Page 55 of Quiet Protector
“I’m sorry, sososorry,” she mutters to my mom on repeat, the anger gone from her voice. “I didn’t know it wasn’t him. I swear, I didn’t know.”
She repeats the same phrase another two times before the elevator doors closing gobbles up her words. I assumed a quiet, confined area would help get back her headspace, but it seems to do the opposite. The instant I jab the button for the Presidential suite, words fly out of Melody’s mouth nonstop.
“I thought it was him. He was wearing his shoes. He had on your cologne.” I place her onto her feet, fretful my clutch around her waist is hampering her breathing when she shudders through her last sentence. “He had no facial hair. None.” It dawns on me how hard she’s shaking when she runs her hand across my recently shaved jaw. “You had prickles. You didn’t bother shaving when we weren’t at school.” She drops her hand, the wetness in her eyes doubling. “He must have shaved.” She hiccups three times before adding devastatingly, “He wanted me to think he was Joey.”
“Who wanted you to think they were Joey?”
She folds in two when Joey’s name comes toppling out of my mouth. “Oh, Joey. I’m so sorry.” Her apology is utterly gut-wrenching. It steals the air from my lungs as quickly as it does Melody’s. She claws at her throat, begging for the strangling hold to lessen so she can secure a full breath.
“Breathe, Melody,” I demand when her wheezy grapple for air has her face whitening to the point she looks seconds from passing out.
“I… thought… it was him,” she squeaks between gasps.
“Don’t worry about that now. Just breathe,” I beg, panicked about how shallow her breathing is. With how frantic her chest thrusts with each breath she takes, her lungs shouldn’t be working as hard as they are. “Take big breaths for me, Mellowy. Big, calming breaths.”
When the elevator dings announcing our arrival at Melody’s floor, the fret in my voice is replaced by someone I didn’t anticipate. Julian is standing in the hallway dressed in a similar pair of sweats as Melody.
“Mel, what’s going on?” The slight slur of his words reveals he’s still drunk, but there’s nothing like finding your fiancée in the midst of a panic attack to sober you up.
After pulling her out of the elevator car, Julian runs his eyes over every inch of Melody’s face and body. The horrified expression on his face proves he loves her. He’s just as devastated by the hollow look in her eyes as I am. It proves in an instant the money I found in Castro’s safe wasn’t for anything illegal. If it was, I’m certain it was to protect Melody.
Julian’s eyes snap to mine when Melody croaks out, “I… can’t… breathe.”
Since he’s lost on what to do, I move him out of my way before cupping my hands over Melody’s ears. When I lower my forehead to balance against hers, then commence counting to ten, her nostrils mimic the flare of mine.
“Five Mississippi’s. Six Mississippi’s. Seven Mississippi’s. Eight—”
Julian’s whiskey-scented breath fans my cheek when Melody whispers, “Mississippi’s. Nine Mississippi’s. Ten Mississippi’s.”
“That’s it, Mellowy. Big breaths. In and out. In and out.”
As her eyes lower to lip-read my confirmation that she’s okay and that I’ll never let anything happen to her, sparks of the old Melody I once knew form in her eyes. She’s fighting to claw her way out of the dark cloud attempting to swallow her whole, and I’m so fucking proud of her.
“Look at you. So brave and so—”
“Pretty,” she says with me.
It’s the worst time for me to smile, but I can’t help it. “And sodamnpretty,” I correct.
Damn was on Wren’s naughty list of words. I only found out about her dislike during Melody’s and my mocked wedding. Supposedly, it’s impolite to say damn during your vows.
My comment breaks through the dense cloud swarming Melody before it breaks her heart. “I’m so sorry, BJ. I didn’t know. I thought it was Joey. This whole time I thought it was Joey.”
Although skeptical she’s fully out of the woods just yet, my curiosity is too strong to harness. “You thought who was Joey?”
I’m lost to what she means, but Julian isn’t. “It wasn’t Joey?”
Tears roll down Melody’s cheeks when she answers Julian’s question by shaking her head. “It was Madden.”
“Madden… what does Madden have to do with this?”
I discover the reason for Melody’s near breakdown when Julian snarls, “He raped her. All these years she thought it was Joey, but it wasn’t, it was Madden.” He drags a hand over his head like his confession is as shocking for him as it is for me. “How did you find out?”
Melody’s focus isn’t on Julian. I don’t even know if she heard his question. She’s staring straight at me, the truth in her eyes hitting me with blow after blow after blow.
My brother raped her.
Herapedher.
