Page 74 of Sweet Temptation (Men of Honor 2)
My body is covered in a cold sweat and my face is soaked with tears. I bring a shaking hand to my throat. “Oh god, I’m so sorry.” The words burn coming out of my raw throat and I quickly realize I must have been screaming.
“Jesus, baby, don’t be fucking sorry. You scared the shit out of me. What the fuck was that all about? And who the fuck is Earl?”
Terror and helplessness wash over me at the sound of his name, the emotions are so strong it’s almost suffocating. Unable to stop myself, I climb onto Sawyer’s lap and wrap my arms around his neck. I absorb the feel of his body; to replace the one I had just felt crushing me moments ago.
He holds me tight as I sob with despair. I soak in the warmth and safety of his embrace until my sobs quiet and eventually my labored breathing is the only sound filling the dark silence.
He grabs my face to look at him, his expression filled with violence. “It’s time, Grace, you need to tell me who the fuck he is and what he did to you.”
I swore to myself that I would never talk about him, not with anyone, but I know Sawyer won’t let this go. So I decide for the first time in my life I will tell another soul what I went through after I lost Mama…
I try to control the angry rhythm of my heart; it pounds with rage as I stare into Grace’s warm amber eyes that are filled with fear and despair. I know whatever the fuck she was dreaming about just now has to do with the fucker she lived with before coming here. I feel bad forcing this issue, especially right now, but I have been patient long enough.
“He hated me. He just… hated me so much and I never knew why. I still don’t. I never did nothin’, Sawyer.”
Jesus. My heart constricts fucking painfully at her agony. Keeping her in my arms, I lay us both down and bring her into my chest.
“Who is he, baby?”
“My uncle,” she whispers sadly, “Mama had no will and my father wasn’t on my birth certificate, so I had no legal guardian. Mama’s parents died before I was born. I knew she had a brother, but she never talked about him, she said they never got along. A couple days after the murder he came to the police station. He seemed nice enough, and like he deeply cared about what happened. He told me he hated how his relationship with Mama turned out and wanted to help me. He offered for me to come stay with him in Virginia. Since I didn’t have any other options I accepted.” Turning, she looks up at me with… fuck, I don’t know, shame? “You have to understand, Sawyer, I had no one, no other family. Not even my friends’ parents offered to take me in…”
“Hey,” I turn on my side and cup her face, “you don’t have to justify anything to me, Cupcake. I just want to know what happened, baby.”
Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath before continuing, “The first six months weren’t that bad, but I quickly realized he was not at all who he portrayed to be at the beginnin’. He drank excessively and never held down a job for longer than a few weeks. But I was so wrapped up in my grief, the trial and tryin’ to finish what was left of the school year at a new school that I ignored it. I just… I ignored everythin’ around me. But I shouldn’t have. There were so many red flags, especially when he had bought a new truck and was gettin’ all these new things from somewhere… Near the end of the trial he became worse and it got harder to ignore.”
She pauses, and I brace myself for what she’s about to tell me.
“It started off with small things. Whether he would burn me with a pot when going to strain whatever was in it, or putting his foot out when I walked by to trip me. He’d always say it was an accident, but I knew… I just had this feelin’ he wasdoin’ it on purpose. Sometimes I’d catch him lookin’ at me with so much hatred, and I never understood why or what I did. As soon as the trial was over and school finished, I went and got a job so I could make enough money to leave. I made sure to stay away whenever I could. I booked a bus ticket to go see Adam one weekend. He had moved to Charlotte for college so he was only a few hours away.”
I’m assuming Adam is the fucking loser she was dating before the shit with her mom went down.
“The night before I left to see him I had gotten into an argument with my uncle, when I told him we needed to have a funeral for Mama. We had both agreed we would wait until after the trial to have one, but he kept prolongin’ it whenever I brought it up. That night he told me he wasn’t payin’ for a funeral. He said he’d already paid for her to be cremated and that was enough.”
I tense and my blood begins to boil, but I keep silent, not wanting to interrupt her.
“There was about $30,000 after everythin’ was sold from our place. Since I was under age it went to him until I turned eighteen. So I told him we could take it out of that… and that’s when I found out he spent it. All of it, Sawyer, that’s where the new truck came from, all the new shit he had bought, he spent all of my money.”
“That motherfucker!” the curse slips past my lips before I can stop it.
“He told me that’s the least he deserved for taking me in. I realized then, that was why he offered to have me live with him in the first place. He wanted any money that he could get his hands on. I was so angry. I grabbed my bag and left a day early to see Adam, and well… you know how that weekend turned out.”
