Page 21 of Only Everything
The footsteps seemed to slow, and she took more uneven gasps. “…He’s like dad.”
“Whoa. Hold on. What the fuck do you mean? He hurts you?”
A high-pitched cry tore free. “Only once before today. It’s always been verbal, but he heard your voicemail a few months back. He lost it. It hasn’t been the same since.”
“He hit you?”
“I’ve tried to leave. He finds me. He always finds me.”
“Slow. Breathe. I’m coming. I’m not going to let him hurt you again.”
Rustling drew me from her voice, and I could hear thecrunch of leaves with almost every step.
“He went to the store. He…He wanted to—I got sick. I lied and told him I didn’t feel well. I told him that earlier too when he was bringing me out here. I don’t like this, but he started talking crazy about how he wanted me to have a baby, and he thought since I didn’t feel good?—”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not pregnant but he wants me to be. Badly. That’s why he left. To get a test. I kept trying to keep him away but then he—he wouldn’t just leave me alone. Before he left—He wouldn’t just?—"
My teeth ground into each other as I pushed the truck to dangerous speeds on the back road. Rain pelted against my windshield, and the speed from the wipers didn’t clear the amount fast enough.
“Did he rape you?”
“It’s not—You don’t understand. There is no…saying no. That would make it worse. There is only what he wants. If I don’t go along with it, I get hurt. I’ve already been hurt today. Reid, you don’t understand.You’ve never understood.There’s no winning!”
“Calm. Down. You said he hurt you today. What did he do?”
She sniffled, breathing heavily.
“It was my fault. I told him I wanted to go home. I’d already walked miles and we hadn’t made it to the trail. He told me to k-keep going. I didn’t want to. We got into an argument, and I lost it. I turned around and started swinging. I caught him in the face, and he hit me. I shouldn’t have?—”
“He fucking hit you?”
“I hit him first, Reid.”
“He hit you.”
It wasn’t a question. I turned onto the main road, picking back up speed.
“Yeah. Hard. I fell. I couldn’t see straight for nearly an hour. He wouldn’t let me quit or take me home. When we got to the cliff…all I could think was that he was going to throw me over. He’s been acting so strange. …I figured out why.” She let out a broken-up cry. “He found out I was looking at apartments. I told him it was for the two of us, but I’ve been planning to leave him again. Somewhere new. Away from here so he can’t find me. I’ve talked to my job about transferring. He’s never going to let me go.”
The last was full of so much pain that it extinguished the dread inside of me. Tauren didn’t love Emmett…she was leaving him. She was afraid and she needed help.
“You’ll stay with me. Live with me.”
“Reid—”
“I can keep you safe. You know I can.”
“I’ve never wanted you to.Don’t you see?”
“Don’tyousee? Fuck, Taur. Open your damn eyes. It’s me and you. It’s always been me and you. That’s all it’ll ever be. You can’t fight this. Youwon’tfight this. I’m coming, and if Emmett wants to get to you, he’s going to have to go through me.
Silence.
“Taur?”
“Shhh.”
