Page 21 of Yes, Love

Noah stood in the hallway and cleared his throat, pulling me from my dirty fantasy. “Mate… I… I don’t know what to say…” Noah’s pale blue eyes watched me from across the living room, filled with pity.

I glanced up from my bowl of cereal and furrowed my brow. “What’dya mean? What’s wrong with you?”

Noah’s eyes widened, and he ran his hands through his blonde hair. “Have you—” He shook his head in disbelief and lowered his voice. “Have you not heard?”

“Heard what?”

Noah sat across from me at the table and swallowed audibly. “It’s Lucy. It could just be tabloids. It could be fake.”

My muscles clenched involuntarily at the thought of something being wrong with Lucy. “Good god, man, what is it?”

Noah gave me a stiff nod and pulled out his phone. “Best if you read it yourself, I think.” He passed me his phone.

The webpage was open to a news article entitled Did the Love Get too Wild? A blurry image of Lucy trying to hide a split lip and bruised cheek followed. My blood turned to ice, and my vision blurred.

“Noah. What is this?” I turned back to my friend, unable to read the words before me, terrified of what they’d say.

Noah let out a slow, deep breath. “There’s some suspicion that Will’s behind those injuries.”

“FUCK!” I slammed Noah’s phone down and pushed back from the table, toppling the chair behind me. “I’ll kill him! I’ll KILL the BASTARD!” I pounded the table with both fists then flung my breakfast to the floor. I was unhinged. The sounds of sloshing milk and shattering ceramic filled the air, and the wretched memories washed over me in waves.

***

“Dom, darling, go and play in your room! Hurry, love, hurry!” Fear poured from her eyes and marred her false smile as dad’s car pulled up the drive. When I didn’t move, she shouted, “GO! Daddy’s had a hard day at work. He’ll not want to be bothered.”

I obeyed and retreated to my room but kept my ear pressed to the thin door. Sometimes daddy shouted and pushed mum. I didn’t want him to do that. She hadn’t done anything wrong.

The front door banged open and the house filled with his sizzling rage. I could hear his muffled shouts and the sound of a dish breaking. Finally, the shouting stopped, and the back bedroom door slammed shut.

Then the only sound left was mum’s quiet sobs.

***

“Give me my fucking phone, Noah!” I lunged at my flatmate, but he held my phone out of reach. “You stupid prick! I don’t want to hurt you!”

Noah slipped out of my reach again and locked himself in his bedroom with my phone. “You can’t call her like this, Dom. You’re too angry,” he yelled through the door. “She won’t speak to you. And if he is hurting her, you should know better than anyone that Lucy doesn’t need your rage right now. So, when you’re calm, I’ll give the damn phone back.”

I let out an angry growl and pounded on Noah’s door once before walking away. He was right, and I knew it. I buried my hands in my hair and tried to suck in deep breaths through my nose. Lucy didn’t need my rage. I’d be calm for Lucy, but I’d murder Will. Only the lowest, most vile pieces of shit abused women. And he was hurting her. I knew it. I knew from the moment she introduced him to me as her friend that something was off about Will Southwick.

Fuck! I paced around the flat, practically begging myself to calm down. If Noah wouldn’t give me my phone, I’d drive down to LA and get Lucy away from that bastard right now. She didn’t even have to take me back. She just needed to get away from him. I sank onto the sofa and rested my head between my knees.

A moment later, Noah’s bedroom door opened. “You good now?” He tossed my phone on my lap without waiting for a response.

I met his troubled gaze for a moment, and he shook his head. “Maybe it’s really nothing, mate. Maybe she’s fine. You know how the tabloids can be. They’ll latch onto anything and blow it out of proportion.”

“Right.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and dialed Lucy’s number.

To my complete shock, she answered on the first ring. “Dom, if you’re callin’ about the article, you have to relax! It’s not what it looks like.” Her voice was laced with irritation, and her Scottish side was coming out. It brought back sour memories of our last two months together when she’d already fallen for Will, and everything I did annoyed the shit out of her.

“Lucy, I—”

“Argh! Stop it! There’s nothin’ wrong! Will didn’t hurt me, and you need to stay out of my life!”

I winced at her sharp words. “Lucy, I just needed to check on you in case—”

She cut me off again and drove the knife deeper. “I’m not your mum, and he’s not your dad!”

I squared my jaw and gripped the phone tighter. “Right. Sorry to have bothered you.”

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