Page 89 of Broken

Garrett sits up, his stomach muscles contracting, momentarily drawing my attention.

Anything is better than the memory of walking into my bedroom, wondering what the hell the noises were when the house should have been empty. The fear and annoyance that warred inside me, thinking another reporter had broken in, and I’d have to call the police again.

“A friend did that to you?” He reaches out and wraps his hand around my ankle.

Such a simple gesture, but I feel it deep inside of my soul. His anger is obvious, as is the knowledge it’s not aimed at me. It’s the comfort he’s giving me which knocks me off my axis. Simultaneously giving me the strength to get the words out.

“Worse.”

I force back the emotion and the memory of walking into my bedroom that day. It’s something that will live with me forever,for a long time it was burned into the back of my eyeballs. How do you get over something like that?

“My mother.”

His fist clenches around my ankle, but he quickly releases it, though doesn’t take it away. “That’s fucking… Jesus,” he stumbles, not having the words to describe how vile what he’s hearing is.

“Tell me about it,” I snort. “Last thing I expected to see was my husband railing my mom.”

His frown deepens. The words are harsh, but my tone isn’t. The sadness I’d been hoping would fade away is still there. The anger at their betrayal is strong too.

“I was relying on her. I had no one left.”

“Why the fuck would she do that?”

I shrug. I still have no clue, and didn’t want to hear any explanations. I haven’t seen her since I threw both of them out of my house. That was the day I called Sin.

“She chased me down the stairs to tell me she was sorry, that she didn’t mean to hurt me.”

“Let me guess, it just happened?” he shakes his head.

“Tale as old as time,” I roll the hem of Garrett’s T-shirt through my fingers. “Until Jared kindly informed me it had been going on for months. My mom and my husband. It’s not a good idea to bleach your eyeballs, but it was all I wanted to do after seeing that.”

“Shit, Calli.”

“Yeah, like he couldn’t take anything more from me. She was my only family. Apart from a dad who walked out when I was a teenager and didn’t care enough to…” I shake my head. “You don’t need to hear about my problems.”

“It’s her loss,” he says. “Family is supposed to have your back, no matter what.” The look on his face is so dark, it surprises me.

“So now you know there is more to me running away from that life.”

“You didn’t run away.”

“Really? You know that’s pretty much what you’ve been saying since you met me?”

“I never said you were running away. I said you were wasting your talent. That’s different.”

“Well, thank you for clarifying.”

He squeezes my ankle again. Is it a show of support? I’m pouring my heart out for the first time about my mom. I don’t notice he’s moved until the bed dips beside me. He takes hold of my waist and lifts me up, shifts and deposits me on his lap.

All I can do is stare at him. He says nothing, even when I rest my head on his shoulder. I will not cry. Not for Jared, or what my mom did. Not even because I don’t want Garrett seeing me break down. I’m tired of it. Tired of all the feelings that got hurt, the anger that followed, the loneliness.

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t want to think about it anymore.”

“I get that,” he says, his fingers have slipped beneath the T-shirt and are running up and down my spine. “I’ll stop putting pressure on you. You’ll get where you need to go on your own.”

“You don’t have to do that. I mean, the way you’re doing it is a little heavy-handed but maybe it’s what I need.”

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