Page 35 of Second Chance Christmas

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The last thingLeo wanted to do was leave that night. Every footstep felt as though it was taking him in the wrong direction, away from Cassidy, away from Audrey, away from their life together. But there was no need for him to stay. They’d had confirmation that Grant had been arrested. He was in police custody for the foreseeable future.

When Leo returned home, he flicked on the television then turned it off, as soon as the bastard Grant Burrow’s face filled the screen. How did the press get the news so quickly? Protective concern for Cassidy flooded his veins. He couldn’t bear to think of her waking up to this the next morning. He knew what the press were like. How intrusive, how determined to invade your privacy just to get a story.

But she had Harry. She had Audrey. He wasn’t sure she even wanted him. How many times had she been emphatic on that score? What he’d done to her was unforgivable. And that sin was compounded by the fact her life had spiralled out of control in a terrifying way after he left.

How could she ever look at him and not blame him?

But even then…even if she didn’t want him romantically, what about needing him, at least for a while, for support? It didn’t have to be anything more than a friend supporting another friend. Surely he owed her that?

* * *

When Cassidy wokeon Christmas morning, it was early. Even earlier than Audrey, which was saying something, because the little girl was usually up before the sun, on the hunt for presents and bursting with Christmas spirit.

But today, it was Cassidy who jumped out of bed with a smile on her face, and a lightness in her chest she hadn’t felt in six long years.

It was over.

The nightmare was over.

Not completely. There would still be the trial and publicity and helping Audrey through all of this; Cassidy wasn’t an idiot. Tough times still lay ahead. But Grant couldn’t hurt her anymore. He would never touch her again. He wouldn’t get to Audrey. And it was all because of Leo. Because she’d trusted him, confided in him. Because she’d let him help.

She scraped her hair back into a ponytail and tiptoed quickly from her room, looked around to make sure everyone was indeed still asleep, and then moved towards the front door. Her jacket was stashed on a hook and her shoes were beneath it. She slipped both on, pulled open the door and a moment later, she was at Paolo’s house, across the street.

With her heart in her throat, she opened her hand to knock on the door, but quickly pulled it back again. It was just past five in the morning, and unlike her household, there was no child here to wake anybody up. They probably had plans to sleep in a little.

With a simmering sense of disappointment, she turned back and started to move towards her own house, knowing it would only be a few hours before she could try again. But in her heart, she’d been desperate to see him. Desperate to talk to him. To…something.

She frowned, walking slowly back towards Harry’s.

“Cass!” His voice was like a blessing in the breeze. She spun and half-sobbed, half-laughed, lifting her hands to her mouth as she ran back towards Leo and threw her arms around him in a gesture that was so simple, she felt as though she were reclaiming a vital part of her past.

“Hi,” she said, looking up at him, smiling.

His features were unreadable, his eyes locked to her mouth, so her pulse fired to life. And a moment after that euphoria came a crushing sense of devastation, because he was leaving. This very day.

And he would go back to his amazing life with his amazing career and she would watch him from afar, and always miss him, and always wish…wish what?

She closed her eyes, breathing in. That wasn’t what she’d come here for.

“I realized I didn’t thank you,” she said, squeezing him around the waist, forcing herself to look up at him. “You had no need to do what you did yesterday. I have spent so long worrying about how I could ever free myself from him, when I had no resources, and had been made to think it was impossible to escape. I could never see a path out of his control over me. And you made it so easy. I will never, ever be able to express how grateful I am.”

A muscle jerked in his jaw. “You think I had no need?” He murmured, lifting a hand and cupping her cheek. “Cass, I owed you that much, at least, didn’t I?”

He spoke so gently, with such reverence, but there was something about the idea of him having felt obligated to intervene that chilled her blood a little.

Because it was an act of guilt, not love, and she would have infinitely preferred the latter. And she realized, with dawning clarity, that she wasn’t the only one who’d been trapped by the past. It was within her power to free him too.

“You owed me nothing, Leo. You were a drunk young guy who made a mistake. I know that you would never, ever choose to hurt me. Iwasangry and I washurtbeyond bearing, but I understand now what I couldn’t then. So stop beating yourself up over it. You’re a good guy. One of the best.”

And as she spoke those words, she realized she was giving herself a gift too. By forgiving someone who genuinely deserved it, who’d apologized not by rote but because they meant it from the bottom of their heart, because they acknowledged wrongdoing and were intentionally, proactively seeking a path of making amends, she was giving herself an emotional release she needed, and deserved.

Cassidy smiled.

It felt good to forgive him.

It felt good not to be angry with him.

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