Page 39 of The King of Hearts

Her arm brushes against mine when she drops it to her sides, and she hesitates. Recognizing what she wants, I take a step toward the sofa, and she follows my lead. She sits on the end of the sofa, and I’m sure she chose that spot because it only leaves one empty spot available. She doesn’t want to be surrounded. Itake the place beside her, keeping a few inches between us to reassure her I’m near, but leaving enough space so she doesn’t feel crowded.

Dad and my brothers wait until we’re settled before they get up and come over. Bishop and Cass take the two armchairs opposite of each other on either side of the sofa. Dad grabs a chair that’s by the window and sets it down opposite of the sofa, directly across from Lili and me. Charlotte doesn’t move from her spot.

Lili stays quiet, her nails digging into the palms of her hands. She’s nervous. Not that I blame her. She’s probably been wondering since yesterday what the hell is going on.

“I don’t need to hear your story to know that you’ve been through a horrible ordeal,” Dad begins. “And I can guess that ordeal involves at least one man.”

He pauses, giving Lili the chance to interject, but she keeps quiet, neither confirming, nor denying his claim.

“Bishop says you demanded no cops or hospital, which makes me believe that whoever hurt you is still very much a threat.”

Another pause, and still, she remains quiet. She doesn’t need to speak, though. I can feel the tenseness in her body beside me. And from the way Dad’s jaw tightens, he notices it as well.

“What if I tell you that I can guarantee he won’t hurt you again?”

Her brows drop. “How?”

Dad leans back in his chair. “How do you think, Lili?”

Her gaze moves around the room, looking at each person before she settles back on Dad. “You would kill him?”

He inclines his head. “That’s one way. But there’s an alternative if you would prefer.”

Lili releases the death grip she had on her hands and rubs her palms down her thighs. “And that is?”

“Before we get into that, I need you to tell me what happened to you,” Dad says instead of answering. “I know it’s a difficult subject to talk about, but before we move forward, I need to know exactly what we’ll be facing.”

As expected, Lili doesn’t like the ultimatum. It would be difficult for anyone to talk about such a horrific event. We don’t know what happened to her, but even without the details, it was easy to guess when she arrived that she was brutally attacked. And from what Dr. Bale said, that night wasn’t the first incident.

When Lili hesitates, I grab her hand. My touch startles her enough to flinch.

“Lili, look at me.”

She lifts her head, and our eyes meet. Pain, anger, and indecision reflect in the pretty green of hers.

“I know this is hard. I’m sure all you want to do is forget everything that happened. But that’s not how you move forward. It’s not how you feel safe again. This is more than protecting you. It’s about protecting your sweet baby. It’s about ensuring whoever hurt you won’t ever hurt another person. It’s a way to find closure and shut the door on that part of your past. What you endured doesn’t make you a victim. It makes you strong and it makes you a fighter.”

I squeeze her hand when tears appear in her eyes. This is the first time I’ve seen her eyes wet. As a mother, it’s her job to stay strong for her child, but she also has to learn that it’s okay to release her emotions. The consequences of keeping them bottled up could end in disaster.

“What we’re offering you is a step in correcting a wrong that was done to you and your daughter. It’s a way to release all the hatred and pain still inside you. If it’s not one you want to take, that’s up to you, but you deserve to have that choice presented to you. That bastard already stole from you something that wasn’t his. Don’t give him the power of your emotions.”

A tear slips from the corner of her eye, sliding down her cheek to drip off her chin to land on her thigh.

“I want him dead,” she whispers.

“Then he shall be,” I tell her.

A tissue appears between us, and we both look up to find Charlotte standing close by. Her expression is filled with compassion, and her own lingering pain of what was done to her in the past.

Three years ago, Charlotte was in the exact same spot Lili is in right now. Their experiences are different in a lot of ways, but the same in the ways that count the most. They both deserve justice for the evil deeds done to them. Charlotte got hers and it’s helped her tremendously.

She’s not the same woman she was before. She was strong when we first offered our services, simply because she lived through what was her nightmare. But she didn’tfeelstrong. She didn’t believe she was capable of living through what happened to her. The night Bishop and Braxton found her, she was in the process of ending her life by slitting her wrists.

Today, she wears those scars proudly, along with the others on her body given to her by her now-dead husband.

After Lili takes the tissue, Charlotte lifts both arms and flips her wrists around to show the faint jagged scars.

“It was a regular occurrence for my husband to beat me. In the beginning, it was just a slap here and there, and profuse apologies and promises from him afterward to never do it again.” Lili’s eyes are focused on those silvery lines as she listens. “It took six months for those slaps to turn to punches and kicks. Six more for him to break the first bone. I was seven months pregnant, and for those seven months, he made sure to never hit or kick my stomach. But then that changed. I’m pretty sure he used every bit of strength he had when he reared his foot back and landed it directly in my belly.”

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