Page 16 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

“Is that why you brought me here?” she asked softly.

“I saw something in you I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. You need this as much as I did.”

She nodded, her eyes going back to the mare, who was slowly eating now. “You know, this is the most you’ve said to me in one go since we met,” she pointed out.

“I’m not the best with people,” I admitted.

“You could have fooled me.” Her head tipped to the side and gently laid on my shoulder, and I fought the urge to move.

Not to escape her, but to slide closer. To wrap my arm around her shoulders and draw her into the side of my body. To give her the shelter I craved.

“It’s such a cliché that I couldn’t believe it was happening to me until I was so deep I didn’t know how I’d got there. He seemed like the perfect guy when I met him. I was fresh out of college and in my first proper job, doing exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I was flattered, you know? He saw me, he wanted me. And it wasn’t bad at first. He took me out for fancy meals, bought me expensive gifts, told me I was the only woman in the world for him. I can’t believe I fell for it.”

She fell so quiet I was sure she could hear the creak of my teeth as I clenched my jaw.

All I needed was a name. The name of the dirtbag who’d taken this beautiful woman and broke her just because he could.

“We moved too fast. I should have known better,” she whispered, laying the blame on herself and not where it belonged. “I was so flattered when he asked me to move in with him. We’d only been seeing each other for a few months, but I was so completely in love with him. Everything changed once he had me in his house. It started with cruel comments at first, then he slowly manipulated me into cutting out my friends. If I loved him, I wouldn’t need them. Why did I want to go out with someone else when I had him at home? Didn’t I love him the same way he loved me? It all came to a head a few weeks ago. He wanted me to leave my job to be at home for him whenever he needed me, and I suddenly looked up and realized what had happened. How alone I was. How my life was slowly slipping off the tracks I’d put it on. And for the first time, I said no to him.”

My hand squeezed hers gently when she hesitated. I wouldn’t push her, not yet. There were so many details she was leavingout, and I needed them all. But she’d never give them to me if I tried to force her now.

“He completely changed in an instant,” she whispered. “It was like his mask fell off, and I saw him for who he truly was. I said no, I didn’t want to lose the independence that my job gave me, and he flew into a rage. I’d never seen him like that before. He punched me, and I fell to the ground. It was so unexpected. He’d never done anything like that before. But then it was like he snapped. He was screaming at me that I was his, kicking me. I tried to stop him. I begged him to stop, and then…at a certain point…I gave up. I thought he was going to kill me. But then he stopped. He stared down at me on the ground, and there was nothing on his face, no emotion, nothing. He told me to clean myself up, and then he left. I knew if I didn’t leave then, I would never get away. So I made a plan. It took me a couple of weeks, but I slowly packed all my old things and moved them into my car without him noticing. I didn’t need anything he’d given me. I didn’t want it. Then, at the first opportunity I had, I drove away. I guess you know the rest.”

Reece shrugged then, like it was no big deal.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I finally said when I couldn’t take the silence anymore.

It wasn’t enough. I wanted to swear to her that I’d hunt him down and tear him limb from limb, but violence wasn’t what Reece needed right now.

It was whatIneeded.

“Will you show me how to make the salt water she needs?” she asked instead.

“Sure.”

We both got up and headed to the back of the barn, and Reece listened intently while I took her through the water and feeding routine for the mare. She didn’t say another word about what had happened to her, and I didn’t ask her any questions. Itwas harder to resist pulling her into my arms and promising that I was going to make it all better.

She didn’t need that.

She didn’t needme.

Reece needed compassion and a safe place where she could heal, and I wouldn’t be the creep who took that away from her.

CHAPTER SEVEN

REECE

It had been a long day and night of watching over the little mare and making sure she had everything she needed.

Booker had told me about re-feeding syndrome, and I hadn’t slept for more than half an hour the entire night from worrying about it.

“We need to give you a name,” I murmured as the little mare nudged at the empty hay net with her nose. “You’re going to have to wait an hour before you get your next net,” I told her, taking down the empty one.

She was so thin that part of me didn’t see how she could survive. I’d never understand how a person could do something like this to an animal.

The vet was due to come tomorrow to do some tests, but Booker had done this enough times that he knew what he was doing by now. His primary concern seemed to be the sores and getting the mare calm enough around us that we could bathe and treat them.

I moved closer to the stable door, and she eyed me warily. “You’ll feel so much better once we get you some medicine,” I told her softly, slowly moving one hand out in front of me. “I’mgoing to make sure that you get better. We’ve got you now. This is a safe place. Booker looks after us all.”

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