Page 244 of Her Daddies' Everything

“Oh, sweetness.” Tobias held her tight.

“Poor baby,” Jenner said. “I’ll go check around so you know everything is all right.”

“No! Don’t leave me!” she cried.

“Hey, I’m coming back,” he said.

“No, no, I need you both to stay here.”

“Then that’s where we’ll stay,” Tobias reassured her as he moved so he was leaning back against the headboard with her sideways on his lap. “Come sit with us, Jenner.”

Jenner moved so he sat, facing her.

“I’m okay. It was just . . . it was just scary.”

“I know, sweetness.” Tobias brushed her hair off her face. “Do we need to leave another light on?”

They had a nightlight, but it didn’t seem to be enough. “Yes, maybe.”

“You never want to talk about your fear of the dark,” Jenner said. “Is it because of the Deity’s naughty cupboard?”

Shoot.

She didn’t want to do this now. She grew tense.

“We need to talk about the things that haunt us,” Tobias told her. “In order for them to stop having a hold on us.”

She knew he was right. Look at how brave Jenner had been, telling them about his father.

“I only got put in there a couple of times when he . . . when I got caught trying to take things.”

Jenner cursed quietly. “Food?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Stuff for our birthdays. I got caught once with chocolate chip cookies when it was Sampson’s birthday. And banana muffins when it was Abe’s.”

“That fucking bastard,” Jenner said.

“It was so dark in there and small. And I knew the Deity would tell my father and he’d be so mad at me. The second time I was punished, my father came and got me. He dragged me back home and he . . . and he shoved me into the linen cupboard and put something heavy in front of it so I couldn’t get out. I spent hours in there.”

She started to cry and Tobias rocked her while Jenner rubbed her legs.

“S-sorry,” she said.

“Why are you apologizing?” Jenner demanded. “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“But what happened to you was so much worse.”

“You can’t compare our traumas,” Jenner told her. “It isn’t a matter of what was worse. This gave you a fear of the dark that lives with you. It was abuse. It was wrong.”

“Now that we know about it, we can help you,” Jenner told her. “I’ll go and get another lamp.”

“No!” she cried, fear filling her. “Don’t leave. You have to stay with me.”

“I’ll come back,” Jenner said.

She frantically shook her head.

“No one is going anywhere,” Tobias soothed. “We’re right where you need us.”

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