Page 19 of I Promise You
DANNY
Isigh, popping each finger in my knuckles. I can feel the tension in the room between Ari and her mother. It saddens me to watch her drained from everything. She lost our baby and almost lost her life.
I watch Ari retreat to her bedroom until she closes the door. The loud door slam sends her mother flinching her shoulders.
I lick my lips and stare at the empty bowl before me.
I give Ari the space she deserves and needs. She hasn’t been the same since they attacked her, and it kills me.
“She needs time,” I say, reaching for my pack of smokes in the pocket of my pants. I put my plate together to take to the sink so I can step outside for a smoke.
I’ve been at a loss since I watched my little angel’s life slip away from me, literally.
I’m forever changed, and it’s because Ari did that to me. She saved me from myself and I’m determined tosave her from herself.
I won’t ever fail her, and that’s a promise. Starting with my fucking drinking. I haven’t gotten drunk since the night of our fight and I never will again.
“She needs God. She needs to come back to the church with me.” Karolina’s voice cracks as she holds back the sobs with her napkin.
I admire her faith in God. I respect it. Even if my beliefs are different.
I’m not sure what I believe in.
Paul was extremely devoted to his religion, just like his mother is.
“Danny…promise me you’re going to take care of my daughter?” She looks at me with watery eyes, begging for an answer.
That’s an easy promise. A promise that was sealed eternally when I first laid my eyes on her at El Devine.
“I promise you I will always take care of her.” It’s an oath I made the day Paul asked me to.
Something twitches in my chest and it has me internally struggling with the anxiety I usually push away with alcohol, but I stopped doing that recently. I’m determined to fight for Ari, even if it means going back on everything I had once sought out for myself.
“Senora, can I ask you something?” I blurt out.
6
ARI
The shower hits my head as I coddle myself. I’m sitting in my bathtub, watching the water hit the tub. I’m holding my knees close to my chest, shaking from the cold.
I managed to move into a little cottage home right after we left the hospital, deep into North Carolina woods, and I was growing used to it. A big milestone achieved, but I couldn’t celebrate it.
My scars are still reddish-purple since they’re still so fresh. Shane will always haunt me. Even though he’s dead, he’s left his mark on my body, and I resent it.
My mind has traveled to the darkest places since my near-death experience. I haven’t been eating. I’ve been sleeping more than usual and having nightmares where I wake up in the middle of the night sweating, and my heart thunders against my bones.
Danny hasn’t tried touching me. He hasn’t tried to push me to do anything even though a part of me wants him to, but I know myself too well… I’m not ready. He knows it.
We both know it.
It’s been two months since my attack, and I will have to start work again. Although Danny wants me to stay home so I canrecover longer. He’s offered to take care of me in every which way I need, and that means everything to me.
He means everything to me.
He also doesn’t want to let me out of his sight. He’s been sleeping at my place every night, holding me when I wake with my terrors.
A part of me is angry at Danny. I was angry at him because I didn’t know who else to blame.
