Page 305 of Small Town Firsts

She snorts out a laugh.

“You don’t believe me?” I lean into her space ever so slightly. We’re getting off track from what I had planned, but I’m willing to let this play out.

“I know you’re lying,” she mumbles the words into her mug. “There’s not a soul on earth who’d want me if they knew...”

My eyes snap to her. “Look at me.”

She shakes her head, so I reach over and grip her chin, forcing her gaze to mine. Tears are gathered along her lashes and her cheeks and nose are pink, both from alcohol and the gathering emotions.

“If they knew what? Tell me, Emmalyn.”

She shakes her head again. “You’ll hate me. Everyone will hate me.”

Holy shit. Is getting her to open up, to confess, really going to be this easy?

“I swear I won’t. Tell me.”

“I’m damaged, Sterling. Used and useless. Tainted.”

“What does that mean, Emmalyn?”

“He hurt me.” Her voice is a hoarse whisper that scrapes against my fucking soul. “He took and took and took until there was nothing left to take.”

“What did he take?”

“Everything,” she cries, anguish blanketing the entire room. “He took everything.”

My skin prickles, both hot and cold, and my gut clenches as the first real thread of doubt weaves its way around my heart. Her words, her pain, her brutal honesty, wash over me, bringing with them a whole slew of emotions I can’t even begin to process.

“Are you saying...” My throat flexes as I swallow. “Are you saying he raped you, Emmy?”

She answers me with a heart-wrenching wail instead of words.

“Fuck, baby, come here.” I take the coffee mug out of her hands and reach for her. My hand brushes hers, and as if time itself has slowed, I watch in horror as she recoils and scrambles away from me on the couch.

She raises her arms to cover her head and face, all the while sobbing and pleading. “No! No, don’t hurt me! Please... please don’t hurt me. Stop!”

I’m shaking, my entire body, head to toe, both in anger and sorrow with realization of what Rob did to her and what he tried to put me up to.

She’s curled up in a ball, trembling and crying, instinctually making herself as small as possible.

“Shh,” I croon, holding my hands up in front of me. “It’s me, baby. I’m not going to hurt you. Fuck, Emmalyn. I’m all done hurting you.”

Her cries soften and she looks my way from beneath tear-soaked lashes. “St-Sterling?” Her gaze is unfocused and her voice wobbly.

“Yes, baby, it’s me.”

She flings herself at me, burrowing into my side—and my fucking heart—as I wrap her quaking body in my arms.

“No one’s ever going to hurt you again.”

CHAPTER 28

EMMY

Humiliation gripsme and the burn in my cheeks dries my tears.

Oh, God. I can’t believe I said all of that to him.

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