Page 115 of Let Me Love You Anyway
“I don’t believe you! Ronnie is a good man! He only wanted what was best?—”
“He’s a fucking rapist! Now get the fuck out of our house and don’t ever come back here. You had your chance. I did everything to try to make you happy. Everything but let your sick, depraved, disgusting husband touch me ever again!”
“You’re okay baby,” I whisper after I pull her into my chest and rock her. “Slow breaths, breathe with me, beautiful.”
There’s a shuffling behind me, and I close my eyes. “I’m going to pretend that’s the dog and not your fucking dumb ass still in our house. Don’t say another word. Get the fuck out.” I hold Lexi to me, blocking her view as her mother leaves again and for the last time.
We’ll call Morgan as soon as Lexi is alright again. He’s been in touch with us a lot since Sam hired him. He’s become more our friend than our lawyer. He even came to my birthday party a few months ago. Lexi’s stepfather is trying to appeal. But when twenty-three other women came forward, we weren’t worrying about him anymore. Equally surprising was finding out that Noah Jones wasn’t the other dickhead’s real name. In fact, he had five other names he used. Each of those is associated with a different family. Some of those families were with underaged women.
“Knock, knock,” comes a familiar voice, and Lexi giggles in my arms as Chase comes into the room. “Woah, sorry. Am I interrupting?”
“No, Chase,” she answers. She smiles up at me, grabs my face, and kisses me like she’s feasting on my soul. She can have it; it’s hers anyhow. When she pulls away, she winks, and I can’t help but smirk. This beautiful woman is going to fuck my damn brains out the second Coop is gone. “We’re fine.”
“Cool. So, what are we taking with us?”
“I’ve got it all organized in the other room.” Lexi stands on her tiptoes and kisses Chase’s cheek. He hands her a giant iced coffee milk tea, and she heads out of the room. The puppy right on her heels having finally woken up again.
Coop hangs back, handing me a second coffee. “Figured you’d need a boost before the event.”
“Thanks for coming with me. I know it’s kind of a pain in the ass and all after that last movie and the awards and stuff.”
“Hey, you had me atelementary school. If the paps wanna follow me there and deal with all those lawsuits, they can fucking have at it. I brought like two boxes of those little figurines with the big heads that I’m gonna sign for them while you do your thing. Do you think four hundred is enough?”
“Yeah,” I laugh. When we started the program bringing art classes and speakers to different schools, I never in a million years thought Chase would be interested. Not only is he interested, he’s an active member and high-level donator. He brings toys to the kids, answers their questions, colors with them—it’s a whole side of him I’ve never even seen before. “Dani said there are only about two hundred attending and her sister is a teacher there, so she should have somewhere to store them for any of the kids that didn’t make it. You really don’t have to do that all the time.”
“Are you boys going to come help with this, or do you expect me andCOUNTVanDerVander to do all of this on our own?”
Coop laughs, “Fuck, I can’t believe you named my dog that.”
“Our dog, now, buddy. She called himmisterearlier like he’s some common peasant.” I throw my arm over his shoulder. “He’s a descendant of the Great and Magnificent Lulu Cooper. He’s a Count at the very least.” We head toward Lexi and I yell out, “Coming, Angel!”
“Eww.”
“Dude, shut up.”
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