Page 41 of Where You Belong

“I figured he was.” The confirmation sends another stream of tears flooding down my face. The guilt of the situation ate me up inside.

I feel like an awful parent for bringing him into the world with such a toxic relationship with his father, and now I’ve made it worse by getting involved with another man.

Not even a day has passed since I said it, and just like I expected, everything has come crashing down around me. It’s not even Corbin to blame either.

“We’ll have to get your statement and take him in. You can go check on Huxton. I’ll stop by after he goes to bed to check in.”

All I want right now is to be with Huxton. He’s the one who needs me right now. Everything else will have to wait.

He squeezes my hand when I step back, walking down the hall toward Huxton’s room. I release a heavy sigh, attempting to shake myself from the thoughts plaguing me. When I push the door open, I find Huxton on the floor in his beanbag chair, his headphones on while he stares at my phone.

His eyes dart up to mine, flashing me a hesitant smile.

“Are you okay, sweetie?”

He nods. “Is Corbin here? I heard yelling, and I called him. He said if we ever need him to give him a call, and he’d get here lightning fast. He told me to stay in my room and put on my headphones until one of you came to get me.”

My lip trembles. “He’s here. Everything is okay. I’m sorry you had to hear yelling.”

Huxton pushes himself up from his spot on the floor and crosses the room toward me. I bend down on the floor in front of him, wrapping him in a tight hug.

“I’m sorry, sweetie.”

My chest aches. It seems like no matter how hard I try, I can’t escape my broken life. It’s all I want for him, for us.

“It’s all right.” His words are muffled against the side of my neck. “I hate when Dad makes you sad.”

I don’t even know how to respond to him. I hate the thought of him seeing what this does to me, burdening him with things he shouldn’t have to deal with at his age.

“Let’s do something fun tonight, just the two of us. We could make a picnic basket and go to the park to eat dinner. How’s that sound?”

He pulls back, his eyes lighting up as he nods enthusiastically.

“Perfect.” I grin. “Spending the time with my favorite boy always makes me happy.”

He goes back to playing his game, and I step out into the hallway, needing a moment to myself. Walking into the bathroom, I shut the door behind me. As I lean against the closed door, the cold wood soothes my heated skin as I slide down to sit on the floor.

I run the palm of my hands over my face. I don’t bother to hold back the tears as my silent cries wrack through my body.

My head is a mess, and my heart is heavy with the weight of today bearing down on me.

It will get better. One day, it will all get better.

I can’t lose hope that the day would come when we’d break free. For me, for Huxton.

Chapter Sixteen

Corbin

It’s been two days since I’ve seen or heard from Haelynn. After the incident with Atlas at her place, I decided to move forward with pressing charges. He’s managed to avoid any marks on his record for years after mistreating Haelynn. He’s used his money and power to intimidate her before, but it won’t work this time.

If he’s capable of putting his hands on a police officer, there’s no doubt in my mind he was capable of worse.

I don’t want to push her to talk to me, so I try to stay busy to distract myself, but it was difficult when she wasn’t responding to my texts. I skipped my morning coffee dates with Layla and have been hitting up the gym more often. The anger and frustration I’ve felt weigh on me, and it was the only way for me to release some steam.

When my shift is over for the day, I considered going back home to unwind. I decided against it, not wanting more time to think about everything. I opted to go for a run instead.

By the time I finished, I was ready to eat dinner and crash.

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