Page 47 of Hero Unbound

She didn’t know if he believed her or not, but at least he wasn’t demanding answers to some obvious issues about tonight.

The canned soup hit her system perfectly. She wasn’t cold anymore, thanks to the shower, but the chicken noodle broth warmed her insides. She and Theo ate in a silence that wasn’t uncomfortable, but also seemed pregnant with unasked questions.

Both of them knew there were things to be said, but neither of them knew how to get the words out.

Sugar and Spice were both still sound asleep in the middle of the living room. Tonight had taken a lot out of them too.She winced.

“What’s that look for?” Theo asked.

“I didn’t mean to traumatize the dogs. They’re pretty wiped out.”

He took their soup bowls over to the sink and washed them out before responding. “You have an obvious love for them and would never do anything to hurt them.”

“Yes. Animals are a gift, and humans should always strive to care for them if we can.” It was why she’d become a vet.

He turned slowly and leaned against the sink. “Then I have to ask you this. Why would you put the pups you love at so much risk by coming back out here? Did you not trust I would call if there was a problem? Do you think that poorly of me?”

She rubbed her stomach at the knot forming there from his words. “No, no. Not at all. It was nothing like that.”

“Then why? I need to understand this, Evie.”

Evie. Once again, it sounded tender—an endearment without being condescending the way it had always felt when Gareth called herbaby.

How could she tell Theo she hadn’t been coming back out here—she’d been trying to leave? That info would make the situation even worse.

She stepped forward, moving toward him before she could stop herself. She wanted to tell him. Not everything, but something.

But God, more than that, she wanted this insanity that had become her life to stop. Just for a minute. A break from it all.

“I—” she started, then stopped. She had no idea what to say. No idea how to make any of this make sense. The whole story was bad enough, but only telling parts of it would seem even more ridiculous.

“I want to understand.” His voice was low, his face sincere. She could feel the authenticity of his statement pouring out from him.

He truly did want to understand. When was the last time someone looked at her, wanting to know the truth of a situation from her perspective?

Way too long.

“Before I came here, I was in a bad relationship.”

He stiffened but remained where he was. “Abusive?”

That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? The fact that she didn’t know how to correctly answer it was what ate at her the most.

She didn’t know how much of what had happened with Gareth had been made up in her mind. But she knew one thing and held firm to that. She looked over at the dogs.

“I finally left him because he hurt Spice and Sugar. Broke both of their legs.”

All the other things Gareth had told her she was confused about—her burn, her dislocated shoulder, the fights, even the issue with vet school—could’ve possibly been true. That was why she’d stayed for so long, even when things were bad. She didn’t trust her own mind.

But those pups? She would never have hurt them.Never.

“You were in an abusive relationship.” Theo nodded slowly.

“Not in the way you think.” Not in any way she could explain. “He didn’t beat me or anything like that.”

He just made her doubt herself in every way possible. Had questioned every memory, every statement. Had isolated her until her only source of reality was him.

“There’re other forms of abuse beyond just physical.”

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