Page 36 of Heart of Stone
Sick.
She pretended to be sick so I wouldn’t see this. So nobody would see this.
How many times had it happened?
And who? Who had done this to her?
She was avoiding talking to me. I understood why. I’d shouted at her to do as much. But after she rested, after she realized I didn’t mean a word of it and wasn’t leaving her side, she’d have to talk.
She had to.
Because no other outcome would be acceptable.
I’d never forgive myself if she refused to speak to me again.
I continued to take her in, the damage to her body making my gut twist in disgust. She’d indicated she’d endured something of this horrific nature before.
Suddenly, I wondered if everything I thought I knew about this woman was a lie. It seemed impossible she could be so happy all the time, so friendly and outgoing, having experienced anything even remotely close—or worse—to this before.
I could only imagine how deep the emotional wounds inside her had to be in order to feel like she needed to keep herself hidden away so nobody would know just what she was suffering through.
Question after question had popped into my head. And while there’d always been something I’d pondered when it came to Natalia, I was suddenly asking myself things that I hadn’t before.
Why was she here? Where was her family? Did she have a boyfriend?
As those questions filtered in and out of my head, I realized that while the answers were likely important to a degree, they wouldn’t matter when it came to me doing whatever was necessary to make sure I did right by her.
After listening to those few things that she did share with me and hearing all that was beneath those words, especially the defeat, I was going to do everything I could to make things right.
Not just between us, but for Natalia herself.
And I suspected that was going to take a while. But it didn’t matter. I was going to get comfortable here, because I wasn’t leaving until I knew this woman was healed in all the ways that mattered.
TWELVE
Natalia
When I opened my eyes and saw him, it all came rushing back.
Everything—the shouting in his office, the assault I suffered at the hands of my ex, and Reid all but demanding I allow him to apologize to me face-to-face.
Then, there was all that had followed. The look on his face when he saw the state of me, the desperation in his voice to understand what had happened, the remorse he felt for whatever role he played in causing me any pain.
Clear as day, I could remember all of that. Every last stitch of it was etched into my memory in ways I knew I’d never forget any of it.
It was all that had happened after he told me to sleep and rest when things got fuzzy. Because between bouts of what I could only assume were sleep and wakefulness, I recalled only bits and pieces of interaction, if it could even be called such.
Reid was in most that I remembered. Him being there when I woke, ready to help me shift my body when it was too much for me alone. Reid was there with food, too. Not just havingit prepared for me but feeding it to me as well. The man held glasses of water to my lips, murmuring soft words and urging me to drink. And he gave me medication to relieve the pain or ice to reduce the swelling.
If it weren’t for the fact that I was currently in my bed, I might have thought it was in my dreams that I’d envisioned Reid looking down at me with such fondness in his eyes as he carried me in his arms.
There were moments I believed I woke and just looked at him for a while. He wasn’t always looking at me, but he was always there. Except for once. Danielle had been here once when I was still on the couch. I remembered seeing her, but I couldn’t recall any conversation we might have had.
At this point, only one thing was certain. I couldn’t discern what was real and what had been a dream.
For the first time since Reid told me to sleep, I felt a sense of clarity. Like the fog had lifted a bit.
Aware of what was happening around me now, my eyes were entirely focused on the man sleeping in the chair in the corner of the room. His head was tilted to one side, his eyes closed, but his body didn’t seem like it was relaxed at all.
