Page 53 of You Found Me in the Dark
Her voice cracked.
“I never cried in front of him. Never gave him that.”
I could feel the weight behind those words, like she’d been holding them in for years, letting them calcify somewhere deep. And now they were rising.
“But when Cam opened my door, I broke.”
God, the way she said that. I had to squeeze my eyes shut. I was glad her head was still on my chest so she couldn’t see the way I was reacting to her truths.
“He just stood there,” she said. “Saw the mess—my smudged mascara, the bruise under my T-shirt sleeve…”
Then her voice dropped.
“He asked me, ‘Did he hurt you?’”
She shook her head. And I didn’t need more than that. I didn’t need anything else. The unspoken was enough. My jaw clenched. Rage simmered low and slow in my chest, but I kept my hand on her hip, soft, grounding. This wasn’t about me. This was her story.
“Cam walked and sat beside me. He pulled me in close like he was holding my whole world together.”
Her next words barely made it out.
“I don’t think I’d ever been hugged like that before. Maybe when Mom left.”
I had to breathe through that. He made her a promise that he would never leave her behind ever again. Right there in that broken room.
“I wish he would’ve taken you sooner.”
She whispered, “I wish he could’ve.”
God.
I pictured it—the two of them sitting there, shadows on the wall, tears soaking into a worn hoodie. His hand was on her back. Her hands were clutching the pieces of herself she didn’t know how to hold. And still they got out.
“He said we were leaving,” she finished. “He’d been saving while he was in college. Picking up extra shifts at some auto shop. Anything to make sure I didn’t have to survive on my own in that house.”
I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me.
She wasn’t just telling me about her pain—she was trusting me with it. She was opening that cracked door and letting me see inside.
“Before sunrise,” she whispered, “we packed two bags, left, and never looked back. After going no contact with our dad, it’s been us against the world ever since. I guess the house he bought was fairly cheap, and we turned it into our home.”
I swallowed hard. My throat felt raw. There was nothing I could say that would make that better. But I could be here.
I reached down, slid my hand over her hand that rested next to her head on my chest. The movement was slow and deliberate. She had just shared a part of herself most people never saw—the wounds, the nights spent in silence that screamed louder than words.
“We’ve both been through a lot,” I said quietly, my voice rougher than I expected. “More than most. And maybe that’s why… we’ve earned this.”
I let go of her hand and ran a hand through my hair, trying to shake off the knot of nerves tightening in my chest. “I’m starting to fall for you, Wren.” The words tasted strange coming out loud, but they were true.
“I found you in the dark,” I admitted, voice dropping to almost a whisper. “Not just that night. All the nights I didn’t even realize I was looking for you. And now I want to bring you to the light.”
The future didn’t have to be a shadowed place haunted by the past anymore. I wanted better for both of us.
“I want to make the future better. For us.”
I swallowed hard, the weight of it settling deep.
“I won’t leave you. Not like the rest. Not ever.”
