Page 54 of His to Keep

“Accept it how?” I turn in his arms to face him. “I still haven’t, and it’s going to happen to me too, or have you forgotten?”

His eyes darken. “I haven’t forgotten.”

“Then stop being flippant with her.”

“Ava.” He breathes out heavily through his nose. “Not everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. You’re too kind, too trusting. If you were dying in a burning house, she’d leave you to save herself. She wouldn’t look back.”

My forehead creases. “How can you know that? We don’t know her…and I could say the exact same thing about you.”

He turns me quickly to face him. “I’d be the one saving you, even if it meant I’d die, and you live.”

He would save me from a house in flames, but not from his father. I let out a long sigh. “Nowthat’sreckless.”

His mouth lifts into a small smile, and he rests his forehead against mine. His fingers grip me tightly like he’s holding himself back from doing so much more.

“What are you doing to me?” He’s staring into my eyes in a way that’s making me breathless.

My shoulders lift and fall. “I don’t know.”

And I don’t because I’m wondering the same thing. He’s done something to me.Like he’s punched a hole into my chest and grabbed my heart in a tight vice. And I’m waiting for him to let go. Just as everyone else did.

* * *

Callum’s right—Maisieis trouble, doing everything in her power to rile Father Aaron any chance she gets. At dinner the following evening, she refused to eat. Irritated, Father Aaron smacked the table with his palm, demanding she eat or he’d beat her black and blue. With a defiant glare shining in her dark eyes, she brought the fork to her mouth, but instead of swallowing, she spat it straight in Father Aaron’s face.

The fury was instant. Reaching for her, he grabbed her around the throat and flung her into the wall across the room. I couldn’t hear what he said to her as he pinned her against it, but whatever it was made her body physically shake. After smacking her across the face, he turned on Callum. “The next time she’s disobedient, you and Ava will be punished as well.”

When we got back to the bedroom, Callum was furious. “I swear if we’re punished because of you. You don’t know half of what he has put her through already.”

“Callum, stop,” I pleaded.

He didn’t listen, and Maisie seethed. “Leave me alone. You don’t scare me. How can you both just sit there and act like everything’s normal?”

“To survive!” he yelled at her. Stepping in front of him, I pushed his chest to move him back from her.

“Stop it. Both of you. This isn’t helping anyone.”

Scowling, she ran over to the bed and hid beneath the covers. Moments later, I heard her sobbing. She does that a lot, and I don’t blame her. How many times have I done it? Cried until I’ve soaked the sheets. When did I stop?

“She’s going to get you hurt,” Callum said in the bathroom after she fell asleep. “She’s fucking selfish.”

“What’s wrong with you? This isn’t you. You more than anyone should know what this is like.”

“I don’t trust her. I see the way she looks at you,” he said, which confused me even more. What way was she looking at me? “She’s scheming, Ava. Watching everything we do and say. I wouldn’t put it past her to try and murder us in our sleep to get out.”

“She’s not going to kill us.” I shook my head in exasperation. “And do you blame her? Can you seriously say you don’t understand that she’s doing everything in her power to get out?”

He ground his teeth together. “Not if it affectsyou.”

My heart sunk when his anger faded, replaced with something else that he tried to hide when he turned away from me.

Walking over to him, I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind and held him tightly. Pressing my face into his back, I breathed him in until I ached all over.

“I’ll talk to her,” I said to him. “I’ll try and get her to stop.”

The next day, I watch Maisie from the corner of my eye as we get ready in the bathroom. Since she got here, she’s been coming in with me, not wanting to be left alone with Callum in the bedroom.

“He’s not going to hurt you, you know?” I’d tried to reassure her once, but she refused to listen to me.

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