may want to fucking pay attention considering your entire life is about to change.” He lets go of my hair with a violent push against my head. My arms fly out, catching myself before I faceplant into the back of the sofa.

“I’m sorry,” I cry.

Why am I apologizing?

It’s all I know how to do. For weeks, I’ve felt myself retreating into old habits, all while fighting to remember who I am and all the hell I’ve fought through to get to the place I’m in today.

But right now?

It’s as though that part of me never existed.

I may as well be the helpless little girl I used to be all over again. Scared out of my mind and willing to do and say anything just to survive until tomorrow.

The only difference is, I don’t know if I want to fight to survive any longer.

“In here,” Drew lifts the folder, “are all the details I could come up with surrounding the deathof your father.”

Ice freezes my blood, and my eyes widen at the mention of my father’s death.

Fuck.

Shit.

I remember letting it slip to Drew that he was dead. Since learning his true fate, I’ve never uttered those words to anyone. I knew I fucked up then, but I never pictured it coming back to bite me in the ass. Drew had just saved me from my attackers. He’d brought me back to his house and taken such sweet care of me.

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