Page 65 of Elijah's Hope
I handed her the long blue box first. “I hope you like it.”
* * *
Shelby
My hand trembled as I opened the box. I knew that color of blue. Didn’t matter that I was from a trailer park outside Shreveport, Louisiana. Every girl knew that color of blue.
Tiffany blue.
I opened it up and there, spread out on the silk, was a silver bracelet with a charm on the end. I gasped when I pulled it out of the box so I could see it properly. It was an angel, with wings. Gently I clasped the charm in between my fingers and when I turned it around, I saw that it was engraved.
From your Angel.
“I liked the idea of you having something from me to wear on you. Always. I thought about a necklace, but with the charm bracelet I could always add things. Things that would mean something to us.” He coughed into his hand then. “Going forward.”
Going forward. With Eli. It was a dream. A dream I didn’t think I could believe. Because I had believed it for a minute. Before it was taken away from me.
“This can’t be happening,” I said. “There was no reason for you to forgive me. I lied to you.”
“You did. But I get it. Or at least I think I get it. This is for you, too.”
He opened up a plastic bottle in his hand and dumped out the contents on the bed next to me.
It took me a second to understand what I was looking at.
There was a USB port and surrounding that were some white stones… No, they weren’t stones. They were teeth.
I squeaked and got off the bed like he’d dropped a snake on it. “What…I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know how much you and Eve got to know one another, but let’s just say her husband has certain skills. He hacked your uncle’s computer and found the original of the video. I saw the whole thing. I know they drugged you, Shelby. Know they…violated you. My first stop was Shreveport. I took a few of your uncle’s teeth and that fucker Jimmy’s, too, and was happy to do it. I wanted you to know that they paid for what they did. Not enough, but they’re still hurting.”
I tried to process what he was saying but it was too much.
“The video has been taken down from the site. That’s the last copy. I thought you might want to smash it or burn it or something. Like it might be cathartic.”
I clutched the angel in my hand so hard the wings dug into my skin. He knew.
That’s why he’s here. Not for me.
“So you knew what really happened. Eve told you and that’s why you came to find me. Because you felt guilty.”
“I came to find you because…I missed you. I wanted you back. And when I knew what they had done to you…”
“You mean when you knew I wasn’t some slut who made porn videos, it was okay to come after me.”
“Shelby,” he said, and I could tell he didn’t understand. I think I was only just coming to understand it myself.
“You didn’t forgive me for lying, Eli. You didn’t overcome what I was because of your feelings for me. You just had proof I wasn’t a porn star. So it made that video okay in your eyes. And you knew you acted wrongly toward me because of that. You’re here because you feel guilty.”
“No, that’s not true. Shelby, I’ve been dying these last two weeks.”
Me, too. Only I was still dying because I knew the truth of what we were. I’d had two long weeks to think about it. I had let myself get distracted with hope and hot sex, but the reality started to crash in on me.
“Except it was only when you knew I didn’t willingly make the video that you chose to come after me.”
I could see from his expression he couldn’t refute that. His jaw clenched. “I have issues. Because of my mother. I told you. I know it’s wrong to judge. I didn’t want to.”
“But you did.”
